Weaning an orally aversive three year old...GOALS and STRUCTURE.

I remember the first time I tried feeding puree food to my kid.  She was six months old.  I chose sweet potato puree, bought a high chair, bib, spoons, I was ready and super excited.  Little did I know three years later I would still be in the process of weaning her due to her oral sensitivity.  It is hard acting excited about food when you have had this many refusals, but the truth is I never give up, I am determined to find something she will like.  I have noticed in feeding therapy there is always a goal, example; kiss the spoon 5 times, or lick the bread 3 times, or bite the potato stick...my kid does it and once we get home its like "how do I translate all this into her eating an actual meal?".

My kid's main nutrition still comes from the bottle so I need to wean her first and start building her  taste and oral skills from the ground up.  I can't expect her to eat french fries or hamburger if she does not have the basics down so even though she is three years old, she needs to start mastering pureed foods first.  Once she has that down then we can introduce textured food and so forth.  There is a structure to eating.  If you are going through something similar here are some weaning tips I got from Gina Ford's "The Contended Little Baby Book":

1. Introduce solids after the 11a.m. feeding.
2. Start by offering your baby a teaspoonful of pure rice mixed to a very smooth consistency using either expressed milk, formula, or cool, filtered freshly boiled water.
3. Use a shallow plastic spoon -never a metal one, which can be too sharp or get too hot.
4. Once your baby is established on baby rice at 11a.m. and is tolerating it, give the rice after the 6 p.m. feeding instead.  When he finished the one teaspoonful and shows signs of looking for more food, the amount of solids can be increased, provided he continues to take the required amount of milk at 6pm.
5. Once your baby is happily taking 1-2 teaspoonfuls of baby rice mixed with milk or water after the 6pm feeding a small amount of pear puree can be introduced after the 11am meal.
6. If the baby tolerates the pear puree, transfer it to the 6 p.m. meal.  Mixing the puree with baby rice in the evening will make it more palatable and prevent your baby from being constipated.

As for the types of vegetables to start introducing after rice and pear, Mrs. Ford recommends avoiding stronger tasting ones such as spinach or broccoli, but rather concentrate on root vegetables (such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and turnips).  These contain natural sugars, will taste sweeter and blander, and may prove more palatable to your baby.

My goal this week should be pretty simple.  Decrease on demand bottle feeding to structured meals and offer one teaspoon of baby rice during lunch meal.

Lets see how that goes.

Cake Kisses,

The Sensory Cake Mom