Pickles...go figure

For months and months I have been battling terrible gag reflex issues with my boys while trying to get them to eat solid foods. We've tried every utensil, every consistency of food, every flavor of puree, several types of soft finger foods and 4 long months of feeding therapy that made them regress back to the point where they wouldn't even open their mouth for anything at all. I hated to do it, but I stopped their formal feeding therapy a couple of months ago as things had gotten so bad that I couldn't get anything in them at all except their bottles. The two sweet physical therapists that tried to help us had gotten to the point where they were so baffled by how poorly my boys would do trying to eat food that they started suggesting that I even try to feed them things that went against my initial 'trying-to-be-healthy' motherly nature like ice cream and mushed-up french fries.

Since I've been winging this feeding therapy thing on my own, we've had slow, but productive progress and they are now at the point where they like a mixture of mostly pureed fruits (like bananas or apples) and a small spoonful of ice cream. I'm gradually decreasing the ice cream, but I guess the creamy dairy flavor was more agreeable to them since it tasted like their formula??? Anyway, it's been small miracles every day to get even just a half a jar of food in them without any wincing, gagging or puking. In the past few days I've tried introducing them to very beginner finger foods like baby mum-mum cookies and biter biscuits since they seem to have a sweet tooth. Andy does ok with these trying to take small little baby bites of them, but Will just holds them in his hands and looks anxious and kind of afraid still. The amount of gagging and puking these poor babies have endured trying to eat food for months has produced a hard-to-overcome fear of food that is going to take a long time to ease.

Well, I'm sitting in front of them while they played a few days ago and I was snacking on a pickle. They always act like they want anything my husband or I are eating, but they never want to take a bite of it for fear of gagging. Andy comes over and I let him hold the pickle for a minute or so as the feeding therapists had said that even though things might get messy, let them play with their food as much as they want (under very close supervision, of course). The handling of the food helps with the sensory integration and will hopefully lead to them wanting to put it in their mouths. After a minute or so, I took the pickle back and Andy opened his mouth like he wanted to try it. I'd never give them a pickle at this stage for fear of choking, and I figured that the sourness of the pickle would make him gag in a heartbeat, but what the heck? He liked it! He sucked on it like a lollipop, and eventually started to scrape his teeth on the soft portions of the pickle. A pickle of all things!

Now my dilemma is trying to come up with more flavorful things for these kids to try. I guess they want to be challenged with different flavors and now I'm not sure what to do. Anyone out there with younger toddlers and/or babies that demand lots of flavor in their foods? Any suggestions of things to try for kids that are still trying to learn new textures and still aren't out of the puree stage yet? Before anyone asks, yes, I have tried ramping up the texture in their foods with little to no luck. Anything thicker than a stage 2 puree and I have gagging, puking babies all over again. I'm hoping we can get past this in a couple of months. Thanks to anyone with good food ideas!!!

 

funny about that - my daughter started eating pickles, raw onion and scallions at that age...what about meatballs or meatloaf crumbled up? Grilled Cheese? I realize that you guys are kind of in puree hell right now (been there with my son...he ate pureed veggies until he was over 2) but maybe they're craving the texture and chewing that goes along with it....

good luck...I have no other advice...

 

I sympathize with your food issues, although my youngest was never nearly as bad as yours. She gagged and was unable to swallow anything except breastmilk until she was just over a year old. Then the light came on somehow and she figured out how to eat. Since then she's done great. I haven't had to worry about choking nearly as much as I did with my twins (they were terrible about stuffing their mouths full!) as she is very good about taking small bites and chewing them well.

When speaking with my pediatrician at the time about how to get her to learn to eat, she also suggested letting her try whatever she wanted. She said she had one patient who loved a certain brand of Mexican hot sauce! I do remember offering a lot of unusual soft foods (green sauce, hummus, whipped cream, pudding, smashed fruits, etc.) I also let her try any solid foods she had an interest in, rather than sticking to the tried and true toddler foods. At her 12 month appointment, she ate no solid food. By her 15 month appointment, her favorite food was meat! I can't take credit for her learning, she just passed that milestone in development later than most. I hope that is true for yours as well.

Not a whole lot of advice for you but lots of sympathy. That has got to be very hard to deal with. I think taking a break from the stress of food therapy will turn out to be a good choice for you. Good luck!

Suzanne

 

Wow, you guys have been through a lot! :hug: It sounds like you are doing so much better with your boys than the food therapists! I think you made the right decision.

How do your boys do with utensils? My guys always do better when they're in control of feeding. They are also very picky about foods that seem innocuous (watermelon, of all things!), but then eat foods that seem more challenging to me. I agree with the PP about offering lots of variety and see what tickles their fancy. My boys love soy sauce, so I shake a little bit on veggies to tempt them. Nate also really likes hummus and tzatziki sauce; this is the boy that won't eat anything else but meat! :lol:

I think that if you are closely supervising them, and they are seated safely in their high chairs, you could probably offer them larger bits of food so they can bite at them. My boys are older than yours, but I'm at the point that I give them apple slices, half a piece of bread, etc. when they are sitting at meals. I would check with your ped or email the feeding therapists if you're unsure, but perhaps giving them a piece of food too large to put in their mouths (like a pickle) would allow them to feel like they are able to lick or nibble it without having to put it in their mouths. Again, they have control over the food.

I hope you continue to have success. I think feeding issues are the worst! :hug:

 

I think you've gotten some great tips!! And I'm sorry you've had to go through so much but it does sound like you're on the right road!!! Mine love just gnawing on apples :laughing: Good luck and keep us posted!

 

We have struggled with the solids too, though not as much as you have. Sounds like you are starting to turn the corner on that though! One LO has always done worse with textured foods than his brother. A couple of months ago he would still gag on slightly lumpy/textured foods like cottage cheese, but he is getting better and better and will now take bits of super small things that are soft. However, he is still VERY picky. I feel like his main source of nutrition besides milk is Gerber pureed mac and cheese! His brother is crazy about any kind of fruit (watermelon, blueberries, strawberries, etc) but I can only get him to take a few small morsels of sweet water melon. But about a week ago DH and I were snacking on some dill pickles while holding the boys and they both seemed very curious and wanted to take a bite. We gave them a few TINY pinches, and I fully expected them to wrinkle their nose and spit it out when it made contact, but they didn't! And today I sat down on the couch and started munching on a Claussen pickle and both boys stopped playing and did a speed crawl over to me practically begging for some pickle. I gave them most of my pickle and then they got mad when it was gone, so I had to go get another (and I used a knife to take the peel off). After that pickle B wanted still more. It was so bizarre! Let's hope our LOs continue to keep exploring and wanting more variety in solids, so we can finally stop spoon feeding them purees! :lol:

 

Thanks to all for the great advice and for letting me know that we're not alone in all of this We had another great meal today. The boys actually opened their mouths for food which is an absolute miracle. And they even scraped their teeth on some biter biscuits. I am cautiously optimistic that we are on the road to better solid eating for my little monkeys. I can't say that the formal feeding therapy was all for nothing. I did take away a few good tidbits of advice, but so far, we are doing pretty well on our own at home. It scared the heck out me to wing it on my own, but so far so good...

 

I'm so glad to read this! I'm sure you'll have good days and bad, but it really sounds like you're making progress! :hug:

I have to say, Andy has good taste; I'm a huge pickle fan myself!

 

If your boys seem to like the taste of pickles, you could also try hummus, olives, mild salsa, and barbecue sauce. Those five things are the favorites of my (weird) daughter who also had texture and feeding issues due to severe reflux. All five foods have a bitter/vinegary taste that she adores. And you can puree or finely chop any of the above in order to deal with the texture problem. Hang in there...

 

Just another update on the feeding issues our boys are going through.....we finally had our local early intervention program come do an in-home evaluation for the boys yesterday, as I suspected that the boys were not only delayed in the feeding area but in other areas as well. Sure enough they qualify for the EI program as they have a more than 25% delay in adaptive skills. At 16 1/2 months (13 1/2 months adjusted), they are still not able to understand things like stacking blocks or putting toys inside cups, using utensils of any kinds including sippy cups, following simple commands or even trying to imitate actions like trying to use a brush on their hair or moving a toy car around on the floor. So I hope that beginning a plan of action through EI will bring about some more positive changes in surmounting our feeding issues along with the other adaptive skills the lack right now. We'll be sure to keep you all posted...