Friday, February 20, 2009
Last week in my blog, I admitted that I had committed all of the GERD parenting sin. Please understand that the GERD Parenting Sins are a humorous look at the real lives of real parents doing their best every day and night to care for a baby or toddler with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease or GERD. We...
my son ian is 5 and is still a very carefull eatter. when he was 2 years old and had his first endoscopy, i had the dr take blood and test for food allergies. he was not reacting in the classic IgE way but he had alot of IgG antibodies for wheat and soy. we eliminated those and did a food diary to find dairy and corn also bothered him. avoiding these foods helped tremendously. now that he is older he is very selective and self limits on certain foods. but he still isn't able to really communicate very well how he feels. he decided he doesn't want to drink rice milk anymore and we are wondering why but he won't or can't really say why.
my big problem now with him and food is that he will not try new foods or new presentations of safe foods. he also has a very short list of things he will eat in his lunchbox at school. i think he has some sensory preferences, too. he prefers hot food and that doesn't translate well to the lunchbox and thermos. (so if anyone has a super thermos that keeps things piping hot, i would love to know about it.) i have brought him hot food in a thermos at lunch time and he loved it. he had a great day because he had food in his belly. my friends think i should keep sending cold stuff and he will "have to eat it" and "learn". my son will skip lunch entirely if it's not acceptable.
he is on the small side and just lost 2 lbs from a stomach virus so i really want to get food into him as much as possible.
reflux is really complicated and no one really gets what it's like.
Hello Cathy,
Ian sounds just like my daughter Rebecca when she was five years old. It is wonderful that you and the doctor were able to isolate some food allergens/triggers for the reflux symtoms. For my daughter, it was lactose.
Oh I remember all of those days I brought lunch to my daughter at school or accompanied her at lunch to help her actually eat something. I know the school staff thought that I was terribly overprotective. In fact, being overprotective is GERD Parenting Sin#3 and the subject of a future blog! I completely understand the dilemma of deciding between accomodating the need to eat with teaching a new skill (or adding a new food/food group). I found that Rebecca had a much better day when she ate at school too.
It really was a long process for her to learn to eat and expand her diet. First, I think it is very important to talk with the doctor about the medical treatment plan. My daughter needed a lot of acid suppression medication to even approach food. A five year old might not be able to fully verbalize what hurts and where but he can begin to participate in a dialogue about it. My daughter drank only water and watered down apple juice for a long time. She received vital nutrients via vitamins. Not the best approach but better than the typical white diet menu: chicken, mashed potatoes and rice! It is maddening when an illness or other random event causes a careful eater to omit a food from the already short safe list. Somehow we always added a new food or drink...
My daughter eventually expanded her food choices through a combination of time and exposure. She didn't have to eat the food but she did help make it and it landed on her plate most nights. She was greatly influenced by what the other children were eating and I took her to the food store to pick up some foods she had seen at the lunch table.
I discuss feeding your child and going to school in several previous blogs so you might want to search on this site for more information.
In the meantime, I would heat up something delicious and show up at school. Your son will have a good hot meal and you will be the world famous "Ian's Mom" able to open those tricky juice pouches and fruit cup containers. My kids encouraged me to get a cafeteria job but I wasn't quite ready to go that far!
Jan Gambino
The Reflux Mom
hi jan,
lol! on working in the school cafe! thank you so much for your encouraging words. i'll check out your posts on school. and can't wait to hear about being over protective...i definitely get that vibe from my son's school.
on the food front, we keep making what we like and offering it to ian. and i keep telling him if it's on our table it's safe for him. i figure someday he will try it.
we are doing vitamins too. i found chewable calcium for him and also powdered calcium to add to things i bake. and ketchup has been a great vehicle for his everyday vitamin. i break a capsule open and stir it up and he eats it with his tots or burgers.
ian is also on alot of acid suppression but our gi is pushing for us to taper down this spring. i have my doubts.
thanks again!
Hello again,
The rule in my house is this: you get to chose what you eat for breakfast and lunch (from healthy options such as yogurt, cereal, toast, sandwich, soup), I get to chose the dinner menu. I always had different options for the refluxers. If I was making pasta and meatballs, I would set aside some pasta and meat without the sauce. this way, my refluxers could eat some or all of it. If we had tacos, I made some of the meat plain, some with seasoning. There was usually something from the "sides" that could be placed on the tortilla. If not, that was ok too.That one kernel of corn or piece of lettuce was also on the plate but it didn't have to be eaten.
Happy Careful Eating!
Jan
P.S. If you opt to bring Ian hot food or work in the cafeteria, I recommend ear plugs. My ears used to ring after a 30 minute lunch!