This time last year it was impossible to get Nick to eat ANY table food. He would not even let you get near him with anything that he deemed "No Go"; which was basically everything. I was at the end of my rope, and since doctors could not give us any advice, I turned to our speech therapist.
Nick never explored anything with his mouth as a baby. Turns out that this is a necessary milestone when it comes to eating. He was also opposed to messing around with food with his hands; which is also a necessary evil when it comes to eating. At the same time babies are making a mess with their food, they are developing their mouth for the task of chewing. Also, Nick did not give two craps for what we were eating. In other words, along with not developing the skills needed for chewing things with texture, he also did not care that he was eating different food than we were. ALL these things combined,plus his autism-made it very difficult for us to introduce new foods. We spent the early part of this year with just ONE piece of cereal. After weeks of "playing" with it,he finally put it in his mouth and ate it! In my mind, we had just climbed Mt. Everest.
It seems impossible to think that less than a year later, babyfood is a thing of the past. Nick's faves are now things like waffles,pancakes, hot-dogs, Mac-n-cheese, and fruit cups. Last night he ate roast beef-and enjoyed it. We still face lots of issues regarding food-it takes him forever to chew anything; and new foods can be a challenge to get him to try, but he DOES it. YAY Nicholas! Way to go my sweet "bubby".
