toddler teacher with texture and eating problem

[reannasmom]

I am a child nurturer for an early head start program.  I have a 2 year and 8 month old boy who
has food and texture issues.  He must smear his food all over his face before he will eat it.
This has been going on for the past year and I just came to this room.  Do you have any suggestions
how to handle this little one and to make meal time more pleasant?

[RockRose]

reannasmom,  this is very unusual.  Usually children with food and texture issues also have sensory defensivenes,  and hate to have sticky stuff on their hands and between their fingers.  Getting them to play with finger paints and make mud pies is actually a therapy for them, to reduce this dislike of goop on their hands.

Do you know specifically what food and texture issues he has?  Does he hate the shirt tag thing,  have sock issues,  hate having his hair washed,  etc?

[margypops]

Do you or have you made a game of him doing this as perhaps he is doing this because it gets him attention,How about he had finger foods ,and stay with him while he eats ,say no when he goes to smear food and then remove it if he still does it and tell him why.