MIA

Hi friends. I feel like I’ve been a little MIA (missing in action) this week. It’s like I’m here, but I’m not fully here. My family has been my priority this week, and when my little guy needs me… I’m there for him.

Since kindergarten started, his world has been turned upside down, and I feel badly for him. On Tuesdays, a BT from his classroom comes to our house to do a parent training with me, and as much as it kills me to let someone else come into our home and do the same thing that I do for the families that I work with, I figured that something had to give.

I waved my little white flag loud and proud! I needed help

When Ms. S. (one of Willy’s teachers) came for our first parent training session, I told her that I wanted to work on food acceptance (most importantly) as well as fine tune other important daily living skills. So when she asked me what food I wanted to start with, I told her that I’d like to start with bread. She just started at me, but since my boy won’t even consider a piece of bread, a sandwich, or noodles, I figured that was a good place to start.

So Ms. S presented my son with a piece of bread. And as I warned her, he screamed, shook like a leaf, and gagged at its presence. We chose things for Willy to earn, but he didn’t want any if them. He wanted to watch a clip of the movie “Happy Feet.” So we obliged. Willy touched the piece of bread. He kissed it, he licked it (all while crying) and then with a little prodding, he popped it in his mouth.

Then he vomited all over the rug… and me.

Ms. S was a trooper! She ran to the kitchen and got paper towels and helped me clean up. We let Willy take a short “Happy Feet” break before we attempted it again.

I was done and didn’t want to try it again, but I knew that we had to. Willy had to. So we did. Willy came back to the table, crying hysterically. He popped the tiny piece if bread in his mouth and again started to retch and gag. We told him to breath, chew, and when he was ready, swallow. With crocodile sized tears steaming down his face, he breathed heavily. He chewed with his back teeth (on the right side), so his tongue wouldn’t touch the piece if bread, and eventually, he swallowed!

WOO-HOO!

Ms. S and I threw a party for him! We cheered, clapped, and hugged my boy. Willy was still crying, but he knew that he had done it. I knew that he was proud of himself and he ran to the couch (still crying), and waited patiently for me to press the “play” button on the DVD player. Ms. S and I high-fived and she decided that it was a successful session and made her exit. I was ecstatic and went to snuggle with my boy on the couch. A few minutes later, Willy looked at me with sad eyes and said, “no more bread.” “No more bread” I said. “Just snuggles.”

So this is the beginning of another long journey of food acceptance for us, but we can do it! I have faith.

TGIF