Food Aversion

yes!! my son is also 4 and is terrible with his eating, he tends to either over fill his mouth or gags and chokes and retches.
he was still on 4 month old baby food at just gone 2 as he couldnt tolerate anything else.
does ur child see a SALT? our one is pretty good.

hi,
your son sounds so similar to ours! he was on puree till gone 2 as well and he will only eat certain foods still - he's scared of mixed textures.

we saw a speech therapist and went on a speech therapy messy play course when he was 2 but after a while she said there was nothing more she could do so she referred us to the great ormond street feeding team.we've been on their list for over a year and have had a few appointments but they aren't regular - my son isn't a priority really as they have some really serious cases they have to prioritise.

have you seen you can recommend a consultant/therapist on this site? if you have a good speech therapist and paediatrician you may want to put them on the recommendation so other mums can request referrals to them. i've put our great ormond street consultant on their as he has been fantastic - i was almost at the point of dispair until we saw him in may.

Kitty

hi ya
matthew who is my eldest refluxer is also under the same gastro as ur son. weve been under GOSH since matthew was 14 months old.
when r u nxt up at gosh?

if u want to chat by msn my addy is natalie_s_1982@msn.com

hi natalie
i was just wondering how you all are now? have you made any progress with test results and have you had the endoscopy?

I hope you've all had a good christmas,

Kitty

hello, my name is Polly and I am training as a Speech and Language therapist. I am on placement at the moment and part of that is with children who have eating and drinking difficulties. I am going to do some messy food play with different children. Have you any suggestions? All the best. x

Hi Polly

Good luck with your placement. My son went on a SALT messy food play course 18 months ago and we found it really helped getting him used to touching textures - although it didn't increase his repetoire of foods much.

Some of the things they did with him were:

- get a big bowl of jelly and one of mashed potato and get him to bury toys (like farm animals) in it etc. my son didn't want to do this one - too messy.

- make a piece of art/picture using food like ham, spaghetti, cucumber etc. our son even tasted a bit of ham (but didn't like it!)

- they got a few bowls of snacks e.g. crisps, raisens and some cars and a car track and the children used the cars to crush the crisps and jump over the raisens etc. my son liked this one and kept eating the crisps which the therapist said was fine and to let him.

- painting with coloured icing.

- played an ELC game where u hung monkeys on a tree and they fell off into a messy food mixture (can't remember what it was made of though). the kids had to pick them out.

one of the best things was that when he didn't want to do these tasks, i had to do it instead and i think it helped him watching me get really messy with a smile on my face. i had to be really enthusiastic about it and act like i loved getting messy! The therapist was great as she appeared to love the mess and put some of the food in her mouth and i think the children enjoyed watching her. I had to keep washing my sons hands regularly as he didn't like the mess but it was progress that he'd at least touch some things by the end of the 6 week course.

If i think of anything else i will post it here.

Hope it helps a bit,
Kitty

That is really brilliant, any more ideas will be gratefully received. Thank you also for your comments on how your son reacted. lol Polly

Hi Kitty,

I am new to this site and read with interest what you say about your little one as it sounds just like my son. He is now 10 months old and is totally food aversive. He is kept going by his peg tube which we feed him Neocate milk through. He wont eat solids but plays with it and if a bit of food somehow gets down his throat he will gag and throw up. Therefore i read with interest about your gosh consultant and wondered if you could share any info about him.

Also, i was wondering if you found any miracles and if you little one is any better now with his eating?

Any help, hints etc would be greatly appreciated as desperation has set in!!
Whoops i forgot to mention that he is like this because of reflux

Many thanks,

Anna.

Hi Anna
Sorry to hear about the troubles you are having with your littlun.

We see a consultant at GOSH called Neil Shah and we were referred to him by our local consultant who had tried most other things with our boys and wanted a second opinion - u are entitled to ask for a 2nd opinion if u aren't happy with the the way things are going.

we also see the feeding team at GOSH - they have a feeding specialist there called Una McCrann and she has really helped and supported us. When my boys were younger we saw a dietician who told me it was my fault the boys were food aversive and i should just offer meals and if they weren't eaten take them away and let the boys go hungry. this just didn't work as it wasn't them being naughty. my eldest reall would rather go hungry than eat any foods other than the ones he feels safe with.

he is now 5 and mainly eats branston pickle sarnies, fish fingers and sausages. he was only eating puree foods for many years and it took a long time to get him onto solids without him gagging or vomiting.

i can honestly say i haven't found a miracle cure. but GOSH told me not to push him or force him - to just slowly introduce foods alongside his 'safe' foods and if he won't eat them then just take it away and don't pressurise him.

have you tried your local speech and language therapy unit? they usually have a feeding specialist who could help you? your doctor or health visitor can refer you. they spent a lot of time helping my son when he was a baby.

does your son like puree or will he only have the milk? does he vomit with his reflux or just have acid? my eldest projectile vomited and gagged for years and suffered a lot with acid pain and that's why he became aversive. he is definitely getting better though and i hope that reassures you that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you want to talk to other mum's who's sons have PEG's then you could go to the EGID forum page on Parentsown and you'll see there are a few parents on there that may be able to offer advice. you can find it by going to 'forum's then EGID/Eosinophilic GAstrointestinal disorder. you could also look go to the 'Info Centre' and see if there's anything useful in the reflux section?

also, if u register on parentsown and post a new forum topic asking for help, you get emailed everytime someone posts a reply.

Good luck and i hope things improve for you.

Kitty