long time no see! I have a feeding question...

[NandaB]

Hi all!

I haven't been around in a very long time, but I see some familiar faces, so HI! I don't know if you remember me, but I have 3 kiddos (almost 6, 4, and 2). My youngest, Wesley (who is 27 months!) has Down syndrome. He is mostly doing splendidly. He is healthy, signing and talking a bit, walking and climbing and generally trying to keep up with his siblings, and happy as can be. Developmentally his abilities are al right around the 12-15 month range, so he isn't too behind in general.

HOWEVER, we are having some feeding issues and I could use some input please...

 He primarily eats smooth purees only. He has a very sensitive gag reflex and will gag and often barf if there are even small chunks in his food (like if I mash a banana or avocado with a fork). he can eat purees with various thicknesses (very thin like pureed peaches, to thick baby oatmeal for example), but as soon as there is a teeny chunk he will gag. He also refuses to try any other finger foods and will shake his head no and throw the food. We have tried a million foods in a million different bowls/plates/on the tray...what we are eating, not what we are eating...you get the gist.

He CAN eat ritz crackers, graham crackers, and club crackers, and he loves to try and eat paper napkins and toilet paper, and handfuls of sand at the beach, but heaven forbid I try and give him a cheerio or a different type of cracker or cookie, or a piece of fruit/veg.

I guess I need help addressing what is likely behavioral AND a legit sensory issue. We are waiting on a new feeding eval through regional center, but until then I would love some direction.

thanks!!

[macchiatto]

Good to see you! I remember you.

FWIW, my son had feeding therapy starting a few months before he turned 3. He also had some texture issues, tendency to over-pack and gag, food-related anxiety, oral motor issues (he has hypotonia) and his fine motor skills relating to eating were delayed. Honestly, even the SLP who did his feeding therapy had trouble at times discerning what was sensory and what was behavioral but she said ultimately, we'd treat them the same way either way, and he did improve significantly after about 6 months of feeding therapy.

[NandaB]

Thanks guys. It's frustrating because our OT doesn't do anything feeding related, and the SLP, who I really like, doesn't either (although she had talked about getting some kind of web cert for something related -talk tools maybe? I feel like we're getting good support and services for his other related issues, but now that he no longer has weight gain issues nobody cares about feeding.

[NandaB]

Totally AWy AWing...

[NandaB]

Ugh. That sounds awful. I really like her, and in general I think she is pretty good at working with W, but I don't have time for scheduled torture, lol.