Guest guest Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 Word of warning to those who are thinking about using the behavior method of branching out eating mentioned on this thread: make sure your child is at the point where he/she is able to understand an " if/then " consequence before attempting this. Some autistic children are truly the exception to the belief that " no child will ever starve himself/herself. " Many parents who felt pressured to withhold food until an autistic child would eat a new food really regretted it several days later when the child still had not eaten and was extremely weak. Of all the things we did with my child before we truly understood his issues, I regret this the most. Before you try this method with an extremely picky, sensative child, I'd first recommend having a comprehensive digestive stool analysis run to rule out gut issues that may be making it hard for the child to eat comfortably. Also, work on dessensitizing the child's tactile system by providing and encouraging him/her to experience different textures, especially on the hands and feet (you can get different textured door mats and cloth from Walmart and lay those around for use during play.) Do lots of body brushing and deep pressure. Best of all, provide regular (at least 3 times a day) stimulation to the trigeminal nerve (this runs across the face and governs the entire nervous system). To do this, do a light touch/tickle all over the face and up over the head then down to the back of the neck. Follow it immediately with a deep finger pressure all over the same areas. Ideally, you want to do one minute of light touch followed by one minute of deep touch but many kids are so sensative that you need to build up slowly. Start with a second of light touch, followed by a bit longer deep touch and then build. Many picky eaters really respond well to this and branch out their own eating within a few months of regular stimulation. Gaylen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 Word of warning to those who are thinking about using the behavior method of branching out eating mentioned on this thread: make sure your child is at the point where he/she is able to understand an " if/then " consequence before attempting this. Some autistic children are truly the exception to the belief that " no child will ever starve himself/herself. " Many parents who felt pressured to withhold food until an autistic child would eat a new food really regretted it several days later when the child still had not eaten and was extremely weak. Of all the things we did with my child before we truly understood his issues, I regret this the most. Before you try this method with an extremely picky, sensative child, I'd first recommend having a comprehensive digestive stool analysis run to rule out gut issues that may be making it hard for the child to eat comfortably. Also, work on dessensitizing the child's tactile system by providing and encouraging him/her to experience different textures, especially on the hands and feet (you can get different textured door mats and cloth from Walmart and lay those around for use during play.) Do lots of body brushing and deep pressure. Best of all, provide regular (at least 3 times a day) stimulation to the trigeminal nerve (this runs across the face and governs the entire nervous system). To do this, do a light touch/tickle all over the face and up over the head then down to the back of the neck. Follow it immediately with a deep finger pressure all over the same areas. Ideally, you want to do one minute of light touch followed by one minute of deep touch but many kids are so sensative that you need to build up slowly. Start with a second of light touch, followed by a bit longer deep touch and then build. Many picky eaters really respond well to this and branch out their own eating within a few months of regular stimulation. Gaylen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 In a message dated 7/24/2004 12:10:28 PM Central Standard Time, lroger9@... writes: <<I found a pasta sauce for use on his pizza and it containes zucchini, spinach, green peppers. He eats jalepeno's and pimentos in his cheese on his nachos and now accepts HB meat on nachos and pizzas instead of just the cheese and pepperoni. >> Alot of people sneak veggies into their kids foods like this. Some mix them into batter they coat meat with, others mix them into breads. We eased my son into eating new tastes by gradually adding new tastes into the few foods he'd eat. He was down to only cheerios at his pickiest. We slowly added yams to those, then were able to add other tastes to the yams and so on. It took quite awhile to get him to branch out but now he eagerly tries new foods and eats a very well-balanced healthy diet. I really think a combo of chelation and the trigeminal stimulation I mentioned earlier did the trick since he suddenly branched out about six months into the trig. stim. <<I am finding that he is more allergic to the milk products than to gluten. >> The folks have found that many of the kids on their protocol can branch away from gluten restriction but none have been able to successfully add back in milk if they were sensative to it. They recommend starting with heavily processed grains since they aren't always recognized by the earlier tagging the body did on the gluten grain. After years of gfcf, my son has recently been able to eat processed gluten grains in moderation without reaction. <<As long as he gets his vitamins down he is getting plenty of vitamins and he gets the Homeopathics to help with the vitamin absorption. >> What homeopathic product are you using for this? Gaylen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 In a message dated 7/24/2004 12:10:28 PM Central Standard Time, lroger9@... writes: <<I found a pasta sauce for use on his pizza and it containes zucchini, spinach, green peppers. He eats jalepeno's and pimentos in his cheese on his nachos and now accepts HB meat on nachos and pizzas instead of just the cheese and pepperoni. >> Alot of people sneak veggies into their kids foods like this. Some mix them into batter they coat meat with, others mix them into breads. We eased my son into eating new tastes by gradually adding new tastes into the few foods he'd eat. He was down to only cheerios at his pickiest. We slowly added yams to those, then were able to add other tastes to the yams and so on. It took quite awhile to get him to branch out but now he eagerly tries new foods and eats a very well-balanced healthy diet. I really think a combo of chelation and the trigeminal stimulation I mentioned earlier did the trick since he suddenly branched out about six months into the trig. stim. <<I am finding that he is more allergic to the milk products than to gluten. >> The folks have found that many of the kids on their protocol can branch away from gluten restriction but none have been able to successfully add back in milk if they were sensative to it. They recommend starting with heavily processed grains since they aren't always recognized by the earlier tagging the body did on the gluten grain. After years of gfcf, my son has recently been able to eat processed gluten grains in moderation without reaction. <<As long as he gets his vitamins down he is getting plenty of vitamins and he gets the Homeopathics to help with the vitamin absorption. >> What homeopathic product are you using for this? Gaylen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 Gaylen, I couldn't agree with you more. My child is still a picky eater but he is on the GFCG diet. I found a pasta sauce for use on his pizza and it containes zucchini, spinach, green peppers. He eats jalepeno's and pimentos in his cheese on his nachos and now accepts HB meat on nachos and pizzas instead of just the cheese and pepperoni. I am finding that he is more allergic to the milk products than to gluten. The increase in zinc has not helped that much but I am hoping as he keeps showing interest in our foods. You can buy Pea powder from Kirkman's to add to their foods for extra protein. As long as he gets his vitamins down he is getting plenty of vitamins and he gets the Homeopathics to help with the vitamin absorption. I am taking it very slowly as he has just finished a very successful trip to camp and was the most popular camper there.:0) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 Gaylen, I couldn't agree with you more. My child is still a picky eater but he is on the GFCG diet. I found a pasta sauce for use on his pizza and it containes zucchini, spinach, green peppers. He eats jalepeno's and pimentos in his cheese on his nachos and now accepts HB meat on nachos and pizzas instead of just the cheese and pepperoni. I am finding that he is more allergic to the milk products than to gluten. The increase in zinc has not helped that much but I am hoping as he keeps showing interest in our foods. You can buy Pea powder from Kirkman's to add to their foods for extra protein. As long as he gets his vitamins down he is getting plenty of vitamins and he gets the Homeopathics to help with the vitamin absorption. I am taking it very slowly as he has just finished a very successful trip to camp and was the most popular camper there.:0) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 What homeopathic product are you using for this? The doc sends out a bottle with vitamin combo written on it and I will have to question her the next time I talk to her. It will be next month as she is in Hawaii vacationing until next month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 28, 2004 Report Share Posted July 28, 2004 Okay, I know food is kind of a control issue both as parents and as children. It seems in the news recently there is a lot of attention paid to both being overweight and underweight. I have 3 children, 2 are not autistic. My 10 year old was a picky eater, my only rule was no sugar until you eat something else. Anything else. If he wanted mac and cheese for a week, so be it. Now at 10 he finally eats what I would consider a balanced diet and has no issues with food. He eats when he's hungry and he eats healthy. I have always cooked low fat and variety of foods for my husband and myself but the kids have eaten what they would and were offered our food each time. Now my daughter is 6, she still eats " kid food " but chances are she'll come around. The only thing I restrict is sugar, for all of them. Matt eats nothing not even kid food so he worries me. He's the one I've had to do all the food supplements on. I tried the force feeding and restrictive feeding and he starved himself and became dehydrated. I'm going back to what I do with my other two kids. I will not let food be a manipulator or a reward and chances are he'll start eating something else. Food is a powerful thing and one of the few things we can control with our kids and that they can control with us. When you think about it. Anyway, just my two cents. A little " food for thought " . Ha. Trina Re: Picky Eater? What homeopathic product are you using for this? The doc sends out a bottle with vitamin combo written on it and I will have to question her the next time I talk to her. It will be next month as she is in Hawaii vacationing until next month. Texas Autism Advocacy Unlocking Autism www.UnlockingAutism.org Autism-Awareness-Action Worldwide internet group for parents who have a child with AUTISM. SeekingJoyinDisability - Prayer support for those touched by Disability: SeekingJoyinDisability/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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