my three year old barely eats anything

• By Crusty_Lugholes
• Posted June 11, 2008 at 12:45 pm
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Hello,

My son, a 23 weeker now 2 years old, also has feeding issues.
He also has an oral aversion and he rejected the bottle very early. (He has a G-tube)
He's had a lot of difficulty with textures too.
It turns out that's pretty common amongst preemies. So he sees a speech therapist and is learning to eat food by mouth and deal with different textures. We're working on getting him over the oral aversion. He has made a lot of improvement. But it's taken time.
You can seek out assistance for free through Early Intervention. Under the 'no child left behind' act all children with developmental difficulties are entitled to early intervention. We have private health insurance but we were still eligible for early intervention for free. They picked up the co-pays for us. But even if you have no insurance, You're still eligible.
Ask a pediatrician for a referral to your local Early Intervention office so that you can go and see a registered speech therapist.
Don't be fooled by the word 'speech' A speech therapist does a whole lot more than just language skills, Ours even did a swallow study with Xray on Mak to make sure he was capable of swallowing his food properly.

Good luck.

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• By mommyinneed
• Posted June 11, 2008 at 9:21 pm
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thanks so much for the advice. My baby (born at 30 weeks) saw an OT for feeding difficulties and I told her about my three year old and she was very concerned, and you know I never thought about the whole texture thing. It definetly makes alot of sense. She said that I should take him to see a gastro doc, a nutritionist and a speech therapist. btw your son is adorable, 23 weeks wow! what a miracle!

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• By Yolonda
• Posted June 11, 2008 at 11:47 pm
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Hello,

My daughter is a former 23 weeker who is now 3 and she has oral aversion and mild sensory integration. She recieves OT and speech. Eating has been very slow going and very frustrating. All I can say is thank God for pediasure because without it I dont know what would do. ALL of her calories, hydration, and nutrition is from pediasure. Eating is just for practice. I can tell you she is eating bigger quantities of food, although still not enough to begin weaning the peadisure, but her menu remains very, very small. My daughter has reflux that is being maintained by Nexium 2x daily and reglan 3x daily and she has been on them since December 07 and I really cant say that I have seen a difference in her eating habits. My daughter doesnt even drink water, I have to add it to pediasure.

French toast,
Beans and Rice,
Mashed potatoes,
pretzels,
Mcdonald's French fries, is what is on the menu.

No fruits or meats. The only veggies she eats are brocoli and peas so far. I boil them until they are super duper soft and mash them in with her potatoes.

We will be seeing a nutrionist later on this month and hopefully they can give us other ways and ideas to get more of the good stuff in her. We also will begin seeing a feeding specialist starting this Monday. I often find myself crying my eyes out because I want my daughter to eat and then I feel guilty about it because how dare I be upset about what she is not doing, when she has beaten so many odds that was stacked up against her at birth.

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• By AKAPrecis
• Posted June 12, 2008 at 9:49 am
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Hi!

I am a mom of a 30 weeker who just turned 1 on 5/23. He isn't growing much either, so I have been trying to mix everything with heavy cream and/or Pediasure. I am trying to make sure that in fattening him I don't cause his cholesterol level to drastically increase. Maybe add some Ensure powder into foods?

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