Parenting: 2-Year-Olds Community

From my understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong as I know there are moms on here that have children with sensory perception disorders, I don't think they ever grow out of it, they just learn coping skills.

I really don't have any suggestions as far as what to do to get him to eat. Will he drink pediasure or anything like that? Is he underweight?

I want to preface this with the fact that I know nothing about the medical side of all of this. I am not versed in autism, nor do I know much about sensory problems. But, if it is true that in the end, he isnt autistic and doesnt have sensory issues, I thought I'd say this...

When my daughter was 18 months old, perfectly healthy, no problems, we would eat ONLY baby food. We tried every trick in the book to get her to eat table food, but it all was a no-go. If your grandson has no issues with eating junk food, then I'd venture to say it probably isnt a texture issue either. With my DD, her pedi told us to go cold turkey. She said that we may go a day with her being purely stubborn and not eating because it isnt baby food, but she WILL eat. She WILL get hungry and eat what's given to her. In our experience, again, no medical issues to note and nothing else but pure stubbornness, it worked! We threw out all the baby food, bought no more, and only gave her table foods. It took her about a day and a half before she realized it was what she was getting, no going back. After that we didnt have issues with solid/table foods any longer, just with typical toddler pickyness . Just a suggestion if you dont think there's another issue behind it.

I would contact Early Intervention. They help with eating issues. The daughter of a coworker of mine had issues eating something to do with her tounge and the Early Intervention people helped them with the issue.

I do agree with the previous post regarding cold turkey. A kid won't starve himself. It won't hurt them to not eat for a day, heck maybe even two but I highly doubt that by the second day, he wouldn't try to eat something.

Now that being said, if he hasn't eaten anything in a few days, I might lean toward there is something medically wrong and would have him checked out.

Thanks for responding. Yes he will drink pediasure. He is not extremely underweight but he is quite skinny. We are giving him both the pediasure and vitamins but he his also not a very big eater. Has his good days and bad days. Thanks again.

Thanks for the suggestion. I can see if my daughter wants to try this. Once again not sure if there is medical issues behind this. I forgot to put in my original that he did start eating regular food about a year ago and was doing fine for a short time then started not wanting this. He did a lot of gagging and throwing up when we would give him the food so we stopped. But,hey, maybe time to try again. Thanks again.

Thanks, I will look into this. Anything to look into that might help is a blessing. Thanks again.

Thanks for the info. We are going to see if we can try this for a day or two.

You really should talk to your child's pediatirician about this. If you hadn't mentioned then fact that he has been suspected of having an Autism spectrum disorder at one point in time I would be more inclined to say to try to go cold turkey and that its just toddler stubbornness etc but there are a lot of symptoms of Autism that can also be symptoms of a sensrory processing disorder. What kind of symptoms did he have that made them suspect autism?

One of my sons has sensory processing problems and some mild texture aversions to food but overall is a good eater but there are some kids with SPD that have extreme problems with texture and taste aversions. My son's OT reccomended the book "Food Chaining" as a resource on expanding what a picky eater will eat.

If you do decide to go cold turkey, please be cautious. Yes it is absolutely true that a typical kid will not starve themselves but a child with a true texture aversion or feeding problem will refuse food to the point of making themselves quite sick.

Good luck and please contact your child's doctor. Depending on how close your child is to the age of 3 you could also contact your state's early intervention program for an evaluation but services thru EI stop at 3 when the school district takes over.

I was hoping you would see this Jenn because I knew that you would have some better suggestions for this lady.

Thanks Heather So many people, even doctors, don't know that much about SPD, and I am really just learning about it myself. I hope the original poster can get in touch with the proper proffesionals to help them out. My DS2 doesn't eat meat but that is really the only food issue he has, but I know food issues can be much more severe with some sensory kids.

OMG you just described my 1 1/2 yr old! The only difference is he wont even eat the baby food by himself, only if we give it to him (he hates getting food on his hands and/or face) which always happens when he feeds himself. He WILL eat the junk food just like you described. My doctor wanted him to go to occupational therapy but i havent taken him yet in hopes that we can work through it. My son even gags and spits out food like you described. I finally started making home made soup and adding in carrots,zuccini, or squash because they get really soft and i can mash them in. I use a box of chicken stock and a packet of Knorr soup mix. You can find these at walmart or mexican markets (the only place i have found them). Its a little salty but at least i can hide/mash in the veggies and its better then chips or french fries. I usually had in a little onion too. Good luck. Hopefully our eaters will get less picky soon.

I do not know a whole loty about autism but when my DD was younger she went through early intervention for developmental delays. They thought she may have some sensory issues as well. Luckily today at 26 months she seems fine. I do think that if your grandson had sensory issues that he would not eat the junk food. My guess is that he is being a typical picky eating 2 year old. I also say try cold turkey for a few days but maybe try the typical things that kids love such as mac and cheese, hot dogs or nuggets. My DD would never touch a lot of the stuff that we eat. Therefore we keep a lot of speghetti O's and soup etc. Some days she barely eats...then again she is a picky 2 year old. Other days she will only eat the ketchup on her plate. I don't worry because she is healthy and right where she needs to be. If cold turkey isn't working and you see that he just won't eat then try the things that you know he will eat. Eating pancakes, waffles, and cereal just might be what he does for a while. When I was little I was so picky so my pediatrician told my mom to go to McDonald's and stock up on cheeseburgers and freeze them. I ate them every day. Eventually I grew out of it. I would have the autism looked into again but otherwise take the babyfood away. A 2 1/2 year old does not need to be eating baby food. Good luck!!

I'm glad I ran across this particular thread. I have been worrying myself sick because my DD is 22 months and she only eats baby food. I buy the stage 3 to get her to get familiar with different textures etc, but one of her therapist suggested that she may have some sensory issues which I tend to agree just by the way she responds to certain textures such as the feel of grass, concrete, soft furry toys etc. She is very cautious before touching things as if she is not sure what it will feel like. But when it comes to food, she will not even eat mashed potatoes, when I put them in her mouth she spit it right out. I have pureed some sweet potatoes and she ate some of that but not as much. I am concerned because I do not want my baby to be 2 and still eating jar baby foods. She is part of an early intervention program and has been since she was 9 months. But we have her getting OT, PT, and she does speech therapy all the services she gets are once a week. At this age, I am more concerned with her feeding and her lack of speech...but she does understand a lot of things. I have been trying to find books, and any information I can so that I can do more to help her thrive and develop. I dont know if she is being stubborn or not, but I dont want to force something and later find out it was stubborness because I would feel, awful. Oh I forgot to mention that she wont bother with sippy cups...I have at least 7 different sippy cups that I have tried but if its not a bottle she doesnt want it. Its usually a 2 person task to even try practicing the sippy cup with her because she does not like the nipples in her mouth and she cries to the high heavens when we give it to her....I just want some help and answers....Sorry for the long ramble but I am just one overly concerned mom and only want the best for her and this thread just kinda hit home for me.