Texture Aversion and OT

So there are lots of questions I've been getting about G's aversion to textures and solids. I thought I would update on where we are. I started offering Griffin rice cereal and baby foods at about 6 months inconsistently. It's recommended now that breast fed babies in particular are held off until 6 months unless they show signs that they need/want solid food. Well, he never did, so I started slowly. It has always been an issue. At 9 months I was still offering the same thing and a good day would be a day when we could get 2 bites in him. Any texture including rice cereal is too much for him to handle- he gags and cries until he turns blue. Every kid will eat in their own time and I didn't really worry about it knowing that eventually he'd eat. Well, I was wrong. It has been one of the most frustrating challenges of my life trying to get him to eat. There have been weeks in recent months that we haven't fed him anything except milk because it's so awful.

Anyway- some kids grow fine on milk alone, but G hasn't grown significantly since 6 months. He's proportional and grows a little, but not much at all. We have tried several things but still he doesn't catch up. Recently he had his blood tests to check and make sure there wasn't some underlying issue with him and it was determined that the reason he doesn't grow is directly tied to the calories he's taking in- as simple as that. He's absolutely healthy and even advanced in many ways except eating.

It has also become quite clear that his aversion to texture is completely behavioral. It has nothing to do with his ability to chew and swallow- he just doesn't want to. He eats all sorts of things- crayons, wood chips, sidewalk chalk, etc, just not food.

After it was determined he was healthy we were referred to Nutrition and Occupational Therapy at CMH. We had our appointment finally on Monday. When you research Texture Aversion it is EXACTLY what G has. He gags with any texture at all. He will only eat Stage 2 baby food and not very much of it. Sometimes he'll take yogurt. He performed his gagging routine beautifully for the therapist! heh. Here's the problem. The treatment for texture aversion is that you are supposed to do some texture stimulation and oral exercises- introduce new textures and things he can put into his mouth. Let him play with toys and food, etc. The problem? He doesn't have a problem with that. It's ONLY food. I'm skeptical that this is going to work as the exercises that we are challenged to do with him don't seem to be challenging him at all. The one thing that is working for us this week so far is putting him on a strict schedule.

So the plan:
We are to feed him 3 meals a day (like any other normal kid)- put real food on his tray for him to look at, play with, throw, etc. We are to use toys, food, videos, etc to distract him at this time and feed him baby food, yogurt, puddings, etc that he WILL eat and slowly work in some texture such as crumbs or thicker foods. We are NOT to offer him milk at all until after he's eaten his food. So far this week he's done fairly well. He doesn't eat a ton for breakfast and it's the biggest struggle, but he's been consistently eating a jar three times a day- HUGE for us.

We are also to start moving him to drink Carnation Inst@nt Breakfast. Sounds strange, eh? I thought so, but apparently it is nutritionally equivalent to Pediasure (which he HATES and won't touch). He won't drink the CIB pure but he'll drink it GREAT if we mix it 1/2 and 1/2 with his formula which makes me extremely happy! Lots more calories than his formula!

We are supposed to offer him lots of opportunities to explore new textures. Shaving cream, whipped cream, sand, beans, new foods, etc. He seems to like this and have a good time with it.

I am hoping that eventually he'll start to grow and consequently he'll be hungry. She did tell me that the struggle of getting him to eat like a normal child will possibly take up to 2 years. That is a scary thought to me. All I can say is- good thing I'm not pregnant! I'll keep you updated on our progress!