5 Y/O refuses to swallow his food

[DRFC1879]

We're at our wit's end... Our 5 year old boy has always been fine with eating a varied diet but over the last week he's started completely refusing to swallow his food. It took 2 hours today for him to eat less than half a sandwich.

Another 50 minutes for him to eat half a crumpet tonight.

He's sitting with liquefied food in his mouth after chewing for ten, fifteen, even thirty minutes on a tiny bite.

He's losing weight and must be hungry as he's an active young lad but he simply will not eat.

We're not trying to make him eat anything he doesn't like. Today he's had his favourite breakfast of Weetabix with honey (already mushy!), cheese toaster for lunch and fish & chips for tea. All stuff he has always liked. Supper was a crumpet with Nutella. Soft. Easy to eat and previously something he would've loved.

Any ideas what we can go to make him eat???

Did anything start this - a choking episode for example. Or has he always had a thing about texture and it's got worse?

Nothing we can think of. We've asked him if he's scared of choking and he says no. He's always been fine with different textures with the exception of jelly/slimy stuff.

I'm starting to worry that he'll turn out like my wife, she has a terrible diet (basically lives on cheese and onion) after rejecting meat at sn early age then going on to refuse almost everything else.

DS has always laughed at her weird eating habits and been quite adventurous with food but this sudden change is really frustrating.

I've reported your post so they can remove your sons name.

In your shoes id continue to give him a wife range of food and avoid pressure or passing comment about his eating.

ASD crossed my mind briefly.

Wide range not wife

Cheers. We'll persevere and hope it sorts itself out. He is in the process of assessment for dyspraxia which can be linked to ASD but he's never shown any other typical ASD symptoms so I'm hoping it's a phase.

Probably a stupid thing to say, but has he been checked for a sore throat?

Not stupid, he had a cold last week and I thought "he's just got a sore throat" but he's fine on that front now and won't even swallow mushed up Weetabix.

My DS went through a phase of a few weeks where he did this too, just wanted to reassure you that it did pass! He is also being assessed for ASD though, so it may be linked.

Will he drink creamy milkshakes, just to get some calories into him until it passes?

Not to worry you unnecessarily, but are you sure there's nothing physically wrong with him? Can he definitely swallow and is just not choosing to, or does he try and fail? Some illnesses cause an inability to swallow, eg neuromuscular conditions. I was reading this today: the-toast.net/2015/12/21/to-fill-an-emptiness/

He doesn't like milkshakes but he'll eat Froobs. We've been giving him two or three at a time after sitting for a couple of hours trying to get through a sandwich!

I'm reticent to do that too much as I don't want him to get into a habit of thinking it's ok to reject solid food and top up on yoghurt but it's a way of getting something in his belly!

He has eaten crisps & the like during the last week but we're not allowing snacks & treats until he eats his meals as of today so hopefully his hunger will kick in soon and leave him no option but to eat properly.

Another change we made recently was trying to keep his iPad away from the dinner table and maybe that change of routine is causing the issue. If so it's a pain for now but worth it in the long run if we can get him out of a bad habit.

Ah, I wonder whether the iPad could be part of it. My bet is on this being a power struggle thing, particularly if he'll eat crisps and yoghurt.

Frubes are treats too I think.