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My 3 year old (3 years and 2 months) has serious issues with food textures. For example, he will not eat a sandwich. He will eat the bread and whatever all separately, but if you put it together (say, a grilled cheese) he will refuse.
He will not eat a regular meal or any vegetable whatsoever. He will eat anything in a smoothie or muffin though - so he will eat a green smoothie (with any spinach, avocado, whatever) and a homemade carrot/oat fibre muffin without any sugar. But not separately. It's not hidden - I make it in front of him. He doesn't mind.
I really don't know what to do. Giving him the alternative 'deconstructed' sandwich, smoothies and muffins works, but it's a pain to serve. As for "let him go hungry", he's already lost 3lbs from that. It doesn't work. He will just go hungry. No, we don't have access to a pediatrician anytime soon (sorry I do not live in the US). Any ideas?
My son had similar issues, and he went to feeding therapy (through an OT) it helped. He's still picky at 10, but will eat what we cook for the most part, finally. You're doing good if you can hide things in smoothies. My son won't touch the things.
I wouldn't put that label on him as you are not a doctor. Let the experts figure it out. You putting a label on him just let's any lazy medical practitioners adopt what youhave saidinstead of doing a full, in-depth study before making a determination. It happens.
Do you have access to any occupational orspeech therapists? You can also take him to a regulat doc that sees adults and children.
No, I don't have access to anything like that. We are on a list for a speech therapist but the current wait is another 1-2 years.
Aliss are you in Canada? I'm originally from Toronto and have a few friends who have taken their kids to Buffalo and paid for a private evaluation rather than wait forever at home. You may want to consider doing something like that, I know it's expensive but it may be worth it if you can swing it. My guess is that the speech and texture issues are related but a full evaluation could tell you for sure.
I would suggest continuing to do what you are doing now regarding what he is eating but also encouraging (not forcing)your child to try a bite of different foods whenever you make them for the rest of the family.
Try to evaluate what textures he will eat and what he won't eat and look for foods that are his favored texture for him to try (to expand what he will eat). Sometimes, "texture issues" with foods are a temporary problem for kids for a few months or a year and sometimes they can be a lifelong issue.
Another, behavioral thing to look at is if you are giving him a lot of extra attention for what he is eating. Think about if you are constantly talking with him while you make his muffins, "Now, Mommy is putting the carrots in the mix. Now, Mommy is adding the oatmeal and mixing everything up. ...."
How are you when you make the meals for the rest of the family? Do you include him, or just quietly put everything together in the kitchen while he is playing elsewhere? This may not solve the problem, but it may help a little if you switch it around and quietly put his food together, in front of him may be fine, but include him very actively when you are doing the general cooking. Maybe even start to sing songs & make up silly things when you are cooking the meal for the rest of the family but just matter of factly put his foods together.
Don't laugh. I have seen this strategy cure or seriously decrease eating problems with several very picky eating preschoolers.
Sometimes, even something as simple as buying a plate with dividers will help (so the peas won't roll into the mashed potatoes).
You child may need more help than these simple suggestions but try them out as they may be successful while you are waiting to see a doctor/OT/speech therapist.
I wanted to point out that sometimes things aren't what they seem at first glance. My son wasn't a picky eater but ate A LOT of food and was overweight as a child. I tended to make casseroles, hearty soups and other "mixed foods" and not plain meat, plain potatoes & plain vegetables.
When he was in college he discovered by accident that he has a very, very limited sense of smell which effected his sense of taste. He overate because he couldn't "taste" the individual foods. Once he discovered that he started to eat "deconstructed foods" and add more spices and lost the excess weight.
I'm bringing this up because in a different house our son may not have had any eating problems or been overweight. So think about what types of foods you are serving to the whole family. Maybe you can switch things around so that the family foods are more similar to what your son will eat.
Thanks germaine for your detailed answer. When I cook he's usually playing with his brother (no issues with that one but he's not even 1 yet). I have an open plan floor so the kitchen and living room are the 'same room'. Tonight and for the next few days I will encourage him to help cook with me. He does participate with the muffins but not the rest. I will give it a try and report back Tonight's menu is thai basil chicken with steamed rice so he should be able to things like sprinkle the basil leaves or 'measure' the rice.
My friend's son has food issues. When he won't eat the family dinner, she feeds him Lunchables. It's probably not great for him, but he likes it because the cheese and the meat and the crackers are all separate.
I had food texture issues when I was a kid (didn't want the foods touching, although I was ok with sandwiches, scraped all the sauce off the meat, couldn't stand vegetables cooked in a certain way). I've mostly grown out of it now. Getting involved with cooking didn't help in my case but maybe it will work in his case. My parents just served me the same food as everyone else and looked the other way when I scraped the sauce off or sneakily spat certain textured foods into the toilet instead of eating them.
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Tonight's menu is thai basil chicken with steamed rice so he should be able to things like sprinkle the basil leaves or 'measure' the rice.
