We started giving my son his first taste of "solid food" just like any other baby when he was around 4-5 months. We first offered him rice cereal and it was so great to see him eat it with no problem whatsoever. When we started feeding him rice cereal, oatmeal, and then jar food my husband and I repeatedly commented, "This is what it is supposed to be like to feed a baby." Our prior experience with our daughter was not easy, she'd rather do anything else than eat!
When we finally offered my son table food, it was so exciting. He loved gumming big chunks of carrots or a small chicken drumstick. We even have a picture of him trying to eat a strip of steak at 15 months. We would not have to struggle with feeding our second child like we had to with our first, or so we thought.
Then my son began teething at around 18 months (this delay is teething is something that can occur in babies with down syndrome). We were actually concerned about when he would begin to have teeth but then he cut his first tooth. We were glad that my son was finally teething until we saw the impact on his eating.
Initially we did not connect his refusal to eat table food with his teething but as we looked back we realized that once my son started teething he also refused to eat table food and would only eat jar food. At that point I began to blend some of the table food so that he would have the flavor of what we were eating. Additionally, we felt like we could do both table food and baby food because we wanted to wean him off of jar food. It seemed as if our plan was working. Before we offered him jar food, we would give him the blended table food and have him eat as much of that as possible. When he absolutely refused to eat any more table food, we gave him the jar food. This went on for about a month or so before he just absolutely refused to eat table food, in any shape or form. We were upset and very frustrated. What had looked so promising had turned into a huge struggle.
The struggle was overwhelming as previously pleasant meal times turned into long excruciating sessions of pleading, cajoling, and sometimes even admonishing our son for refusing to eat. These times were far from enjoyable. In the end, I think my husband and I both sort of gave up and let my son just eat jar food. We were more concerned with his weight gain and getting calories into him and it was just too painful and exhausting trying to get him to eat.
Some time during this period, we expressed our concerns to our speech therapist and she suggested one of the best things that worked wonders for us. Veggie sticks. Potato chips in a stick form. You can buy them at Trader Joe's, Sprouts, or at Costco. My son absolutely loved them! And with our therapists help, we used the veggie sticks to try to introduce different textures of food to him. The process worked but it was still very difficult.
One issue that became apparent during this time was my son's sensitive gag reflex. When he would become upset while we were trying to feed him, he would invariably throw up. This complicated an already sensitive situation. While we desperately wanted my son to advance move beyond jar food we were also worried that he may not have been eating correctly or have issues with swallowing because he was throwing up every time he became upset during meal time. Because this kept happening we eventually decided to have him evaluated by a feeding therapist.
The evaluation by the feeding therapist was surprisingly simple. She came to our home and watched my son eat. She asked me about what he did eat and what he didn't eat. Her conclusion, my son's eating was perfectly normal and his refusal to eat table food was simply "behavioral". Translation from mommy's point of view - my son was just stubborn and wanted to eat what he wanted to eat.
Since then has improved a lot and now eats table food. We definitely celebrated his weaning off of jar food but it wasn't easy. We used a combination of positive and negative reinforcement through trial and error. He is still resistant at times to eating and quite stubborn about his refusal to eat but we are working through it and continue to cheer when he eats a food item for the first time on his own.
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