Help with a fussy 14 month allergic LO please

[Buntybear]

Hi, I need advice on how to deal with my 14 month old please.

He is allergic to wheat, milk and eggs so his diet is limited anyway. When weaned he was pretty good and ate anything but now the foods he will eat are very limited and I don't know how to handle this.

The foods he will eat - porridge, yoghurt, fruit pots - will eat these out of a bowl/pot with a spoon himself. Toast, cooked dry pasta, sw pot wedges, roast chicken - will eat with fingers. And then pretty much most fruit and veg that can be eaten with his fingers (phew!).

Other than the 3 foods above he won't eat anything else with a spoon. He won't eat anything with a sauce or that is pureed/mashed.

At the moment I feel that I give him the same foods day in, day out. Tonight I tried meat sauce with his pasta and peas but we had meltdown. I put dry pasta on top of the sauce but if there is one little bit of sauce on he wont eat it.

I know I need to keep trying to offer new foods but what do I do with the crying? I can't force feed him but on the other hand I feel like I am giving in and he won't try new foods if he knows he will get what he likes after anyway.

Any thoughts please??xx

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi hun, unfortunately dont have much advice as we are dealing with a similar thing atm so dropping off some hugs

ds2 is on a very restricted diet (dairy/soy/salicylates intolerant) and he is currently crying and crying when offered new foods too. torn between wanting him to eat something and not teaching him to cry to give him something different to eat myself so would love to hear what others think.

for your LO, is he eating any other meat than chicken? what about making your own sausages/meatballs so that he can use his fingers?
my eldest went thru 'selective spoon refusal', (ie. fine if it had yoghurt or fruit puree on it but that was it). so i used to make various meat/veg concoctions and spread them on rice cakes or toast.
how about a fork? might be enuf to get him concentrating on the fork rather than what he's eating??

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hi!

Spence wasa fussy eater since she started solids, had some sensory issues with sticky/messy foods, self limits what she will eat, plus she is dairy, egg and gluten free.

We are down to few foods, but my mission is to keep putting things on her plate in the hopes that one day she might eat it - no pressure, no goading her to eat, nothing - and it works!  She ate ham one day after a year of refusing it, pork roast another.  This was also something recommend by our autism consultant, they said even to go so far as having her help shop, prepare food (okay, your guys are a bit young for that!), then touch, then lick, then taste...that every "interaction" with the particular food would be one more step in getting them to taste it (they said usually 30 tries or more is what it could take)

It's really hard to do, DH finds it harder than I do, as I am more hands off in my parenting style than him, but it has worked for us. I also make sure every meal has a couple of things I know she will eat plus one that she hasn't been.

Heidi

[Buntybear]

Thanks for your replies. It isn't a sensory problem as he is fine with messy foods. He does use a fork and will play and spear the foods he won't eat and is happy to feed them to me but won't eat them himself.

Have tried chicken/turkey sausages but TBH they were a bit dry so bought more turkey today to give them another go. Have tried things on rice cakes but not interested. In fact he is off rice cakes altogether at the mo!

So do I just accept he will only eat a few things and just keep feeding him those things? Add maybe one new thing a day?

Today I gave him salmon and avacado. He ate the avacado and didn't taste the salmon. Now he used to like salmon  . Also tried roasted squash fingers as he likes sw pot fingers and I thought they would be so close he would eat them - he didn't. So I gave him the rest of his banana left over from snack and took him down. He had an absolute fit and didn't stop crying till he went to sleep for his nap. In fact the only thing that stopped him crying them was me giving him some antihistamine as he was very itchy and had a rash! Opened his mouth for it and then went startight off to sleep. Prob be a short nap now as he will be hungry. 

Oh, another thing. He won't eat pasta in sauce but I have been trying it. For the last few days he hasn't been eating his dry pasta either. Do you think that I am creating an aversion to dry pasta by offering it with a sauce at times? HELP!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Add maybe one new thing a day?

Yup, or I just keep at the same new one for a few days and then switch to something else.

Do you think that I am creating an aversion to dry pasta by offering it with a sauce at times? HELP!

I often worry about this, as I like to puree things to add to her sauce. Last night she picked out the a minute piece of bacon from her spaghetti sauce and then looked sideways at it for a few minutes before deciding to eat it again...close call, won't be adding that again! (but the sweet potato & mixed beans went unnoticed!)

{{{hugs}}}  Could his fit have been because he was feeling yucky from the rash? 

[Buntybear]

I think his crying was just tiredness after all. He had a long NW last night. He actually slept over 2 hours and then ate his BN squash wedges when he woke up. YEAH! Another starch to give him. Good thing too as I burnt his sw pot wedges as I was on here! lol

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Good thing too as I burnt his sw pot wedges as I was on here! lol

whoops! I boiled a pot dry yesterday...and I was on BW too!  yay for the wedges being a hit!

[huntersmummyinoz]

i adapted the sausages/meatballs a bit as found them too dry/hard for LOs too. i use 500g mince, 4 slices of bread for bread crumbs (but also use puffed rice, i dont measure but it'd be at least 1/2 cup, could also use puffed quinoa), a jar baby pear puree (apple is good too or grated apple but my LO cant eat it), and then a mix of chopped herbs/spices (usually chives, leek, garlic or parsley as that's all my LO can handle). form into sausage or meatball shapes and bake in the oven.

heidi, thanks for that, i do think i need to relax about his food a bit but it's so hard when he is on such a restrictive diet that he actually needs it for good nutrition IYKWIM.

hard call on the pasta. maybe back off for a little while and then in a couple of weeks try the smallest ever amount and see what happens? (i'm talking start with 1tsp and go from there). and maybe look at doing it with a taste that he is familiar with, eg. if he likes sweet potato then mix that with a little water and use that as the 'sauce' so it's not something completely new to him.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

it's so hard when he is on such a restrictive diet that he actually needs it for good nutrition IYKWIM.

Yup, know exactly what you mean...I really wish now that I hadn't switched her from formula. At the time she was eating a bit more variety and I thought why not, soy milk is so much cheaper. Now I can't get her to drink the formula (we tried after she had a tonsillectomy because she lived on cheerios for a week!)  I suppose I could try weaning her back onto it oz by oz...hmmm have to try that, as now she only drinks 6-10 oz a day, a can of formula would last longer!

[huntersmummyinoz]

good point heidi. we are about to have to trial cows milk soon due to low calcium issues, but if he does pass (and i'd be surprised) i'm def keeping at least one milk feed a day of neocate or at least get him on a cows milk formula for one feed, thanks

[Buntybear]

Jeez re-reading this thread has made me remember I put the oven on an hour ago to do more wedges! Luckily they aren't in yet or they would be in cinders.  :DWhat are we like?? 

Thanks Kirry, actually bought turkey mince yesterday as it was higher in fat than the normal breast I buy and mince myself. Gave him the ones from the freezer again tonight but he wasn't interested. Think I might just bin them and start all over.

[Buntybear]

Spoke to my dietician today who said to keep introducing new foods to him but not making a big deal out of it at all. Just leaving on his tray for 20 mins then taking it away. No cajoling or anything. Just act totally normal!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Jeez re-reading this thread has made me remember I put the oven on an hour ago to do more wedges! Luckily they aren't in yet or they would be in cinders.  :DWhat are we like??

   well, thank goodness my DH made supper today...no chance for me to burn anything!

Spoke to my dietician today who said to keep introducing new foods to him but not making a big deal out of it at all. Just leaving on his tray for 20 mins then taking it away. No cajoling or anything. Just act totally normal!

Sounds good!