Course Correction

John had his frenectomy only five weeks ago, but the percentage of his calories coming from solid foods has increased dramatically. Before his tongue was clipped, John might take ten minutes to eat one goldfish cracker. After his procedure, John began eating all manner of foods, which was great! Of course, he also liked goldfish crackers and other baby crackers and cookies. Then he began showing preferences and asking for more and more. I was just so thrilled to see that he could eat a goldfish cracker in one big munch and ask for more. A couple of weeks into this process, I noticed he might eat 15 crackers at a sitting. Wow, that's great! About three weeks into it, I realized that John was now eating only crackers and cookies. Now this was not so great.

I don't want to get into food battles and I don't want to be a food Nazi, never allowing crackers and cookies. But I also don't want to create a child who eats only white foods. Chris and I decided that a course correction was in order, but I waited until after the move because there was no way I could get creative with food while moving and on the road. Yesterday I did a big grocery shopping trip and stocked up on all manner of appropriate foods for John. As of yesterday afternoon, I have (temporarily) cut off John from all cookies and crackers.

Surprisingly, I've already seen improvement. John has rejected many, many foods. I'm not going to shove food in his mouth, only to have him spit it out. Instead I casually eat the food myself without offering him any and eventually he asks for some. Then he will often just smash the food into bits, making a big mess. But finally, he will put some of this new foreign food into his mouth! On the first evening of this course correction, John ate hominy and a piece of bread with peanut butter. Today John ate many garlic roasted shaved almonds, about four thin slices of apples with peanut butter, about two tablespoons of Mama's soy burger, and one tablespoon of Grandmom's beef burger!

Apples:
Burgers:

I'm especially excited to see John eat some "wet" foods (apple, peanut butter) because he has consistently shown particular distaste for anything wet, which precludes any once-live food (fruit, vegetables), sauces, or puree-type foods (apple sauce, yogurt). If he ever got any wet food on his fingers, he'd hold out his fingertips to me with a look of horror on his face until I wiped them clean.