I give up, ds refuses point blank to eat solids and every day for the last year I have binned the apple slices, corn, cucumber, melon, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, banana, chicken nuggets, toast that I have cut attractively, served, to no avail. I have put one item on his plate, all on his plate, a few on his plate etc. Tonight when he screamed at me, I screamed back. He is now in front of the tv while I have a gin&tonic and type this. He is our 2nd boy of 2children. We are doing the same stuff we did before. With the exception that he is still taking milk from a bottle.
I give him milk from a bottle 3x a day, he will not drink juice or water or diluted juice from the £20 worth of beakers that we have bought over the last 18mths. He chews them. He has milk upon waking, porridge 2hours later, milk after a nap and after his bath. The rest of the time he will ONLY eat pureed food including all meat, fish, fruit & veg. Mostly home-made and everything from home-made curry to shepherds pie. Pureed only. Slightest lump and he vomits. He is always given lumpy food, he never chews he swallows as soon as the lump is discovered he either stops eating or vomits every meal. He will eat any amount of bland or spiced food provided it is pureed.
There is nothing physically wrong with him whatsoever. If the food is sauce based like spag bol he will open his mouth willingly, but heaven forbid that there is a rogue piece of texture.
He barely speaks other than, ta da, ta & bye.
He never says mummy or daddy and probably won't until he eats something solid as so far his tongue is just there for decoration. My compost bin is full of wonderful food, thrown in disgust on the floor, spat at me or simply ignored. He is give loads of praise every time he even looks vaguely interested in food, he has forks & we encourage touching his food (regardless of the living hell the kitchen has become). We eat with him and only at the table with no distractions. He has never eaten snacks or treat food. He did eat cheerios every morning for a week with milk and for reasons best known only to himself he stopped after 5 days.
He tips all cereal onto the floor and he has been given every type just to tempt him. He refuses all dehydrated fruit whether in bits or whole.
I'm fed up. He's not, clearly.
We entertain, distract, praise, ignore, whatever it does not work and I am nothing if not consistent in my approach especially as I want my 6year old to know that I am fair with them both.
He is a healthy weight, he is active and fit.
He sleeps like a dream, from 6.30pm every night until he's woken, that's right, WOKEN the following morning at 6.30am. He has a minimum 3hour nap every day and always has done. He has a sunny disposition and the dirtiest laugh. He is easy and an ideal little boy, an absolute dream and his older brother was the same. So why doesn't he eat solids or speak?
He's now being referred for speech therapy. It will come as no surprise that eating solids and speech are directly linked.
I know I'm lucky having two such good sleepers and lovely happy children. But if I have to push another carrot through a sieve I will scream.
He will eat beige food such as bread sticks and crackers and toast crusts (he will not eat toast or crust with butter or any jam/honey etc on it. His favourite chew thing is a week old baguette.
All our furniture and books have bite marks in them, including the rest of the family. He will eat stones and cardboard and I am forever tipping him upside down and hauling things out so he doesn't crack his jaw in half, poison himself or choke.
Cutting out the milk only results in him not drinking at all. Then he starts to get dehydrated and has become constipated on only those occasions we have denied him access to it.
It would be great to hear from some one with a two year old who has had success.
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Behaviour/development
just turned two years never eaten solids
DianaDors · 14/05/2011 07:58
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Well done! Sounds as though he is making great progress 
How have you been doing with ditching the bottle completely and moving on to cups?
Op, have pm'd you 
So sorry that he is still poorly but those are great 'baby steps' 
You go girl
It is great to hear that he will drink out of a beaker at friend's houses that will give you the boost to know that he can do it. He'll probably not like it though, so you will need to stick to your guns.
Another suggestion to help develop cup drinking is to give him plastic cups to play with in the bath. I know it is not ideal but as long as you don't use any bubble bath, it shouldn't do any harm. Have a water-proof toy that he can 'feed'. Also good for language development e.g. "ds' drink", "mummy's drink", "power ranger's drink".
Giving him choices is also another good way to help language development e.g. "ds, do you want Spot or fireman Sam book"? - hold eac book in front for him to point and choose.
Also, use short, simple sentences and talk to him about the 'here and now' I.e the things he is looking at and interested in (not about granny visiting next week!).
I look forward to hearing how you are getting on
Sorry this is long but I hope there maybe a few helpful bits!
Like Ratsnapper, I was a SALT (in a previous life!) I specialised in feeding difficulties, although mainly with children and adults with physical difficulty as opposed to pre-school.
One thing that really stands out is that your ds still uses a bottle. Sucking from a bottle requires an immature sucking action I.e the tongue moves forwards and backwards to suck the milk out. This action changes and matures once the child moves away from a teat and develops into a different action (using the cheeks). Hence why most adults trying to drink from a teat would not be able to because they have lost this immature sucking action.
I would be wanting your ds to move onto a cup for his milk and this would probably be the first thing I would recommend that you do. You may also find that this helps him to naturally reduce his milk intake.
I would also recommend that you try to mash as much of his soft food as possible e.g. Pasta, potato, soft carrots, rather than blitz. Also (I know this will be a huge pain!), could you blitz food that can't be mashed individually. This way the flavours stay separate on the plate. You don't have to clean out the liquidiser in between items though
Maybe go back to having some prepared, frozen blitzed food that you can dip into and then give him other very well mashed fresh vegs that you all have on your plates, as well as some finger food. Then just let him get on with it and he can choose to eat certain things or not.
As has been mentioned by a previous poster, nursery is also a good idea for both his eating and drinking and communication development. Are there any nearby?
Has your ds been referred for a feeding assessment as well as a slt communication assessment? Often eating and drinking are assessed by other (specialist) therapists from this who assess communication. Perhaps it is worth contacting your local slt department and asking whether he requires a separate referral for this. He may need a referral from the gp for this but they can advise you. It just seems a shame to wait for weeks to see the slt and then to have to wait even longer for another assessment for feeding with someone else if you can get on the list now.
With regards to communication. How does he 'tell' you what he wants? Does he point, take you to something, vocalise to get your attention, etc? What would he do if his favourite toy was out of reach, for example?
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