If it's not broke...

I first wrote about this method over 2 years ago. I want to re-visit it because I feel it's one of our most successful behavioral interventions that we had ever done. We still practice this almost every day. You can read about how we got Eden to eat here. Things have changed some since I posted about this method; Eden was diagnosed with Celiac's Disease and now eats a gluten free diet. Her communication has improved and she has grown up a lot obviously. My patience has improved and knowledge of how to reassure Eden when she is worried about change. Eden is starving most of the day now so eating is one of her favorite things.

We've been using the positive reinforcement method to introduce new foods or when Eden decides to self limit her diet(refusing to eat things she's eaten/enjoyed previously) which is a very common thing with kids who have sensory issues. I actually used this again tonight while introducing squash to her for dinner tonight. It's automatic for us now but it went like this:

We sat down to dinner together at the table. I had made chicken(kind of a preferred food), baked potato (not a preferred food), squash (new food) and some green beans (favorite food). I put all her food on her plate giving her about a tablespoon of potatoes, 2 oz of cut up chicken, and enough squash to fit on a baby spoon. She had seen the green beans and asked to have some and I explained once she tried the "orange stuff" (squash) she would get some green beans. She proceeded have trouble sitting at the table and starting dinner (which is not unusual), but after about 15 or 20 minutes she sat and started eating her chicken. She then tried a bite of her potatoes and said she didn't like them and wanted green beans. I repeated what I said about eating the "orange stuff". It took her a minute of thinking about it and she ate it. She actually loved the flavor of it, but you could tell she didn't like the texture. She immediately got her green beans and was happy the rest of the meal. No fighting about eating, only time she had a hard time was getting her to start her meal but we are working on that by setting clear time limits of when dinner time is and setting clear rules and expectations.

Sure dinner time isn't perfect and actually we've had a more difficult time the last couple of days than we have had for most of the summer, but school is starting and change is hard for her. She is gaining weight and eating constantly and the best part is it's not junk food. She's almost eating a full serving of protein during dinner time and asking for second servings of dinner most nights. This is a complete change from before starting her gluten free diet where she would eat less than 1/2 of what her "normal" meal is now and that would be a fight. This is what her meal looks like now and it's big enough to be served on a regular dinner plate.