Food Intolerance

This advice comes from various parents. Attempts have been made to adequately cite references. I apologize for any mistakes or omissions.

• Behavior Modification. Food drills (Contributed by Rhonda Miga)

• During a 1:1 sessions, we would have a plate with a new food. The sd would be "Do this." and the therapist would take a small bite. We often had to reinforce just the action of touching the food to his mouth.

  We did this just as if we were teaching a new skill. Therefore, frequent exposure and trials were done. However, we did not make him stay until he was successful. We wanted the experience to be positive.

  We also made some trials successful by giving he same sd "do this." and using foods we knew he would eat. He was reinforced for the success of eating the food. (We even had to do food drills with popcorn...because he would not try it due to shape or texture. That is now a favorite snack.)

• We also would put snack foods into bowls and let them sit around the house.... thinking, if he was hungry he would try them. However, this was not as successful. Often he would dump the bowl in the garbage or toilet. However, I have heard this has been successful for other children.

Other parents have contributed the following:

• Many children don't eat foods because some of the ingredients make them feel bad. If they have no other way to tell you this, they do so by rejecting the foods.

  My son used to sniff foods and would outright reject some of them after sniffing. Inevitably, I would later find out it contained an ingredient that was problematic for him .

  I learned to respect his preferences, even though his diet was very limited. Every time some physician convinced me to try new foods with him, he spiraled downward.

  Just because most of us like having a variety of foods, we should be careful not to impose our own likes onto our children. My son is happy and quite healthy with his limited diet.

• Rhonda adds: this also reminds me of the opposite... some children will only eat what their body is craving... like an addiction.

  We found out (my child) had an intolerance to artificial additives and preservatives and color dyes, and corn syrup...when mixed with a color dye had an explosive effect on him.

  It was not the gluten/caisen we first thought it was. (Did you know that many commercial breads have high frutose corn syrup? This is what my child was reacting to... not the gluten.)

  Diet can be very complicated. Good luck and go with your gut instinct on things.