The Timer, The Chart and New Therapist

The sticker reward chart is working, to an extent.  He's more motivated to eat.  But, it's still taking AAAGGGGEEEEESSSS.  Painful lengths of time.  Plus, I'm still hand feeding him a good portion of his meal.  He is willing to eat but he just won't do it.  He'll sit there forever and just not put a bite in his mouth.  If I do it for him, he'll eat without argument.  I really want to get away from this.  I need him to eat his meals on his own.  He needs it too, whether he knows it or not.  I think he'll feel more accomplished (and therefore more motivated) when he's eating meals with no help.

(*Simple chart...I do not claim to be Martha Stewart.  I know where the craft store is but I can't use 85% of the things they sell.)

So, in the interest of pushing him we've added a timer to meal times.  In the past, I've been opposed to limiting his time and just wanted to get as much food into him as I could.  Now, if I don't rock this boat...I'm going to be sitting in the same boat for a very long time.  I WANT A NEW BOAT!  Hence, the timer.  We're using it for lunch and dinner but not breakfast.  Morning is still too volatile a meal and we have less time on preschool mornings anyway.  He gets Pediasure for breakfast along with something he'll eat with less fuss...pancakes, toast, yogurt.  Maybe some fruit on a really good day.

(This timer is great for the younger kids.  Visual and audio cues for time running out.)

He gets 45 minutes to eat.  When the timer turns red, meal time is over.  That's it.  No more food.  No more time to earn stickers or dessert.  We've only been at this a few days so I'll let you know if it's working in another week or so.  I'm also being very strict about snack time.  It's 3pm on the nose.  If his snack isn't eaten by 3:30, I take it away.  I used to let it sit and he munched when he wanted.  Now he's old enough to understand that he needs to eat when it's offered or it's gone and he can't eat until meal time.  I feed him dinner at 6pm and he tends to get a little noshy around 5.  So I'm hoping he begins to recognize the "hungry feeling".

Not that this is really a huge help but I did try to "fun" things up a little and he and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond where he picked out a couple of fun plastic place mats (farm animals, forest animals, etc).  I figure as much as I can do to get him to want to sit down at the table, I will do.  So he gets cups, plates and cutlery that he really likes.

We also started therapy with the new occupation therapist last week.  I have to tell you, I'm optimistic.  We went through three occupation therapist during our time in Early Intervention and I didn't think any of them were very helpful.  (Lovely people but I didn't see any changes with Buster as a result of them.)  Our new therapist gave me more information in 45 minutes while working with Buster than I got in 2 years with the others.  She has a lot of experience with sensory kids.  Exactly what we need.  She told me what she thinks she knows so far about Buster's needs, how she needs to learn more, that we are going to teach him to modulate his responses to sensory input and THEN we'll get to specifically address his eating.  I am once again reminded that this is a marathon, not a sprint.  Anyway, my point is, I like her.  I fee like she gets me as his parent and she's dealt with a lot parents.   Most importantly, Buster warmed up to her instantly.  The kid didn't skip a beat.  He played with her right away.  He even spoke loudly enough to her that she could hear him and he told her what he did and didn't want to do.  That's pretty huge for him.  Especially with a new person.

I've updated the resources page with some new books.

I'll most some more detailed therapy info after another session and we get some "homework".  In the meantime, a few pages of information from this past week.