Feeding Therapy

We probably had pasta for (or with) dinner at least once a week for years! With the homemade marinara we made; it was one of the healthiest things Mikey ate. Plus, it was convenient AND everyone in my house would eat it.

When Mikey was a toddler and preschooler, he ate tons of different foods, but as the years went on, he became more and more restrictive about what he would eat.  It finally reached a point of unsustainability when the only things he really wanted to eat were strawberry milk and Cheetos. This obviously had to stop, but when I tried to feed him different foods, he would squeeze his mouth shut. If I did manage to get something into his mouth, he would gag.

That was the major clue that we needed professional help.  Here’s the good news.  There are therapy programs that focus solely on feeding. Often, these are intensive programs that require parental buy in and involvement.

What Is It?

I am sure there are different options in different places, but we asked trusted therapists to recommend a feeding therapy program and we went with a modified ABA approach.  Our program was one week.  During that week, we did not allow Mikey to eat at home at all. He was at the therapy center for all three meals every day.

New Foods

Michael was not allowed to have strawberry milk or Cheetos or any other treat foods that he was already willing to eat.  He had three meals at the therapy center each day.  Every meal was made up of a novel source of protein, a fruit, a vegetable and a grain. It was optional to add a dairy and we often did.  So, 4-5 new foods were introduced at every meal.  By the end of the day on Thursday, Mikey had tried between  48 and 60 new foods. Wow!

They encouraged us to choose healthy foods that we would actually be willing to serve on a weekly basis to keep our child accustomed to these foods. Since Mikey had been successful, we did breakfast and lunch on Friday and then met at a restaurant Friday evening to try eating out.  We went to PF Changs and Mikey even tried fried rice.

Breaks

During the breaks between meals, we were encouraged to get our kids outside to get some exercise.  This helped build their appetite.

The Strategy

The new foods were offered in very small quantities. Mikey was encouraged to try the foods and if he did, we praised him and encouraged him.  Once he was willing to try, he sometimes found foods he liked.  He could have more of those foods as a reward for trying the new food.  If he did not care for a food (like broccoli), he only needed to eat the very small portion.

I kept notes of the food he liked so we could continue that at home.  We also were asked to introduce a new food every week, but over time, we didn’t do a great job of maintaining that.  We continue to offer Mikey new foods, but we don’t pressure him to eat anything he doesn’t want. Now that his diet is relatively balanced, we have let it go.

Controversial

This method worked very well for Mikey, but I can understand parents having concerns.  It is scary to feel like you are denying your child food. We knew that Mikey’s diet was unsustainable. It would have made him ill, so we committed to the one week.  We heard the other participants in other rooms and I can tell you that it did not go smoothly for everyone.  Some kids had terrible experiences and I am sure that it did not work for some of those kids in the first week.  I didn’t know any of them so I am not sure if there are different strategies used for longer-term feeding therapy.

Just ask your doctor if the diet your child currently eats will cause them health problems.  If it will, you’ll need to address it somehow.

For more on dinner, click the links below.