We had a wonderful weekend with my mom, two sister and three nieces visiting for my birthday. I was interested to see if eating with his four year old cousin would influence him to try something new. He did reasonably well through all of his meals.
Saturday evening he ate some bites of vanilla ice cream!! Those were the first ice cream bites he has been willing to accept since his first birthday party. He didn't eat a huge amount but he requested multiple bites!! Then, Sunday morning he ate quite a few bites of waffle! He has, in the past, eaten a bite or two of frozen waffle after I've toasted it and cut it into sticks. But this was a freshly made waffle torn into pieces. I think maybe we'll try some pancakes at home in the next few days as the texture would be a bit closer to what he ate since I don't have a waffle iron. I guess maybe I need to buy one soon. Waffles or pancakes would be great for calories!
Sunday's lunch was an experiment in both feeding and sensory tolerance. We went to a Rain Forest Cafe!! Brave? Yes!!! For a child with sensory issues (or any child that fears thunderstorms) this place can be overload. Sounds, lights, loud in general, scary animatronic jungle creatures lurking in every corner. A thunderstorm was in progress when we walked up to the hostess stand/massive store you must to walk through to get into the restaurant. Buster wanted to "go out!" "go out!" before we got a few feet in. I asked the hostess if we could walk around in the restaurant a little bit to see if we would be able to stay. She very kindly obliged. The "storm" lasts only a minute or so and they told me it happened every 30 minutes. He didn't quite know what to think of the animals. They are pretty realistic and they move...freaky. Then, we walked over to the giant aquarium and the world was a happy place again. A wall of brightly colored fish was enough to convince him that this place would be okay. He agreed that we could sit down at a table and have lunch. I gave him the option of either mac & cheese or chicken nuggets and he enthusiastically chose mac & cheese. Eating went fine...he even had some of his cousin's applesauce and at more ice cream when my mom forced one of those giant sparkler covered birthday deserts on the table that was delivered by a singing, clapping wait staff who all look like they hate their job. (I do recommend the brownie cake at Rain Forest Cafe...it was pretty delicious.) The only moments of panic came in the several thunderstorms that happened through the course of our meal. He whined and cried but we talked him through it and we never did have to get him out of his chair...though arms were outstretched, we just hugged it out. I was VERY proud of him. He was asleep before we made it out of the parking lot.
The one big fail of the weekend came in the form of sweet potatoes. From the time he began eating purees, sweet potatoes have always been one of his favorite foods. They are packed with nutrition so that's always made me really happy. I want to try to get them back in his diet. I thought maybe if I roasted small cubes, he'd eat them. We've tried it only once but it didn't go well. He put two in his mouth. The first one he chewed a bit, then swallowed and gagged a little. The second one, he didn't even chew. When he gets a food in his mouth that he doesn't want, he just sits there. I haven't yet successfully taught him to swipe food out of his mouth when he doesn't want to chew it. His first inclination is to swallow it whole but he now knows he chokes so now he just kind of freezes...he'll sit there FOREVER with food in his mouth. No chewing, no nothing. Eventually I have to pry his mouth open and swipe out whatever he has in there. He's gone over 45 minutes of this before. Now, I won't wait that long. I wish he'd start to take it out himself but he doesn't want to touch it. This is a thing we really need to work on and I'm going to talk with his therapist about methods this week. I will try the sweet potato cubes a few more times this week, then give it a break for a few days. My other plan is to puree some again and mix it into his mac & cheese...a sneaky way to get him to eat a 1/4 cup. I'm all for sneaking food into him if that's what it takes.
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