Son's Unusual Diet

[ItsMe316]

My son will be 21 years old soon.  Since about the age of 2 1/2 - 3 he started avoiding certain foods.  He has a diet consisting mostly of carbs.  On an average day he'll have pancakes, bacon, toast and juice for breakfast.  For "dinner" or another meal that day it may be cheese breadsticks or deep fried mozarella sticks and french fries.  He occasionally eats grapes.  He does drink milk, orange juice and apple juice.  When he was younger I tried to get him to eat other foods without success.  When he was about 8 years old I made him eat a piece of chicken and some potato which he threw up immediately after eating.  On the advice of his PCP I would not allow him to eat any of his favorites for about 10 hours one day.  The doctor recommended not feeding him any of his favorites the entire weekend, forcing him to eat something else.  After the 10 hours I decided it didn't make sense to follow the advice of his PCP.  He recently had a steak with some friends where he lives at school.  Except for bacon, that steak is the first piece of meat he has had in 18 years!  He has gone for some counseling and even tried a hypnotherapist (his suggestion).  It is clear to me that even he can't make himself eat something he doesn't want to.  Any suggestions???

[jilmey]

Hi,
I just read your post and there were a number of direct paralells with my situation. I have a daughter who is soon going to be eleven years old. She was never much of an eater (even while nursing) although for a few months I was able to manage to get her to eat a little chicken. That began and ended around age 2 - 21/2. Also at age 8 or so I made her sit at the table until she at that teaspoon sized piece of chicken. She gulped it down with some milk and threw it up. Milk, pasta, white rice, cereal, bread and the occassional green bean, red apple and potato are her diet. She does not like juice of any kind, nor does she like soda. She will, however condsume massive amounts of sugary foods. We have implemented the same suggestions that your doctor gave and it made no difference. She just went hungry and was not bothered by it - for a day and a half. I don't know what this is but I have been losing sleep over it for about ten years and I need help. Tried psychotherapy, occupational therapy, behavioral optomatry (don't ask me why) and several pediatricians. Have you found any answers? My daughter is going to be eleven and often get mistaken for a six or seven year old because she is so small now.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

The idea of hypnosis was actually a sensible one, but a single visit will not suffice. Also, he should be sure there is nothing going on re: his metabolic and endocrine systems, so those areas should be checked out.