Feeding Therapy Day 1

We went to our first feeding therapy yesterday. The therapist told me she thinks Marshall's eating problems are behavioral and possibly due to reflux but we're not sure on that yet. She says, somewhere along the lines, food was scary to him and he didn't like to eat. He was always difficult to nurse and then bottle feed when he weaned himself.

So we started with a baby spoon dipped in food and he has to open big. She let him play with a toy while he did this. So, for example, he played with a Mr. Potato Head set that had a couple of baby potatoes and a couple of carrots with all different stuff you can put on them. Every time he successfully let a spoon go in his mouth, he got another piece to put on the Potato Head. When he started, he actually began with this race track that runs two cars down simultaneously. When she switched food, she switched toys. She gave him some berry applesauce, which normally he would absolutely REFUSE to eat. She started with the spoon dipped in the applesauce and had him open big. She did about 10 or so of those before she handed it to him and had him dip and feed himself. Then she tried again and gave him actual spoon fulls of the stuff. He ate it without a complaint. She and I both think it's because he was so distracted. She gave him vanilla pudding which he grabbed and ate himself. No need to tell him twice. Apparently yesterday was "I love vanilla pudding" day. Today will most likely be different because that's how Marshall is. With this routine, he even let her put Ravioli sauce in his mouth and it had some chunks on it. She was amazed!! She said she thinks Marshall's eating problem is behavioral. It's not our fault. We don't know when or why it happened. Perhaps it has something to do with us trying to feed him a lot when he would wake up all night long. Maybe it really is silent reflux and it's never been properly treated. It's hard to know.