We could see that he was terrified to try new food, so we thought that it was because he injured his teeth twice in a row when he was two. That's when he quit eating. We've been trying a technique that gets him used to different textures and also helps him not to be scared of everything. He had to put different foods on his tongue for certain lengths of time, then learn to close his mouth and chew it up, etc. It was a long process. Been going on for about 3 months. But all he learned was that he's allowed to spit out the thing that he does NOT want to eat! So, we were kind of at our wits end.
He hasn't eaten any meat since Christmas, so he's been down to bananas, granola bars, chips, crackers and chocolate milk. Very scary. He got lots of vitamins and instant breakfast to keep him alive. He was eating more, but if we ever witheld something or didn't have it in the house for a week, he would never eat it again. So, slowly he cut out almost everything before we realized what he was doing.
His favorite thing was Cheez-Its, but when I bought the ones with letters printed on them, he refused them for 3 weeks. That put up a red flag for us. He's not refusing textures, tastes or new foods, just food that is not his idea. Which brought us to a new conclusion. He's stubborn. :)
Really, it's an OCD behavior. If he's obsessed with controlling what he eats to the point of starvation or extremely limited diet, then it isn't fun for him. It's an obsessive behavior that can' be cured by simply taking away what he likes. Kids like that put themselves in the hospital and the stress causes the behavior to get worse.
So, we treated the behavior like OCD instead of an eating disorder. Which instantly cured him after 3 years of fighting and worrying about it. When a kid starts getting an OCD behavior, you do NOT let them make it a routine or habit.
For example, Barret used to turn lights on and off all over the downstairs before he would go pee. Even if he had to pee really bad and was crying while doing the lights. If it's not fun, it's an obsessive behavior. So, I unscrewed the lightbulbs for a day so that he didn't get the reinforcement of the light going on and off. He never did it again.
So, here's what we did about food. First they have to understand rewards, like you'll get ____ if you _____. Sit them down and tell them, "You can have this chocolate milk if you eat this bite of chicken." They will kick, scream, spit, snot, punch hit, throw themselves around etc. You turn your body away from them and keep very still looking the other direction until they stop. Then you repeat yourself, turn away from the badness, try again, etc. for hours until you break their little spirits. :)
We only did it for an hour, then brought in Ted to demonstrate. Ted ate the bite, then got a drink of BARRET's CHOCOLATE MILK that he had been screaming for for and hour. God forbid! So he quickly ate the bite and grabbed the chocolate milk.
The next day took 45 minutes, then 30, now he'll just eat what we tell him to on command. He's a little nervous about it and makes faces, but he's not resisting much at all. It's a miracle.
We want him to have a lot of successes, so we're working in things that we think will taste really good, or things that we know he used to eat. So far he's added:
Cheez-Its with letters (ha!)
Apple Jacks
Wheat Thins
Graham Cracker Bees
Popcorn Chicken
Burger King fries (this is a bigger deal than you might think)
McDonald's Chicken Nuggets
Cherries
Cashews
Tater Tots
String Cheese
He even used a fork for the first time! This week we'll start on different sandwiches, fruits and vegetables. Yay!
