My mum will probably say but the boy isn't fussy, he never stops eating!
Which is true, but I have noticed over the years that he has an aversion to certain textures and this is very common in children with dyspraxia/sensory processing disorder type traits. The muscle control of the mouth is also an issue for some children which means that they can not co ordinate the mouth for speech. This is known as verbal dyspraxia and it may occur alongside or in isolation of the big muscle groups in development. Speech Therapy is often needed for these children. Lucky for the boy, his speech was not affected at all.
I never forget trying to teach the boy when he was about 3 years of age how to eat a grape. I sat opposite him and exaggerated the action of opening the mouth really wide and biting it. I knew that the nursery he attended also gave them fruit at snack time and my friend had told me that they had apples to eat some days. How did they manage to get him to eat an apple? I tried all the methods I knew of, but the boy just could not crunch into it. I asked the playworkers there and they assured me that he managed.........I think perhaps he may not. He also had problems with biscuits, chocolate, sweets anything that needed chewing. For a long while he would only eat sausages and pasta in a butternut squash thick soup. My other half got rather bored of this menu as we would eat it 3 times a week! But I felt that by cooking what he would eat and gently adapting it, his repertoire would grow and indeed it did. Since becoming a Health Visitor and using the Infant and Toddler Forum as a resource for feeding under 5s, this has also been encouraged with fussy eaters. Here's the link if you want more information, yes look at me getting all technical!
The boy has an amazing sense of taste, strangely enough, he has loved olives from a tiny age, strong cheeses and fish too. He was even tolerating chillies for a while until last year. His current favourite meal is Marmite pasta, I think he would make me make it every day if he could! He now prefers his food quite dry in texture, lumpy casseroles are no longer tolerated because he calls the vegetables slimy. My mum hides vegetables in his meat sauce which is a great idea, she puts everything in it, blitzes it and he will often have seconds!
The sensitive mouth issue reared its not so pretty head again when he started to be seen by an orthodontist. He would always need to be prompted to open wide, with me reminding the dentist of the dyspraxia, I guess he can't feel how wide his mouth is due to his proprioception difficulties. Anyway, I was sent out of the room during one appointment so that he could be X-rayed. The next thing I knew, the nurse came out all flustered because he refused to hold the plate in his mouth. I found him in tears. Apparently he had dropped it and she told him to bite harder by which time he had had enough. I was not impressed by the nurses attitude towards him, so I registered with another dentist, who wanted to X ray him and was not at all sympathetic when I told him that the boy was anxious. The boy by this time was practically in my lap with fear.
So we avoided the dentist for two years.
You will find that I have not been very consistent in the boys childhood in remembering that despite having a diagnosis of dyspraxia, I have not treated him as such. To me, he is the boy and I often expect him to muddle through like everyone else. My other half and I often need hefty reminders in the form of a meltdown to make us go "oh yeah, he's going to act like this because of the dyspraxia". Thus an epiphany arrived one day when I thought about the Special Needs Dentist, of course he would be eligible for this. So a quick word with his school nurse who referred him in and a few weeks ago we went there. What a lovely service. The X ray machine does not need you to hold the plate in your mouth. Hallelujah! So understanding, so patient. He is also prescribed a high fluoride toothpaste, I guess because manipulation difficulties prevent children cleaning their teeth adequately so there is more protection, definitely a good service if your children have similar diagnoses.
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