Food For Thought...

     I have a four year old daughter who won't eat ice cream, Oreo's, candy, chocolate or even a bite of  birthday cake.  When I tell people that, their first comments are "Wow, I wish I could refuse to eat that stuff."  Yeah, me, too!  She also won't eat much of anything else.  For the longest time, her diet has consisted of Quaker Oatmeal packet with an extra handful of quick oats, mixed with hot water and a container of Gerber 2nd food apple/blueberry mix (Breakfast... every day...  Won't eat cereal, eggs or toast).  Lunch, if I keep reminding her to finish, usually is a plain peanut butter sandwich.  She will eat Chicken nuggets and french fries, cheese, crackers and ham.  Dinner, almost always, is Gerber 3rd foods Chicken Noodle.  Yes she is four and still eats baby food.  We hoped for 3 years that she would grow out of this...
     Now maybe this just sounds like your typical picky preschooler... Perhaps....  And maybe you think I have somehow created this monster (but I have raised 5 other children, all who went through picky stage and all who try new foods....) 
     But consider this:  We were at a restraunt one night and ordered Chicken strips and fries for her.  Because this was a nice restraunt, the waiter brought all of us appetizers and brought her a small bowl of mixed fruit (watermelon cubed, cantalope, grapes and strawberries).  Cami was petrified.  She threw herself at me and buried her head in my lap.  She sobbed (silently), her shoulders shaking.  I quickly realized that she was terrified that she would have to eat this fruit; I convinced her that it was not for her, but for sharing with her brothers and sisters.
     She calmed down; and after a bit, began giving the pieces of fruit to her brothers and sisters.  She then ate a Chicken strip and a few fries.
     For a long time, I thought perhaps she just couldn't eat certain foods  Even as a two year old, she would put crackers in her mouth and mull them around til they softened and she could swallow them.  It would take her 30 minutes to process a one inch slice of bacon.  By the way, she love love loves salty foods...  She currently weighs about 34 pounds and is of a normal height for her age.  She gets most of her nutrition from Pediasure and those type of drink products.  She refuses to drink juice.
     But here is the key:  She has severe GERD (reflux) and the effects of that have made her very afraid of food.  Many "Failure to thrive" children receive g-tubes...  Cami was a labeled "failure to thrive" when she was one and a half..  but she would eat SOMETHING and she would drink that pediasure...  What I am learning now is that she, like other severe GERD kids and g-tube kids, has a deep fear of food.  She needs to control what goes in her mouth so that she won't have pain and she won't gag.  You cannot convince her to eat anything...  She has to decide on her own.  In just the last few months, she has started telling me she is hungry... before that I wonder if she even felt hunger pains.  One professional health worker told me that most kids rate their favorite food as a 10 on a scale of 1-10.  Cami's favorite foods are just a 4... In other words, she doesn't have much interst in eating and taste isn't playing a huge part... texture is.
     So we are going to the Achieve center in Spokane, where, for the first time, I have found speech and occupational therapists that are familiar with this type of eating disorder (painful to call it that, but it is what it is) and are working with her to help broaden her horizons when it comes to food. 
     The first few times at the center, when an unfamiliar food was placed before her, Cami would turn away quickly.  She wouldn't even look at it.  The therapists would play with the food (ie: whip cream, jam) and encourage Cami  to draw in it.  As they've continued to work with her, we are implementing a kiss it or lick it strategy.  When Cami eats, she is given her familiar food along with something she hasn't tried before.  She immediately says, "I don't like that" or "I don't want that" and we say, "It's OK.  You don't have to eat it, you just have to kiss it or lick it."  If it's something salty, we encourage the lick.  But no other pressure...  She even kissed her first ice cream on Jordon's birthday!  It's baby steps, for sure.  But at least it is a step closer to eating her first bite...
     It's been painful, as her mother, to watch her and not understand why...  We were sent to every specialist in town, from gastro-intestinal ot genetics, but no real understanding until now.  I hope this is the answer, because sometimes I get tired of trying to explain why my four year old won't eat that sucker you just gave her, or why she is still eating babyfood, or why she has no interest in that candy bar that has been offered to her that most four year olds would be thrilled to have....