3, 2, 1

It looks like we are adding one more person to Luke's exhaustive list of therapist. He now needs food therapy. I don't know whether to laugh or cry or give my child to someone who can parent better than me.

At Luke's 6 month evaluation meeting we were setting new goals. TEIS is amazing. I can't say enough about this program. Even though he is seen for speech, I can set goals for anything. So we started talking about his eating. I told them he was picky, and a lot of times his dinner will consist of 5 bites of something and then he's done. When we discussed it some more, I ended up breaking down crying because I feel like this is somehow my fault. As a mother, food is an emotional thing for me. I want my kids to eat and when they don't I take it to heart. I am actually this way with everyone. When people come to my house I want them to eat. I fix food for the masses when we entertain and the WORST thing that could happen is we run out of food. Luke's case worker, his speech therapist and myself dove more into the issue and decided it might be an OT thing, so they called for a formal EI eval.

She evaluated him couple weeks ago, and we had a phone interview after. That's when I realized this might just be more than him being picky. The thing that caught me off guard was when she said, "Is he just picky or does he refuse entire groups of food?" I started listing the entire GROUPS of food he refuses. And he just doesn't refuse, most of the time he gets upset if they are even on his plate.
Veggies - cooked, raw, steamed, sauteed, anyway they come
Fruits - if it's wet, he won't touch it. All fresh fruit and canned fruit is wet.
Meat - never eaten a meat, not even chicken nuggets since 6 months.
Pasta - won't touch any pasta dry or with sauce, no spaghetti, no mac and cheese, no plain noodles, no pizza
Cheese - no dip, no stick, no slice

What we figured out was if it was dry and crunchy, he'll eat it. Freeze dried fruits - not dried - freeze dried and only if they are apples. Yogurt - but only strawberry and vanilla. Any cracker type food - ritz, teddy grahams, goldfish, cheez it, flipz, and most cereals.

So he is refusing entire food groups. She asked me all sort of questions about other OT stuff, which I don't think is the issue. She told me no matter what he scores on the Peabody (their standardized test) he'll definitely need to be seen for eating/food therapy.

He comes from a long line of picky eaters. John was picky when he was younger. I was picky when I was younger. Evan is picky and still doesn't eat veggies or most fruits consistently. He is doing much better since I added "Try new foods" to his star chart. Another thing I love about four - they are easily bribed! I digress, he gets being picky naturally. We aren't picky now. We have tons of variety in our house. He gets offered new foods all the time. He just doesn't eat them.

Sigh...I don't know. It's so hard and so emotional for me. I don't know what to do. I know the food/eating therapy will help, but I just feel like the poor guy can't catch a break. These therapist are amazing amazing people. It's that he needs three therapist in his life at two years old that tugs at my heart.

3 therapist, 2 years, 1 child

I completely abide by the philosophy that it takes a village to raise a child. I just happen to have 3 professional therapist in my village. I love my village.