When You Worry That it Won’t Work: Lessons from Responsive Tube Weaning (Guest Post 2)

This is the second part of our series around using Responsive Feeding Therapy when the stakes are the highest.  Our first guest post from Heidi Moreland from Thrive by Spectrum Pediatrics can be found here. When You Worry That It Won’t Work Elisabeth Kraus, MiT; Becky Keifer, MA-SLP, CCC; Lisa Grentz, RD Growing Independent Eaters I’ll never forget that phone call.   I was speaking with a mom who had spent the last years trying to be everything, and everyONE, that her little girl needed. A dietitian herself, she wept as she told me that she never imagined that her child would struggle to eat – struggle badly enough to require tube feeding in order to grow, in order to stay alive. And here they were, years into their journey, her daughter eating and drinking nothing by mouth, all while she tried to function as dietitian, nurse, doctor, feeding therapist, house cleaner, chauffeur, cook, and everything else that you can possibly imagine. Nothing, she told me, was helping her daughter learn how to eat, and she was exhausted – tired from the years of trying to do it all.  “I just want the chance to be a mom,” she said. “I’m don’t think I can keep doing it all.” I’m not sure if she knew, but I sat on the other end of that phone call, crying myself as I recognized so deeply the pain she felt. She wanted her baby to be okay. She just wanted her baby to eat, not just because she had to, but because she experienced the wonder of family mealtimes and the food...

“What do I say when…” Extreme Picky Eating Edition

A big challenge that trips parents up daily is, as one mom put it, “Knowing what to say in the moment.” Sitting across from a child,  parents often feel pulled into those familiar, but counterproductive patterns: the negotiating, bribing, nutrition lectures, sticker charts, or threats around video game time. When the old patterns haven’t worked, but parents aren’t quite sure what to say, we offer some suggestions that: reduce conflict, build relationships, support appetite (anxiety and conflict can kill appetite and curiosity) and make mealtimes more enjoyable for everyone. These “scripts” can be used flexibly and adapted for different situations. We even recommend parents practice some of the phrases. Here are a few that we include in the book with the reasoning behind them. For more thorough discussion of how to transition to responsive feeding and more script examples, check out Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. One caveat: If you say something like, “We won’t make you try foods anymore,” be sure you are ready to mean it. This is tricky stuff. Learn as much as you can before you jump in, learn about common obstacles and ideas on how to approach them, know what to expect, consider online support (we love the private Mealtime Hostage group) or get help from a responsive feeding professional. These are just suggestions; adapt and find the words that work for you and your child (be responsive). Acknowledge your child’s feelings. Anxiety often plays a big part in extreme picky eating. If it helps your child, begin by slowing down and acknowledging his feelings. “I’m sorry you’re upset about X.” “I...

The Trauma Trap: Impact on Families and Feeding

Trauma: • an injury (such as a wound) to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent • a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury • an emotional upset   We don’t usually use the word trauma when discussing feeding disorders, but we should.   Children who have experienced significant emotional stress during feeding because of GI discomfort, poor oral control, cardio-respiratory issues, or forced feeding are at risk for disordered behavioral responses around feeding for many months (or years) to come. Infants born prematurely exhibit feeding problems due to neurological and respiratory immaturity and the myriad of issues that can arise while in the NICU. These challenges follow them out of the NICU and into the home, and while being able to go home is a milestone in and of itself, there are many more milestones to overcome when it comes to feeding. “During development, the cognitive, motor, emotional and ‘state’-regulating areas of the brain organize in response to experiences. And in each of the diverse brain systems which mediate specific functions, some element of previous experience is stored.” (Perry, 1999) The infant’s early experiences (good or bad) and their responses during feeding down the road are inevitably linked. Take Nash*, an 18 month old (corrected age) who struggles to get through a meal without gagging and vomiting. Born at 30 weeks gestation, he relied on a naso-gastric (NG) tube for nutrition for 6 months, which involved the trauma of reinsertion when the tube had to be changed as well as the chronic discomfort inherent in the placement of a...

My Child Choked and Won’t Eat! Help!

We recently got a question from a mother whose daughter had a choking episode and is refusing to eat. “Our six year old had a choking episode two weeks ago, but the food popped out pretty quickly. She is now only drinking Pediasure. Our pediatrician is not concerned since she is drinking Pediasure (“Total nutrition” he said!), but our daughter is panicked about choking again and seems to be getting worse. We called the local eating disorder treatment center, and they can see her- in three months! We don’t know what to do!” (Assuming her weight is stable or minimal decline, and that her development and eating were typical before the aversive event, and assuming the pediatrician has ruled out any reason behind the choking event…) A few general thoughts for this mom and others with the same concern: You are right not to wait three months! Most children in this situation don’t need inpatient or intensive Eating Disorder treatment, but things can get worse quickly. This is not an uncommon event, but scary all around. EARLY support leads to best the outcome. Your doctor isn’t too worried, but you are seeing a dramatic difference and your gut says you need help. The phobia can become more entrenched the longer it goes on. (See case study below we wrote for doctors on Medscape for more. Part of why we are sharing this is for parents to have it to show to the child’s doctor if they need help finding resources, or having concerns taken seriously.) This is a traumatic event, and can take time to heal, but you should see steady progress with support. Find a therapist...

A Journey to Healing and Growth: One Mother’s Telling

Bethany’s Journal: Amari’s Journey of Healing   Amari, age two, was adopted at age 14 months from Ethiopia and initially had some hoarding behaviors. After being home for about a year, her eating changed dramatically, with no identifiable cause. While underlying medical causes were being evaluated, Bethany needed help. The following are excerpts from Bethany’s notes and emails on the first few months during the transition from an anxious/pressured feeding relationship to one focused on routine, avoiding pressure, and healing anxiety. This post is largely excerpted from Katja’s first book Love Me, Feed Me,  focused on adoptive and fostering families. Bethany used responsive, trust-based philosophies expanded upon in the STEPS+ approach in our book, Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. This post is for informational purposes, and not meant to replace care of the individual child.   February 10, day one: A few months ago, she started to get pickier and ate less and less, eventually eating about five bites at each meal and down to two cups of milk a day and gaining nothing. She would pocket and take an hour to finish those bites. In one year home, she grew four inches and gained only nine ounces . . . We saw a nutritionist who told us how to sneak calories into her food. We saw a speech pathologist who determined that the issue was “psych” and barely glanced at her. In the last week, Amari has gotten SO much worse. She hardly drinks 1 and a half cups of milk/day, drinks nothing else, and takes about three bites at meals. I can force feed her more, but she gags constantly and...

Trust Your Turtle: Patience with Picky Eating Progress

Here’s a story I read recently and shared with a client when she asked, “How can I get my daughter to accept new foods on her plate once she’s feeling good about her safe foods? Can’t I just put them on her plate?”   A woman was with her college geology class on a field trip by a river. She noticed a turtle up the river bank near a road and worried that the turtle would get hit by a car. So, she carried the turtle back down the hill and put it in the water. Afterwards, the professor came to her and said, “That turtle has probably spent weeks crawling up the hill to lay her eggs in the muddy slope and now she will have to start all over again.” The moral was, “Ask the turtle first.” (Gloria Steinem from her book, My Life on the Road) (See below our clarification of “ask”. Most children won’t want to be verbally queried along the way. Our moral is to be responsive to your turtle.)    What does this have to do with feeding? Well, many children with extreme picky eating have anxiety around foods, and often have struggled for years. As parents, and even professionals, we hope for and want improvements NOW, or in say,  six weeks. But progress is generally slow, slow, slow, and it might not look like what we think of as “progress” (eating new foods). Sometimes when we miss early signs of progress (less anxiety, eating more safe foods, curious about foods but not yet tasting or eating them...) it is easy to want to rush the process, to pick up our little turtles and carry...

Pin It on Pinterest