Oral Aversion

K., I was an ei specialist (children with special needs birth-3 y/o) in Ohio for several years and delt with feeding difficulties in a lot of my children. First I want to say as hard as it is try not to get down or frustrated with him be sure you have a way to vent or express to someone/something else. Secondly have you heard of family connections? It is a group here in columbia that connects parents with other parents. Also you said your son is in therapy is he also connected with babynet or a preschool special needs program. I have see some kids make remarkable progress but very slowly, just remember anything can be a small step in the right direction. Lots of hugs to you and your little one.
M.

No advice, just wanted to know we are on the same path. My son is 10 months old, and has many, many health issues. One of those is dysphagia (poor swallow). We are working on making sure it is safe for him to try to eat solid foods. He aspirates liquids and that has caused all sorts of problems. We had to temporarily halt his speech therapy right as we were addressing his oral aversions. Now, if he is cleared to eat, we must start all over again. I know we are about to go down a very long, hard road, but the only other option is to have a G tube forever.

My 27-month-old does not chew. He is still on the 3rd stage baby foods or equivalent. We now go to occupational, feeding and speech therapy. We've just started in the last few months because it took us a long time to get the referral for the feeding evaluation because we kept his weight up, which was stressful for all of us. In fact, when we met with the nutritionist there and she saw our initial sheet of a week of his diet she was surprised to find that he was getting most of the nutrition he should be getting, including enough protein. We really worked on it. I now think that "chews food" should be a developmental milestone for which they check, and if a child can not chew food by a certain age they should be referred to therapy immediately. I wonder if we'd started earlier if we might have better progress by now. I've seen one-year-olds pick up their birthday cake and chew it; no one had to teach them how!

I've been told that there is an intensive Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program in Atlanta at the Marcus Institute (named for Bernie Marcus, founder of Home Depot): http://www.marcus.org/clinical/pediatric_feeding.html We are not at that point, but it was mentioned to us by the relative of someone who had gone there and had great results. The child was eating maybe 5 foods and now eats anything. For what that's worth.

Have you ever looked at the book Just Take a Bite? (Meaning don't say "just take a bite" actually for children who are resistant eaters.) Maybe there would be some tips in there that you did not get in therapy. Our therapist was interested in it when I told her about it.

Our latest thing to try it to use a dropper of some sort to put food (such as yogurt or pudding) in the side of his mouth to force him to use his tongue to move it around. Using a spoon to feed pureed foods generally puts them in the center of his mouth so he does not otherwise get that exercise. Of course, that's just an exercise with food, not the way to feed him his entire meals, as I don't think he'd eat very much that way!

What have you tried so far?

Not much you really can do but try to mash a variety of food up or make them so small that he can swallow it.Have YOU tried to show him how to eat,outside of the therapy?Maybe you could buy him something like a baby teething ring or something that he could practice his chewing on. I really dont know what to tell you b/c im not in that situation or know what you have done to help him this far except to be patient and keep trying to work at it with him.

Hi K.,

My name is T. and my son who is 2 has sensory issues and some oral. He is in therpy also it seems to be getting better . I have a friend that is having the same issues as you so tonight i will ask her to respond since she has this same thing . The speech issue is getting better but as you know it takes time. The behavior is what we are working on it is so hard at times. ( because he cant communicate well)
my son name is noah. he is more tactile defensive than anything and he doesent like to be touched only by me so that is hard because everyone in the family wants to hold and he just cries.
I just take one day at a time and i tell myself that the good lord gave me this blessing and i just trust in him that everything is gonna work out. I hope i have helped some i am a stay at home mother of two sons. jacob and noah

Well my 2.5 year old son has a speech delay and is going to be tested for some sensory problems.Right now he goes to speech therapy,instructional therapy,and it looks like we will be adding OT To that as well. When he drinks he will hold the liquid in his mouth and let it seep out. If we tell to swallow he will do so but it could take us a while to get through a cup of juice.So it's not the same thing but it's nice to hear that we are not alone in this crazy world!

I have a friend that her 3 yr old would not talk or eat foods that he could not swallow, The Dr diagnosed him with PDD (pervasive developmental disorder) she didn't want to believe it so she tried some holistic things like fish oil and all the omegas and soon after he was on them he started to talk and eat normal. he has ADHD but that is being dealt with in a different way. I guess from what I have read is fish oil and the omegas even out the neurons that are not connecting . you can look it up but i know it worked for her. Good luck and i am gonna pray for you and your family.