Nicole F.

Oh. My. Gosh.

My whole life, I have been such a picky eater, it's incredible. I always had such a hard time going to restaurants; I almost always end up getting just regular pasta or chicken, or possibly ordering something more complex, but with most of the vegetables taken out. It is only recently that I realized it is the *TEXTURES* I do not like, not the taste (although that was a part of it...

I had a deviated septum so I could never breath through my nose -- I could not really smell and so could not really taste, so I always ate really flavorful foods. I had a surgery to fix the deviated septum last summer so it got a little bit better, but not as much as I had hoped)!

I can't eat chunky anything that has fruit or vegetables in it--tomato sauce, apple sauce, salsa, ice cream, any kind of pie with fruit in it; for all of these things, I usually pick out the fruit or vegetables, or go with an alternative (smooth apple sauce, marinara sauce, pecan pie).

I can't eat blueberry muffins if the blueberries aren't soft. I'm okay with soup as long as the veggies are soft--but no tomatoes, corn or rice in soup for me! I started wondering if this was something more than just being a picky eater--so I searched for "picky eater textures" on google and found this website!

I'm so happy I did!!

I went through the adult checklist (okay, so I'm not quite an adult, I'll be eighteen next month) and I have five checked for many, many things under all of the categories.

Even if it's too late to really do anything about this (not that it's a huge deal--this doesn't really affect my life *THAT* much), it's such a relief that this might be something neurological instead of me just being a picky eater and really sensitive to light and sound for no reason at all.

Thank you so, so much... honestly just knowing that this *MIGHT* be the problem has taken such a load off my shoulders.

(also, I've seen a lot of things that apply to my mom here--like she can only wear shorts cause her legs are so sensitive... I've seen her wear a pair of pants all of like five times in my life, and she can only eat very bland food (even crushed red pepper flakes are wwaaaay too hot for her... it's hard to make a meal that she and I will both like)--maybe if i show her this we can do something about it together!)