
Chenique - posted on 05/02/2011 ( 14 moms have responded )
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I know someone asked this question already but my situation is a little different from theirs and so needed advice thats tweeked a little...My child with possible autism is 3 yrs old and will be 4 in Nov 2011. He has oral aversion to food, but constantly places non-food items in his mouth and chews on them. He is still on the bottle, will only take it after i cut the tip off to an exact point to where he prefers it and chews the rest of the nipple down to the point where i have to replace them every 3 weeks or so. He has failure to thrive as his diagnosis since he is very much underweight because his metabolism is sped up from a lung defect so he drinks 1.5 calorie kids boost for the majority of his caloric intake and has just begun eating babyfood off a spoon at school about a month ago. My question is how do I take him off the bottle? Everytime i try he just screams and then shuts down and wont take anything at all and since he is already underweight i cant afford to let him starve hisself. In the past there was a time we had to go the the emergency room because he wouldnt eat anything for a day and a half and i FINALLY realized it was because the bottle i was giving him had ridges on it and even though it was a bottle he still felt it was too different. How do I do this? And if its not the right time when is?
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Denise - posted on 05/02/2011
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autistic children need sameness and if it is a comfort to the child continue with the bottle , continue the spoon feeds and let him play with a sippy cup just empty to expose the child to the different feel of it , i would certainly take him to ped gastroenterologist , speech therapist and ot for assisting the child with desensitizing.
User - posted on 05/02/2011
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Hi Chenique,
I would not focus on taking him off the bottle until he has established the ability to take in his nutritional needs.
So, to attempt to get more food into him orally, a fun game for some kids is to "paint with pudding" (or yogurt, jam, pureed foods, baby foods..whatever the case) You give them the food, and paint pictures with it on a tray. Their fingers get goopy, and they might accidentally taste some of their paint...so, then in a very non-threatening manner, different foods and their textures are introduced. You never let the child see you put the food on the tray (that in itself can make them object to the game)...and you NEVER stress if they don't want to do it...you just do it, play withe the dolls doing it...but, don't make a big deal! Hopefully, this will allow for the gentle introduce of foods.
Good luck to you and your son.
Sheila
Jane - posted on 05/02/2011
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I would suspect that now is not the time. He will let you know when the time is by either abandoning the bottle or finally accepting something else.
Have they ever figured out why he is not growing normally? Does he have cystic fibrosis?
Chenique - posted on 05/03/2011
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he was in therapy when he was 2 and was too much for him at that time sensory-wise so took him out, but since he has been doing well in ppcd preschool i had the referral put in and he is back on the waiting list for ST, OT, ABA, and PT. he already has a gastroenterologist he has been seeing since birth.thanks for the advice guys i will try some of this stuff!