We Have a Winner!

We have a winner! A Dinner Winner, that is.

Amazon's Stock Photo

Our younger son doesn't eat well. He's following in his brother's foot steps. We are in the part of the journey where we try anything. Someone recommended this to me and, for $17.10, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it. If it doesn't work, fine. If it does, best $17 ever spent.

We just got it today and unpacked it.

Here's what you do. Each compartment is a place on the game board. You fill each one with the food of your choice. The last spot is a compartment with a lid. You put the prize in the little box. It can be a treat, a non-food item, whatever you want that the child will be excited about. Our rule is, you can't even peek until your food is gone.

I filled it with the following:

• Gluten/dairy/soy free Matzo crackers by Yehuda
• organic carrot
• few organic strawberries
• pear sauce (like applesauce but pears, he can't have apples)
• half of a safe hot dog

His prize was cherry licorice by Lovely Candy Company. It's free of all of his allergens.

I put the lid on the prize box, set it in front of him, and waited. His first reaction was that it was the coolest plate he had ever seen. SCORE. Then he asked "what's this stuff", pointing to the pear sauce. I told him and he tried it without batting an eye. DOUBLE SCORE. He liked it. TRIPLE SCORE. He then saw the hot dog. I waited for the meltdown as he hates meat. He said, "is that a hot dog". I wanted to hide in a hole but was confident and said "yes" like it was no big deal, paying attention to what I was doing. He smiled and said, "oh good, I love hot dogs". 

I might have hit the floor at that point. He does NOT love hot dogs. Maybe he loves hot dogs on that plate, but never before has he loved hot dogs since this feeding issue started a year ago. I just smiled and said, "good, buddy". 

In about 25 minutes, this is what I ended up with:

He was just finishing up the cherry licorice. 

Let me break this down for you:

His normal meal consists of around 50 - 80 calories before he says he's full. 

This meal consisted of 265 calories and he ate every bite of it. 

That's a difference of 185 calories from his best meal and 215 calories from his lesser meals (I won't say worst because his worst meal on record was 11 calories - a few pieces of fruit). 

I am working from here. I will be adding in higher calorie foods. I will mix up the foods so he has a nice variety. Every plate of food will have a "challenge food" on it about mid way along the path (today's was that awesome hot dog that he loved because he loves hot dogs - eye roll). The "challenge food" will be a food he either hasn't had before or doesn't like. It won't be one that he genuinely just doesn't like in the way we all have some foods we don't like the taste of in life.