(10-01-2012, 12:58 AM)lakeegan Wrote: My son just doesn't eat. When he was younger, he constantly said he wasn't hungry, even when he hadn't eaten in more than a day. It took way to long for someone to listen to my concerns and get him diagnosed with SPD. He has many other traits as a sensory seeker, but the most concerning for me was always the refusal to eat. We've come a long way in the year since he's been diagnosed but we're still far from him having a healthy diet. Now he'll at least eat 3 meals a day but they are very limited meals. There are only a handful of foods that he'll eat and he, for the most part, refuses to try new foods. Even the foods he does like to eat constantly change without warning. For breakfast, he might eat half of his small pancake. Lunch is half a PB&J sandwich which usually fills him up before it's all gone. Dinner is the worst, it's always a battle trying to get him to pick something he wants to eat and he rarely finishes it. He's terribly underweight, almost 5yrs old and still wearing 18mo old shorts. I've tried all the "picky eater" remedies and none of them work for him. He doesn't care how "fun" it looks or that he helped me make it or that he gets a prize when he's finished it all. Has anyone else had eating problems with their SPD child? Any suggestions from people who actually understand that he's not your typical picky eater?

We were taking him to OT when he was first diagnosed but no OT in our area takes our insurance (Medicaid) so we had to stop taking him after only a few sessions because we just couldn't afford it. I'm trying to do this all on my own and I really just feel like I'm not getting anywhere with him.

---

Is your pediatrician on board? He sounds dangerously malnourished and I would discuss options with the Dr. My son was a failure to thrive baby due to unhealthy lungs and received a feeding tube at 4 months old. Due to sensory issues and not being bottle fed or nursed he never learned and then wanted to eat. The only thing that helped him was behavioral feeding therapy. At 1st he would literally throw up by just touching a piece of bread. It took months to get him to eat pureed applesauce (yes, we had to puree applesauce because it had to have no texture). At 4 years old we had to actually teach him how to chew. To make a very long story short, we needed professional help. We had to switch health insurance to get a plan that paid for it but he is now 6, off the feeding tube for 2 years now and doing well. He won't eat everything other 6 year olds do, but our lives don't revolve around his eating issues anymore. His G.I. did a great job explaining how his subconscious fear of food and years on the feeding tube made it so his mind didn't even understand the issue of hunger. I believe his sensory issues made the touch of food and feel of it in his mouth very scary as well. Get online and look at feeding clinics, especially ones that come into your home. If insurance won't cover it then contact a local college in the area; most of them have behavoural therapy programs that train students specifically on feeding issues. Find the director of the phychology dept. and inquire. Many of those student that are in the graduate programs need case studies (aka, your son) to prove themselves on and they are overseen by their supervisors. Being that your son already eats, albeit limited foods, with the right therapis on board, it should progress quickly. OT's, by the way, are often non-supporters of behavioral therapy so just be aware that OTs are not behavioral therapists. Good luck and hang in there.