26 MONTH OLD - EATING DISORDER

[Tripple_E]

Hello. I have a problem, my daughter is 26 months old and she has a feeding disorder. She still only eats babyfood, stage 2, and does not eat any solids, not even puddings or yougurt - nothing. She is seeing a speech therapist (they also handle feeding issues) and has been for many months, but there is no progress that I can see except that now we can thicken the babyfood w/ baby cereal and she'll eat that. I think it is part stubbornness, part controll, part - who knows, at this time. She's been evaluated twice (another one is coming up in April) and we can't seem to get to the root of this. Fortunately, she is still thriving and she is ok developmentally otherwise.

My question is this, did any other parents out there have similar issues? If so, do you have any advise or suggestions? Any help (or support :( ) is appreciated. Thank you.

[AmyE0401]

I'm not an expert, but I think at this age it may be like you said, partly a "control" issue. If she started solids too late (after 6-7 months) there may be more of an oral development problem. When my son began wanting table food at 9 mos. I got a book called "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense", by Ellyn Satter. It helped a lot and I took on her philosophy of "the parents are responsible for the when, where and what the child eats and the child is responsible for the how much and whether of eating". Once I could put this philosphy to practice I no longer worried whether or not my ds was eating enough or too little, and I did worry since he was born premature. If your ds is still "thriving" as you say and is hitting all the developmental milestones then I would try to practice this philosphy, and start sitting her at the table with the rest of the family and you may soon see her wanting what you are eating.

You can check out Dr. Satter's web site at http://ellynsatter.com/ for more info about feeding. There is also a 1-800 # or you can e-mail her (see web site). She specializes in adult and children eating disorders and has written several book related to the issue.

Hope this helps!
AmyE

[egoldber]

Sorry about all your difficulty. I also would highly recommend the Ellyn Satter books. She offers lots of very practical, research based advice. As the other poster said, her "mantra" about feeding is that the parent is responsible for the when and what of eating, and the child is responsible for the "how much and whether or not". This is very often easier said than done!

Good luck!

[brubeck]

Does she eat anything like Cheerios or small crackers? I got my daughter into non-pureed solids by mixing Cheerios into applesauce.

[marcy]

I would check with your speech pathologist and whoever else is evaluating your child regarding whether she may have some type of sensory integration issues. I recently read "The Out-of-Sync Child" for other SI issues for my son, but within the book they describe children who have major issues with food texture as having some level of SI issues. Worth looking into and asking questions about if you have not already done so. Good luck!

MARCY

[Melanie]

I don't have any advice, but I just wanted to tell you that I can understand a bit. Ds would never eat baby food and only started eating solid finger foods at 11 1/2 months, when he got teeth. Now he is a very picky eater and won't eat the same thing twice. I'm having lots of problems getting food into him for sustainance - especially proteins! The only thing he likes consistently are carbs like cookies, crackeres & cereal pieces. He still won't eat mushy foods. I am still breastfeeding him at 17 months, but my milk isn't what it used to be and now he's sliding in percentiles.

I think it's a sensory thing with him, he'd make a hideous face at baby foods (we tried them all) no matter the taste. But would like his bitter-tasting rubber ball.