Okay, so here is the deal. I want to start doing a ‘thing’ where I’ll talk about something and you can all chime in with as much advice as you like. Normally mothers get annoyed about unsolicited advice, but this time, I’m asking for help.
Also, I will be about in the comments, so if you want to ask something and have people chime in, even if it’s just to say ‘my kid did that too and grew out of it’ then please, do so. We’ve got a community built here, we may as well utilise it.
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Now, on to my issue:
Isaac, he doesn’t swallow food. I feed him and he chews the food, but doesn’t swallow, just spits it out again once it’s chewed.
If I give him pureed or mashed food, he might swallow a mouthful maybe, before he realises that I’ve deposited it in his mouth, but mostly, he’ll spit it into his hand and try to feed it to me. Failing that, he’ll just drop it. He’s not a fan of spoon food.
If I feed him finger food, which is his preference, he chews it and then spits it out without swallowing. I can give him half an apple and come back and the apple will be gone, but really, the apple is sitting in a giant circle of chewed pieces around him.
Peas, well, he’ll eat a few peas, before chewing and spitting the rest. The same for most of his other vegetables. Actually, considering I don’t count the peas, he is probably just chewing and spitting all of them. I haven’t seen any come out the other end.
He will eat soft fruit: cantaloupe, watermelon, pears, nectarines. He won’t eat the skin of nectarines or pears and once he gets near the skin he starts spitting. If I peel them first, he still mostly spits the food out.
He will drink milk or water from a bottle or a sippy cup. He is down to 1-2 breastfeeds a day and as of right now, I haven’t breastfed him for 15 hours and I’m not likely to feed him again for another 12 or so hours.
He doesn’t appear to be losing weight, but I don’t have any scales here to check if he is gaining weight either.
He is drinking a full bottle at bedtime and naptime, but I know he is hungry when I give him solid food to eat, so it’s not a hunger issue that I can see.
Oh and he is just over 12 months old.
My questions:
Does anyone else’s child do this?
Does anyone have any good ideas that I can try, to get him to start swallowing the food?
And, to my readers with experience in Ehlers Danlos Syndrome – do you think this could be EDS related? We don’t have another specialist Paeds appointment for another five months, but if he continues to not swallow, I’m prepared to push for an earlier appointment.
Finally: Does anyone else have any questions they want answers to about kids and food? If so, leave them in the comments section. Commenters, read the comments, someone might be dealing with your exact same issue. This might work really well, or it might flop. Frankly, if it helps me get Isaac actually swallowing solid food, then I don’t care.
Kids! Sheesh, but they’re stressful.
