Advice around sensory eating issues

[Duran31]

Hi all,

I hoping for some advice to help my DS. He is a wonderful, cheeky and cuddly 17 month old who is currently delayed with his speech and communication and has been referred to the paediatrician.

We are working with him to help improve this but my main concern at the moment is around his eating. He weaned well onto puréed food around 5/6 months but we started having problems as soon as we started to add different textures/variety to his food. He loved any finger food such as the veggie crisps and various Ella’s kitchen/organix snacks and still does. He also used to love fruit but has now gone off this. He has NEVER eaten a ‘proper’ meal I have made him. For dinner he will only eat either pasta or rice with a hidden veggie/meat sauce I make for him. He goes to nursery 2 mornings a week and has never eaten the lunch they make him. He will eat endless amounts of bread sticks, cracker bread, crackers, some cereal type bars or bakes. Always wants to steal my crisps or chocolate. Oh and his morning porridge or cereal! But that is pretty much it!

I’m starting to think that this is a sensory issue with the food. None of the typical advice of ‘if he is hungry he will eat’ works and he does get quite upset if anything is offered that he doesn’t want it bless him.

I’m hoping someone might have been through/is going through something similar and can give any ideas of how you have helped your little ones! All ideas welcome, I’m really ready to try anything :( it’s so difficult to see him struggle with this and I’m starting to get quite upset about it tbh. It really does make you feel like a failure when you can’t meet their basic needs and I get so sad when I see other people’s little kiddies scoffing down everything and everything :(

Thank you :)

Try to identify which tastes he likes and which textures he likes. I know it's much easier said than done, but it will give you a main plan of acceptable ingredients to work with.

Can he chew? Chewing helps speech. My dd couldn't chew, found out years later she has a hypermobile jaw. Even as an adult she still can't chew beef and pork as they make her jaw ache no matter how tender they are cooked. French bread is too much of an effort for her too.
Also she presents with sensory issues and can't cope with anything slimy, so cooked onions, courgette, mushrooms etc. are off her menu.

Thank @BlankTimes!

I’ve tried to stick to plainish foods as this seems to be his preference but because there is a delay in communication it really is a lot of guess work at times, but your right it’s definitely where I have had little successes before, trying with similar tastes or textures.

That’s interesting, I will look into this, thanks. I sometimes think he is chewing but then other times I’m sure he is swallowing things whole. And he definitely seems to avoid food he would need to chew. How did you find out this was the case with your dd?

You're welcome Duran31.

Mine was guesswork and perseverance along with a lot of observation and making notes. She also has eczema which is food-related so I cut out a lot of foods from that point of view too, which is why I wasn't as perceptive as I could have been on the sensory stuff to start with, added to which I'd never heard of it! Bear in mind this was well over 20 years ago so the information wasn't around, no internet and little help from HV and GP, all babies do things at their own speed, they said. Plus I'd not been brought up with looking after babies so had no idea what was expected at each developmental stage.

As a baby, she was very placid, always smiling, never put anything her mouth, ever, yet she cut teeth very very early, her first was at 3 months.
I did all the pureed food stage and she managed to swallow it okay although she was very slow to do so. Then we hit the problem of not chewing. She would have one chunk of food and just mush it around in her mouth then choke when she tried to swallow it, or be sick a little while aftewards trying to digest the lumpy food she'd managed to swallow. I tried everything I could think of, back and forward to GP and HV who just told me to go back to bottles and pureed food and try solids later.

From age 2, I tried putting a little bit of solid food in her mouth and physically moving her jaw up and down to show her how to chew. It took a long time for her to be able to chew things, at age 3 she was still on several bottles yet the GP and HV weren't concerned and just treated me like a neurotic parent.

Her speech wasn't clear either, but I was fobbed off about that too. Through primary school, the GP and teachers rubbished all my concerns. It wasn't until she was 10 that I eventually had a referral to a paed and she had a sensory OT assessment that I found out about hypermobility and the jaw and speech connection.

At least in this day and age, you have info at your fingertips and should get some support a lot sooner than I did!

@BlankTimes I’m sorry you were fobbed off like that, it’s so frustrating when you know there is something bigger going on and no one will listen. I’m glad your dd got the right help eventually though! Sounds like you both had a tough time with it all :(

The HV & GP so far have been helpful with the speech and language side of things but with the eating it’s just being treated like ‘fussy eating’ which is annoying as there is clearly something deeper 🙄 we are currently doing a parent course with S&L so I might mention to the therapist about the chewing and see what she says!

I think like you, I will for now just have to persevere and try and stick with what he does like and add similar where possible. I don’t want to upset him further, I just want him to be full and content. I’m hoping as he gets older he will be able to find ways to tell me what’s wrong etc.

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Hi do you have any updates on your baby ? Xx