Need to ask a question...No flames please

[Murphy101]

I haven't read beyond the first post -- but as a fellow diabetic in compliance -- any pediatrician finding this info out along with bad A1C levels will report that mom to CPS. Doctors are more stricter with children than adults. That is outrageous, to say the least. :glare:

 

While I agree with the sentiment, I know drs here wouldn't get too worked up unless the kid was denied medical care or not being given any food. They see it often enough to Not become outraged any longer. I think many drs are giving up on changing how their patients eat. They literally see kid after kid after kid all day long from homes where the family just can't or won't grasp how important changing how and what they eat is vital.

Edited December 11, 2010 by Martha

[Cinder]

So this concept of a child eating only a hand-full of unhealthy foods is foreign to me. Do you all have kids like this? What is the reason they eat only certain (and mostly unhealthy foods)? Is it a sensory/texture thing?

 

I had to come back and address your question about sensory issues. We have a nephew with Aspergers who has major sensory issues. When he was a young child his mother had a terrible time trying to keep him fed. He rejected most foods. By the time he was about 12 all he ate were bananas, Gala apples (had to be Gala), pbj, and hot dogs. Seriously. On occasion he'd eat cream cheese on Ritz or yogurt. That was it. Sil was so glad he was eating regularly that she did make a point of buying and giving him these foods.

 

Just wanted you to know there really are kids like that out there.

 

Cinder

Edited December 11, 2010 by Cinder
grammar

[Catwoman]

Many people with Type 1 diabetes will find that different foods cause different things to happen to them. SOme people have a hard time finding the right amount to bolus for pizza(fat causes insulin to absorb more slowly) and some have trouble with rice. But, a normal menu and giving their personal correct amount of insulin to cover their carb intake is really what is needed!

Many people never know the differences between the different forms of diabetes. It is a shame that the diseases have such similar names because truly they are completely different diseases.

Thanks for wanting to know more and anytime that you have a question, just ask.

 

Thanks again, Allene! :)

 

Cat

[KidsHappen]

I had one dd who went through a several year period of time in which she only ate white food. Literally white. White bread, white rice, just about any form of potato as long as the skin has been removed, milk, chicken, yogurt, cream cheese, califlower, pasta ala' dente with butter and parmesan only, some cereal, oatmeal, string cheese, etc. She eventually gave up the chicken and went veggie which she still is about seven years later. We eventually discovered that her problem was more with texture than taste. She was a child who knew what she could eat though. If she couldn't eat something she would politely say, "No thank you." If someone pressed her she would say, "No really, it will make me ill." This is a child who if she said, I am going to puke that didn't mean maybe she was going to make some gagging sounds, it meant make a path between her and the nearest sink, toilet or trash recepticle because she was going to spew. Since we knew she had issues we usually fed her before or after events. If it was somewhere where she was expected to dine with others we notified the host of her issues and she politely took the items she could eat. We never made a big deal or it and most people didn't even notice. Her palate has expanded tremendously since then. She is probably my most adventurous eater and is willing to try just about anything at least once. She has even eaten meat when it was served to her by people who didn't remember that she was veggie. I told her that she was going above and beyond in being polite in that case. In spite of her tremendous strides though, she still has some issues mostly in regards to textures or mixing of certain foods or food that she has had bad experiences with.

 

This is just one of my children. I have five more all with their own eccentricities not to mention my hubby and myself who can also be somewhat picky at times. It becomes quite the job to feed a group like this. And for those of you who insist that I should just serve a healthy meal and make them all eat it, talk to me again after you have sat through a few meals of more than one person throwing up or refusing to eat at all. Food is not an item I wish to engage in battle over nor do I believe that it is a healthy to do so either.

[mazakaal]

I've known kids like this and it's usually due to a lazieness on the parents part...they simply don't want to argue with the kid or hear their kid whine...forget any push of parental authority, teaching good eating habits, and teaching courtesy of eating what is served. It annoys me and I have to say that that is NOT something I would cater to. If it were a food allergy issue, that would be different. This obviously is not the case. If her child is allowed to get away with being that picky, then she should bring their food. What if 50% of the people had kids that behaved like that and they all wanted accommodating? You just can't do it. Tough Love on this one, honey.

:iagree:

 

I have fairly picky eaters, but I work really hard to expose them to lots of different things and encourage them to try something before deciding they don't like it. If I were really lazy, I could totally see some of my kids becoming like this woman's kids. But there was no way I was going to let that happen. There's nothing you can do about it, though. Just let her bring McD's or whatever for her kids.

[Peela]

This sounds like a GAPS kid.

 

Have you ever heard of GAPS? It's started with the SCD diet but expanded to cover more than Autism. Food pickiness is a clear sign of a GAPS kid. I recently went to the WAPF Wise Traditions conference and there I met Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride. She gave a series of 3 talks regarding GAPS - Gut and Psychology Syndrome http://www.gapsdiet.com/. http://www.examiner.com/nutrition-in-philadelphia/dr-campbell-mcbride-explains-mind-body-belly-connection-at-nutrition-conference

 

Dr. Campbell-Mcbride is a neurologist who also has a post graduate degree in nutrition. She is healing children with this condition in her clinic, but it takes about 2 years and lots of energy from the parents. Many tried Gluten Free/Casein Free, but she explains that it's not enough. These kids (and parents) need to remove all grains, sugars and starches for a time to heal the gut, and then can slowly reintroduce those foods (unprocessed versions) over time.

 

Many parents are at their wits end and don't even realize there is a way to stop the food pickiness and battles so they don't bother, ESPECIALLY not in public. It is so much easier to not have that battle in front of others. It can be so embarrassing to try to get a GAPS kid to eat something they are picky about, so it is easier to just give them something to keep them happy. Yes it's crap, yes the kid shouldn't have it, but the party is not the time or the place for this battle. And for GAPS kids, what's the point of the battle when they usually don't change unless they can heal?

 

What Dr. C-M taught us was so eye opening - kids that are picky are stuck in a cycle of only eating mainly carbs and sugar based foods that the bad bacteria and yeasts in their gut thrive off of. They don't realize it but by feeding these bacteria and yeasts it is continuing to cause them trouble. They are very similar to drug addicts (she notes that many drug addicts were probably GAPS kids) who can't get enough of the stuff that is bad for them, and they shun good stuff(food).

 

There is a parental element, but these kids are so addicted to crap (I have a kid like this) and when you pair it with food allergies, it ends up with only a few foods they will eat. Not can eat but will eat.

 

I met several people at the conference who were on GAPS for their kids, so the whole family was on it, or for themselves. It was amazing to hear of the slow but steady healing that was going on all over the country once families changed to a GAPS diet. One woman I met had colitis but was healed, another had Crohn's. A woman told us about her husband who had mental fog that disappeared after 9 months. Others talked about ADD, ADHD, and Autism symptoms that were disappearing, including the pickiness. In fact many talked about how their formally junk food addicted children would no longer eat any of it because they had healed and realized how sick just a little of it made them.

 

We have begun the battle here to heal, and let me tell you it is a battle. Not full GAPS yet or even Intro, but I started with chicken stock yesterday after we have been slowly removing lots of the bad stuff.

 

All I wanted was for my ds7 to eat/drink 1/3 cup of chicken stock. It took 2 hours. He spit, he said he was going to vomit numerous times, but in the end he drank it with lemon and through a straw and got his reward of Wellshire turkey sticks - one bite after each spoonful or sip.

 

Maybe, separately from the lunch/party - you can mention that someone you know has a child who is similarly picky and is beginning the healing process, because there is a way to heal. It's a hard diet to do, but so worth it (from what I've been told). I would be glad to share what I know. There are two yahoo groups dedicated to GAPS - GAPSdiet and GAPShelp. There is a homeschooler who has written a blog but I can't find it now, I'll have to ask my friend who I hung out with at the conference.

 

I have read about this before- this is really good information- thanks.

 

I dont understand why so many of our kids are like this (I am pretty sure it is a recent thing along with envionmental illnesses, allergies, autism, ADHD etc) but the fact is, they are, and I dont believe it is anyone's fault. I have one fussy kid with a limited diet (sounds similar to the above- addicted to sugars and grains- however he will eat raw vegetables and fruit), a husband the same who is now gluten intolerant and with IBS, and a dd who has always had issues with sugar even though she is not diabetic. Sugar can give her stomach cramps and nausea- and in the last year, exzema. Dh and dd are learning to be more in tune with their bodies and learn what they can eat and what they cant. Ds is still in the addictive food pattern (which is also in dh very strongly).

 

I have found that feeding junk food tends to lessen the willingness to eat a wider range of food. Once the taste buds know bland predictable chicken nuggets and hamburgers and chips- it seems to be much more difficult for them to try other things. However i am fortunate in that my kids will all eat raw vegetables and fruit so I just add salads to meals and ...well, like others, I try not to cook everyone a different meal, but its so hard to find things that everyoen can eat so it is a challenge.

 

In the OP's case...I wouldnt know of the mother was being neglectful, whether she is lazy all the time, or whether she is just at her wits end and wants her kids to eat something. I would not consider it my business. I woudl prefer she feed her kids McDonalds before or after the event, but what to do.

[unsinkable]

My kids are younger, but that mom would have been me a few years ago. I could name a list of foods the girls would eat of about under 10 foods, and only 2 or 3 that would be considered a main dish. The reason is not discipline but sensory and had been part of their nature since birth. They had feeding problems from the moment solids were introduced. They didn't eat processed foods because they had grown accustomed to it, but rather because it was the only things they would accept from day 1. My son never ate fast food type foods as a toddler, it just wasn't our diet. It became our diet after the girls would not eat anything we ever had for dinner. At first they tried it, but they couldn't swallow it or keep it down and everyone was tired of vomit. After they weaned, they pretty much lived on pediasure alone for a while. I thank God- and I mean it- that they would eat what other parents snub their noses at, because it meant no feeding tube. The reason kids with texture problems gravitate towards processed foods, is that you know what you are getting. Each bite is the same texture, color, taste, etc. My girls would eat the carrots and green beans in the gerber graduates jar, for instance, but not ones we made and cut up at home. We learned that it was because I could not replicate the uniform taste and texture. After vomiting so much when we tried, eventually, they quit eating the baby food ones too because I think they were scared of throwing up and had been turned off by our attempts to convert them to real food. After a lot of therapy, they eat mostly normally now, but there are still things that will make them vomit if they put them in their mouths. I agree- they would have died before eating something off their list at the time. We didn't wait it out and see either- when the kid is vomiting bile and can't sit up, and is completely listless, and you have to refeed her slowly with an electrolyte solution, which makes her vomit for several more hours, you eventually just give her the chicken nuggets.

 

I probably would have brought them McDonald's too at the time because their other option would have been a peanut butter sandwich which may have created an allergy problem for some other kid. She may not see it as a sensory issue but I doubt his picky behavior started at 8 and she may just not feel like fighting about it anymore. I think I would have quit fighting about it too if my kids were 8 and 12 and still so picky. She may think he will outgrow it and that there's nothing she can do. I had a lot of people tell me not to worry about my girls and they would out grow it. I'm sure if we hadn't pursued aggressive therapy that they would still only be eating about 2-3 main dishes.

 

:grouphug: I am sorry for all your struggles! Thanks for sharing your story! :grouphug:

[RegularMom]

My 7yo picky eater went through a brief stage like this when she was a toddler. She would only eat white foods. Milk, rice, potatoes, cauliflower, white cheeses, pasta, chicken, and the only sweet she would consider was vanilla ice cream. I worried about it for a while, and watched her carefully, because I'd read a bit about how strict food color preferences could be a sign of some forms of autism, and because she'd also had an MRI to check for macro-encephaly issues. Her head circumference has always been 99th percentile since before she was born.

 

But she outgrew it eventually. I started her on colorful foods in tiny, tiny increments. And now she eats a nice, colorful, healthy diet. I remember the day she actually ate a snack item that was chocolate, and it was such an odd mixed feeling: Oh, thank goodness, she likes something that's not white... but oh no, now she likes candy! Her head circumference is still way up there, but she's always met or exceeded her milestones, and she's very very bright. It was a watchful, worrisome time for us, though, in those months.

 

We know lots of families in which the children have food issues. It's gotten to the point where I no longer host events that involve food, because I just can't keep it straight, who can have what. I just tell people to bring their own snacks when they come to play. At most, I'll put out some fruit and a bag of pretzels, but I won't bake anymore for people. It's a lot of effort for me to bake from scratch only to hear that half the guests won't be eating it.

[CAMom]

I'm guilty of only reading through page 7 but I'm off to a debate tournament this morning and don't have time to read the rest right now.;)

 

This is not directed at any person or post in particular. It's just some thoughts swirling that have been sparked by so many discussions.

 

I hate that every gathering revolves around food!:) I have one kid with peanut/tree nut allergy. He wasn't diagnosed until he was 4. When I first gave him peanut butter at age 18 months or so, he screamed. From then on, he would literally cry if he even saw the jar come out of the cupboard. I thought he just had a real aversion to peanuts. It was only when he was able to more clearly communicate that I started wondering about allergy and had him tested.

 

Food events are now difficult for us. Everyone tries to give him food and there's always something yummy hanging around and lots of chance of cross contamination when you're eating around a bunch of other messy kids.;) Yes, we always bring our own food but still have to be hyper vigilant for now.

 

My 18 year old has always been "picky" about not eating anything with tomatoes, tomato sauce, etc. Another difficulty when eating with others. I thought he was just being difficult until we traced his severe stomach pain to tomatoes (incidentally, anything with caffeine in it does the same thing to him). His stomach burns like nothing else when he has these things. Can you imagine? Nearly every event you go to when you have teens...what is served? Pizza! He usually manages one piece and then chases it with Tums.

 

I'm positive that I've been looked at by others as catering to my kids' pickiness or food quirkiness. Maybe sometimes I have. But there is so much pressure around food events for everyone to be polite and happy and gobble up everything offered to them as if it was the best thing they ever tasted.

 

For some families, they may have a history of food issues and they are trying not to make food a battle. It's not always as simple as it should be.;)