OK so my last installment was about the process of the workshops that we went to. Here is a brief update on what happened.
The first week was the induction. The SALT explained that progress would probably be slow, very slow, very very slow, and that we had to think of it as a marathon, rather than a magic wand. She asked people to set a realistic target of what they might like to achieve at the end of the 6 weeks. Realising that miracles would be in short supply, I opted for DS touching a vegetable to his lips, but not necessarily having to eat it. The woman next to me (clearly had not listened nor understood) said she would like her DD to eat normal family meals! Oops - yes we all would, but pay attention in class!
Week 2 was Dry/Crunchy texture. We all sat in a circle and sang a Hello song. DS hates that sort of thing and tried to hide/lay his head on the floor to avoid any attention. They then got on to playing with the toyd: trains, garages, cooker/kitchen etc all laid out with crisps, crackers, dry pasta, ice ceram cones, digestivev biscuits, breakfst cereal etc as toys. There were cocktail sticks for skewering foods on, train carraiges and cars for driving foods about. Also a ramp on the garage for rolling stuff down. The aim was to be as messy as possible with the food and toys. Parents and staff munched the foods, said yum and talked about the food but were not meant to encourage the children to eat anything. If kids didn't want to touch with their hands, they were encouraged to use a "tool" like a stick, car, bulldozer etc to build up exposure to the food in a non threatening way. Some kids snacked on things, but DS didn't even though he would have eaten some of the items in a "food" setting. They finished the session with bubbles being blown to each child. In order to have the bubbles they had to sit on a mat provided in the circle on the floor and put their hand to their chest and sign & say "me please" to the SALT. That was really interesting as it clearly encouraged the children to engage with the professionals if they had be reticent. Also it finished off the session on a high note, so that the children were keen to come back for more. Probably a good idea for sessions done at home - keep it fun!
Week 3 was Cakey/soft. Same set up as Week 2 with mainly the same toys and added to the dry foods from the week before were breads and cakes (fairly plain) Again adults modelled good behaviour without comment and the children were encouraged to play with foods to explore their texture/feel. Songs and bubbles were the same each week.
Week 4 things started to get tough for us. Wet foods clearly our Achilles Heel! They added tinned potatoes, large peas out of a jar, some tinned fruit and peeled bananas. They also had some yoghurt, honey and chocolate spread with paint brushes for artful daubing. DS was fairly horrified but was prepared to be close - another little boy spent the entire session desperately hanging off the door handle trying to get away from the stuff. He was absolutely terrified - his parents were at their wits' end. DS initially tried to avoid having anything to do with the wet things until I rolled a couple of potatoes down the garage ramp - apparently this was hilarious so he started to try to move the potatoes himself using sticks or in the back of a dumper truck car - ie touching with a tool. In the same session, the potatoes got a bit drier and he began to tolerate touching them with his hand. It was really informative to watch that progression. He then got the bit between his teeth and daubed yoghurt across the rest of the garage with a brush and might have poured a pot down the ramp had I not intervened! One of the SALTs seemed to have reached HER threshold for mess as her face was a picture! However it was interesting to see that none of the adults cared for the mess on their hands and everyone was clearly resisting the urge to say "bleughh"and wipe their hands clean. So again that was enlightening to see where other people reached a limit to what they were happy with.
Week 5 would have been mixed textures, except it was cancelled due to staff illness - or maybe the idea of DS with a pot of trifle on the garage was too much! Anyway apparently mixed textures are the most difficult for most children.
Week 6 was a one-to-one session where we reviewed the sessions. The staff said that we were doing all the right things and that they wished all their clients had a dining table, and used it! Sadly they had to agree that DS was a stubborn little mite who was a tough nut that would be slow to crack. They would normally only suggest this for slightly older children but they said he might be up for a "food preferences book".
Basically we have pages with the progression headings as I posted above with pictures to match (Bleugh, finger to lips, plate, smiley face etc) and we printed off food pictures from the internet. It has taken quite a long time but we filled up the book with pictures so that we have some on every page. The idea is then that you get your child to choose which food they want to move up a page by doing the next step on. They are meant to do the next step 4 or 5 times before the picture moves. I think that you can use a star chart if you want to record that. We haven't managed to use this system terribly formally yet as I think he is too young for it, but we can see that having the discussion about it all with DS has been helpful for him and that he can now understand the steps and decide to make some himself.
Victories since the course ended a few months back have been few and far between, but suddenly in the last couple of weeks he has started to "surprise us" and he likes to say that when he tries something new. We obviously praise him a lot when he does good things to help things along. So the main things are that he had been happy to cut sweetcorn off the cob and then a few weeks on licked a corn on the cob. Also he put his finger on an egg yolk and put a microscopic piece of egg on to his tongue - and said it was tasty!!! Both of those foods are ones which he has shown interest in in the past, so it is probably worth working on stuff based on their preferences.
Right I am signing off again after that mammoth post. I look forward to hearing news from others.