sensory eating advice

mommygirl

Wed, Nov 25 2009, 9:12 am

Hi,

I would really like to hear what other mom's do with meals for kids with sensory issues which cause problems with them eating. B"H after much therapy and heartache my daughter now 5 does eat a huge range of food (considering where she came from ) but still I can forget about anything that makes me feel like a good mommy like: meatballs or lasagna ! plain noodles, plain toast, etc. My daughter doesn't know she has an "issue" so I can't explain to her or the siblings that she can eat toast but eveyone else HAS to eat broccoli, so in the meantime everyone is having this superbland diet and I don't know chinuch wise what to do... force the other kids to eat more healthy and what I cook, because they CAN but she would throw up if she tasted a texture she didn't like??? or let everyone eat exaclty the same. I also am starting to feel like such a bad mom, I mean what kind of mom gives her kids french toast once a week for dinner??

the world's best mom

Wed, Nov 25 2009, 10:15 am

Firstly, I grew up like this and was miserable because my mother never taught me to eat normally. Do your daughter a favor and teach her better eating habits.
Secondly, I have a dd who used to eat like I do. I don't believe in forcing kids to eat things they don't like, but I've always made her have a somewhat balanced meal on her plate. She used to scream about having to have a vegetable on her plate, so if she was willing to pick it up and throw it out, I allowed that. She slowly got used to more and more foods and is now a great eater. Also, I try to make a supper that everyone likes at least a part of, and there is no eating a sandwich or anything instead of my supper. When I make meatballs and spaghetti and dd doesn't like the meatballs, that's fine- she'll have a meatball in her bowl and eat only the spaghetti. She usually ends up eating at least part of the meatball with it.

mommygirl

Tue, Dec 01 2009, 1:42 am

Oh dear. the world's best mom, now I feel like the world's worst mom!! I feel pretty confused. Don't force to eat what they can't but put it on the plate and let them chuck it in the garbage?
I am a working mommy, for me to make one cooked dish is a big deal. So if I make a tuna lasagna as a main course, and she won't touch it - you are saying don't give a sandwich. but that is dinner ! Do you see what I mean?

To those who asked what sensory is - it is very complicated but certain textures in her mouth bother her. certain mixtures also. She can eat carrot. she can eat rice. put them together she won't touch it.

When she was a baby she couldn't tolerate mushed food and would gag on it going down.

natmichal

Tue, Dec 01 2009, 2:24 am

she can't or she won't eat? that's a world of difference.
If she can't physically and medically, then more therapy , patience etc is what you need.
If she won't, then seriously, she has to learn.
Ds has sensory issues (he couldn't eat anything hard or demanding proper chewing and had rice cake instead of matsa for pesach for a few years)> We learned to stimulate his mouth (not necessary with food) , gave him stuff which was hard for him to eat slowly slowly and now at age 6.5 he eats everythong (some things are still a chalenge like toffees he gets on shabbat from tehilim chug but he has learned to cope with this too...)
When he was small, if it was somethng "not to his taste or texture' , he'd have one spoon and then with the next spoonfull throw everything up includng the previous bottle of formulas he had a few hours earlier. AND he had trouble gaining weight so we were very afraid of giving new stuff...
He started going to day care and on the first ay the caretaker tells me he asked for tuna salad twice. I was in shock b/c it WAS one of the "throw up foods'... within a week he was eating it normally at home too.
So on top of the sensory issue , check if there is a 'controlling"issue. Kids know a lot more than they let you think and she might just very well be aware that's she's different and "entitled" to whatever she wants to eat.

Finaly 2 things- 1-why is french toast one a week so bad? it has starch (bread), proteins (egg) and calcium (milk). I do it as a treat (not once a week b/c we ,make fresh bread every day and rarely have enough left over for french toast by dinner time)
2- Unless she's seriously underweight with medical issues, nothing will happen if she does not have supper once. You say she likes carrots and rice but not together. Well if they are together her choices are to eat it, to seperate them herself and eat it or not to eat. If you were telling me that she can eat carrots but not rice, then fine, But if she can eat both then this sounds like being fussy to me and not just sensory problem.

the world's best mom

Tue, Dec 01 2009, 5:17 am

First of all, take it from a sensory adult- yes, there is a sensory reason not to eat carrots and rice together if you like each one separately. My grandmother, who so kindly passed down her sensory issues to my father and me, used to use a separate plate and fork for every food she was eating so that they wouldn't touch. I don't do that, but I do try not to let food touch on my plate, and I lick the fork clean in between foods. That's because rice that tastes like carrot is the wrong texture for carrots and the wrong taste for rice, so we no longer like it.
Next- I don't let dd throw everything she wants in the garbage- only the vegetables that were her pet peeve. She absolutely refused to stop crying and eat if I made her keep it on her plate. She wasn't too thrilled to pick it up at all, so throwing it out was a big thing for her. It took a while for her to learn that that was the only way to get the detested vegetable off of her plate.
As far as the tuna casserole example, I won't touch tuna casserole, but I love noodles and tuna separately. Is there any way you can leave some separate for her? That way she's not eating the same sandwich every night, instead she's eating something like your supper. I do allow variations of my suppers when the kid absolutely doesn't like what I made- everyone's entitled to have some food preferences, but not to eat sandwiches every night. My brother grew up eating the same sandwiches for 2 meals a day and cereal and milk for breakfast. He kept a box of corn flakes- the only cereal he would eat- in school for breakfast time, and bring his sandwich for lunch every day. Now he's in high school- he dorms- and my mother sends twelve sandwiches to Yeshiva with him each week. If you don't want your kid to be like this, you have to slowly expand her food choices. Again, forcing will only make matters worse, but meeting her halfway and encouraging her to try more foods by not having the sandwich available and by serving it in the form she can tolerate will make her life a lot more pleasant as she grows up.

ra_mom

Tue, Dec 01 2009, 8:20 am

the world's best mom wrote:

As far as the tuna casserole example, I won't touch tuna casserole, but I love noodles and tuna separately. Is there any way you can leave some separate for her?

This is great advice.
My daughter also has sensory issues and her eating habits are affected. She eats everything separately. Does not eat sandwiches. (She will eat turkey plain, and then bread plain.)
Try to arrange it so that she has the same supper as everyone else, but that she gets each food separate.
(ie. meatballs and spaghetti: take off some plain meatballs and some plain spaghetti before heating everything up together in the sauce. Etc, etc.)