Early Intervention Services Needed for 17 Mo Old Who Won't/can't Eat Solid Food

This is an issue for a speech pathologist who specializes in feeding issues. My son had to go to one because he would not eat anything except breastmilk from the tap for about 11 months. He ended up having a hypersensitive gag reflex and did not want anything else in his mouth. Simple issue, but if you wait too long you can develop other issues (My son had critical anemia). Definitely talk to you pediatrician ASAP and get a referral to a speech pathologist. They will be able to observe your child's behavior and determine the problem. The earlier the better though. Good luck!

Take her to an Ocupational Therapist.

Hi L.,
My son was referred to Chester County Early Intervention when he was the same age as your daughter for issues with walking. He also has some developmental delays and has gone before the Chester County CATCH (Autism) team more recently for deeper evaluation. These folks are wonderful and you will be doing your daughter a huge favor by getting her the therapy she needs so by the time she is school age she will be on the same level as her peers.

We as Moms can't begin to know all the possible causes and treatments for the different issues our children can have. These folks currently come to my home 3x/week and we'll be adding Occupational Therapy in a week or so. They have taught me so much and are always available for questions.

Email me if you like. ____@____.com

Good luck to you!
L.

There are several things that you can try. First stop giving her baby food and try the real thing. The stuff in the jar really is not that great to begin with.
If you have tried regular table food and she still doesn't like it. Try finding a Chiropractor that does cranial Massage therapy. When my youngest dd was born, she could nurse but when I tried feeding her solids at 6mos she had difficulty swallowing. Like she couldn't control the direction of her tongue. After just a couple of visits she went from constantly pushing food out of her mouth to being able to swallow without problems. This just amazed me, plus she was able to start talking as well.

Try also giving her finger foods like veggies and fruits. While she may make a big mess, her being in control of feeding herself my be better for her because she's able to do it her self and less likely to gag on a spoon.

L., What does your pediatrician say? Is your daughter losing weight? Does she ahve any other delays? I would speak to your pediatrician ad ask for an speech/swallowing consult.

L.,
How frustrating!
My 20 month old is EXTREMELY picky (doesn't eat much at all!) & has had issues w/ texture from the start.

First, I would highly suggest that you have her checked for food allergies if you haven't already. There is a very good chance that she's trying to protect herself from exposure to something that could harm her.
Secondly, you could make an appt. w/ a speech pathologist or a Food Therapist (who often work @ hospitals) to help w/ the texture & "teach" her to chew & swallow. My son just saw a nutritionist last week in Allentown named Pat Sullivan & she was wonderful! Extremely knowlegable & knows some good pathologists in the area who help w/ this sort of thing.

Good luck!

My son received OT for some fine motor delays, but he was too old for "early intervention." Luckily it was covered by our health care. Just call your pediatrician and they will get you set up and/or give you info on the specific programs & services for your area. There are TONS of services out there available to you and they should be free. The important thing is to get her help as early as possible--like you are determined to do. Good luck!

I too would contact the pediatrician first and see if they can get you a referral or provide you some recommendations. I see there have been recommendations for chiropractors, speech pathologists and OT, I would like to add feeding clinics. I'm not sure where you live but there is a pediatric feeding clinic at Hershey Medical Center. They do both inpatient (very severe feeding issues) as well as outpatient therapy with kids with a variety of feeding problems. I know there's a few other clinics around (Kennedy Krieger in the Baltimore area, etc)as well. But your pediatrician should at least start you off in the right direction!

Hi L.,
it's a great idea to contact early intervention for this, they can work wonders with all sorts of issues, but i wanted to make you aware of one other thing. your daughter might have acid reflux. my daughter had this and the doctor told me that with some cases of reflux babies and young children cannot take anything other than smooth foods into their mouths. thankfully my daughter didn't have this problem, but one of our doctors asked me about it repeatedly because she had other eating issues and was bad with her reflux. i just wanted to let you know of another option, especially if you didn't notice any other developmental issues. i would recommend trying as many options as you can as soon as you can, so you can relieve the stress from your life as soon as possible. at least you can say that with baby food, she is getting good nutrition and less salt that kids eating regular food :-)
Also, don't be dismayed by the amount of paperwork you will need to fill out for the early intervention, do it as quick as you can as they can be very busy and you might not get an appointment for months. hope this helps.
C..

Her doctor may have information for you or may be able to refer you elsewhere. Also try and contact your town or county you live in. They often provide free services for early intervention! Best of luck.

Definitely get in touch with Early Intervention and see who/what else your pediatrician can recommend in the meantime. It took us a couple months to get through the preliminaries and get the therapists in our home, so I went to have my son evalutated by a private Occupational Therapist while waiting. She had lots of great ideas on how to teach him to eat. Key for us were graham cracker sticks that got very soggy as he sucked on them and white cheddar (not as messy as orange!) cheese puffs, which also dissolve and are tasty. Nutrition wasn't the point at first, just learning to use his tongue and jaw and swallow. Feeding issues bridge Occupational and Speech Therapies, and EI will probably provide you with both therapists. Ours were excellent -- don't delay!