Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Getting Harrison to eat

isn't he a cutie

Well I've been reading a lot latley on things we can do to increase Harrisons odds of recovery
..one is his diet..the only problem... kids on the spectrum are sensitive eaters....like picky eaters times 10.. sometimes they have issues with color or texture or smell being overwhelming- he only eats about 8 things. So taking him off gluten and dairy has been a struggle he got dark circles after 3 days and it scared me he was starving himself.. we went off for a solid month.. I saw improvement... but we also started some therapy stuff and scheduling.. so it's hard to tell if stuff works.. or If I'm imagining things. I'm going to take him to the peditrician to have him tested for food intolerances as well as myself... my dad is celiac so I know it's in the genes My son is going to make me the
 skinniest and most patient person ever 
I LOVE HIM!
 So if he does have sensitivities that will be the clencher as to whether I keep up with it. This week I let him have normal food again and he seems ok... 

Gosh this part is Hard not knowing if it's working or not I need the spirit to push me in the right direction. anyways I read a book about a mother who was trying to get her son to eat stuff.. he was also on the spectrum...a few tips I thought I'd share because they worked amazingly well tonight...

make the food interesting put it on an unexpected plate
dipping sauces do wonders
arrange the food in a star shape
feed it to his trains first
feed it to coco greyson and clap for them

The hard part of this therapy is when he has bad behavior instead of punishing or reacting like a normal parent would We have to ignore it. When we make a reaction to what he's doing he goes.. 
oh thats a funny face I guess I'll spill my milk again to get her to do the same thing. Vice versa when he does something good.. we have to almost overreact to it.. but be sincere... kids on the spectrum can tell when you are sincere or not. Good thing his mother is super animated it must be like watching a cartoon for him. HI I"M MOMMY THE TRAIN AND I"M SO PROUD OF YOU FOR EATING POTATOES! YAY DO THE DANCE OF JOY!
  Sooo while it looks like bad parenting it's actually teaching him to repeat the good thing he does and when he has bad behaviors.. theres not a reaction. 
make sense?
totally changing my brain I'm telling you
Not sure how this will work with greyson I might have to parent them totally differently
I'm exhausted thinking about it. Makes me think about mothers I've seen though and now feel awful If I ever judged someone and didn't have the whole story they could've been doing aba therapy as well... and when you see someone ignoring there kids bad behavior you'd think they were just being lazy but for these kids it makes total sense. Thank you my son for opening my world about what other people may be going through and about judging others.

But dinner was lovely
he was so interactive.. clapped showed me his stunning smile
Really guys you need to see this kid smile
It's like you can see his spirit shine through him
And I can feel it inside him
He's a strong one
a fighter

I kept his attention
Greyson helped he clapped as well as coco
It felt like a normal meal I loved just being with my family
then we went to the park.. there is still 3 feet of snow.. but we trudged through stroller and all.. the sun was out and I'm boycotting the worst winter of my life. I'm done

 We've also been working on eye contact
that alone is huge If he can get that .. meaningful relationships are possible 
in his life like getting married ect So I'm pushing the look at my eyes thing really hard.
So while it's tiring and I wonder why it happened still.
In my heart I know he needed an animated mother and a patient father.
I know now why he is here with us. Things are starting to get clearer.
Just praying his speech picks up soon.
He said Greyson for the first time today I almost cried. 
But was more proud of him for getting the s sound
~Bree

1 comment:

  1. Neat, what a special son you have! If only there was one answer to any given problem, fixing it would be so much simpler. I wish you great strength and endurance as you keep looking for answers, you WILL find them! I love your animated personality and I know your kids do too :) I hope spring finds its way to you soon, maybe for your birthday...;)

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