Wondering Why I Chose Motherhood

by Karen
(St. Clair Shores, MI, USA)

Hello. Wow. Lots of descriptions and problems/issues here. Well, here is mine. I have a 6.5 year old who will be entering 1st grade in a few weeks. He was evaluated and treated at a speech pathologist office for Semantic Pragmatic Disorder some years back. The therapy ended when his therapist moved and my son refused to look at or reply to the new therapist. He had an accident a few years back on a playscape and knocked out 5 of his front teeth.

Most everything needs to be ground or chopped and mixed together. He will not eat foods that are "separated" on a dish. For instance. We make some stewed chicken with chopped veggies, chop up or shred the chicken when its cooked, mix it back with the rest of the stewed chopped veggies and add cooked rice or thin egg noodles to it. We add a couple slices of cheese to add in calcium. That is his meal. He wants to be fed most of the times. The only thing he will eat himself is plain (no sauce no nothing) spaghetti with Parmesan cheese, a particular Italian roll that only one market in town has, toasted bread (only that market also has kind of bread), french fries from McDonalds, Burger King, Rams Horn or Big Boy (will not eat home made fries or fries elsewhere), Ritz Crackers, Wheat Thin Crackers (original shape and flavor) or Triscuit Crackers (original shape and flavor). Once in a while he will have a few Cheerios or some organic cereal in a bowl without milk. Once in a while he will ask for some white American cheese cut up into 4 even square pieces. Breakfast is Cream of Wheat with a teaspoon of ground flax seed meal for extra fiber, a little organic sugar and cinnamon. Once in a while he will be okay with eating an egg fried in olive oil, as long as it's not over cooked. Pizza? Only thin crust cheese and pepperoni pizza from Dolly's Pizza and their "cheezy bread" as long as everything is not over cooked or too crispy.

He was drinking milk from a bottle up until a few months ago (refused to give it up) when the nipple shred and NUK does not make them anymore. So we resorted to having him start drinking milk from a cup with a straw. Takes him about 2 hours to drink 4 ounces. We dealt with that for about 6 weeks. I resorted to getting him yogurt made by Stoneyfield Farms because a little 4.5 ounce pack has 20% of the RDA for calcium and I think 15% for Vitamin D. Most other yogurts around town have only calcium. Stoneyfield organics (although I think the texture is disgusting for those yogurts) have the most nutrients, necessary for growing bones and bodies of little ones. We still try with the milk. Each time he starts to cry saying it will take him too long. He can down an 8 oz glass of water in about 5-10 minutes, but milk...he just won't swallow or can't swallow it. Eating the yogurt is a task as well. He refuses to eat it unless I give it to him. He always promises me every day that he will eat a yogurt at my parents home or drink a small glass of milk but he never holds to the promise. My parents panick because he is without milk all day.

Giving meds is another task in itself. We have to hold his arms back and give it to him with a needleless syringe.

It's sooooo difficult. It's not getting easier. My daughter constantly tells my son to try new foods and that he is missing out and he gets upset with her and with us whenever we say things like that.

School starts in a few weeks. Since he won't eat sandwiches, I will have to resort to warming food for him and putting it a thermos container every day. What do I do for milk? I know he won't eat the yogurt himself. Even if I give him milk in a thermos as well (he does not like cold milk, although at this point he does not seem to be liking milk at all). What can I do to make him eat like a human? I want to sit at the table with my kids and eat while they eat. It has not been like that.