Picky eater disorder

On our recent vacation.  I try to present
her with new options.

I am officially diagnosing Sofia with picky eater disorder. Over the past eight months or so, she has slowly been dropping foods that she can no longer tolerate eating. It drives me crazy, while I simultaneously can completely empathize with her psychotic behavior towards food. Sadly, I was almost the same way, and it's only taken about a quarter of a century for my picky eating behavior to improve. So, extreme picky eating, I learned by watching TV, has finally been found to be an actual disorder. I think it has ties to Sensory Processing Disorder and a genetically linked, acute oversensitivity to taste. (I suspect there is also a connection to one of the ADHD meds she started at about this time). OK, so I wasn't so crazy after all. But although, I understand, first hand, I really do, I can't allow her to end up on TV for only being able to eat french fries and Fanta.

No problems with this food.  Surprise, surpirse.

Sofia was a ravenous eater from the moment she was born. Correction -before she was born. I could feel her sucking the life out of me even while in the womb. She LOVED food from the first baby spoonful of rice cereal. Her sucking reflex did not get in the way of devouring that baby food. She was also a fast and therefore, relative neat eater. Anything I put in front of her was gone in minutes. Fast forward to now, a food that was yummy two days ago, may no longer be palatable today to the point of serious distress just at the mere though of having to ingest it. It infuriates me and I totally get it. I was the most complacent child on the planet, I never gave my parents any problems, I never disobeyed. Yes, never -except when it came to eating. I didn't care what the consequence could have been, I couldn't imagine a worse fate than eating something that for whatever reason struck me as inedible by me. That was the one point on which I never gave in.

Reaction upon seeing that the empanada was made with black
beans instead of ground beef.  I knew she'd like it anyway.
It took about 30 min. for her to try it, 10 more for her to eat
a real bite.  She liked it.  But only after the demon had been
exorcised from her body.

I've tried various methods to get her to eat, all of which have been largely unsuccessful. Dinner is the hardest time. So I try to make sure she gets all the nourishment she needs by supplementing with protein-fruit-veggie and magic sprinkles (ground flax seed) smoothies. Even these have started to cross over to the no eat list. My most recent effort -home made Larabars and even protein balls. These are packed with raw ingredients such as dried fruit, nuts, protein, and healthy grains. They're new, so right now she's loving them.

Today, for dinner, my favorite meal -lamb, mashed potatoes (golden), and asparagus. Simple, the meat is soft, the vegetable -I figure if I can eat it, anyone can eat it. Sofia still likes artichokes and asparagus is kind of in the same family, which is a point that has no effect on her. But, I still have high hopes for the success of this meal. I put lots of meat juice (au juice if your French) on her plate to make the meat more bearable. I even made her mash potatoes into a tiny volcano with it. She eats the mashed potatoes, no problem. She's iffy about the meat. She starts to negotiate. I don't negotiate (usually). "I will only eat the soft parts of the meat but not the hard parts." I say, "Good. It's all soft." It could go either way, if she just tastes it, I know the flavor will win her over. She does, she doesn't admit it at first, because she doesn't want to believe it, but she likes it. She eats it all. Now, for the asparagus. She knows she's really close to earning a Privilege Pass (Accountable Kids -they get these for having good manners and eating well at dinner. They don't get these much). This is when, she politely asks, "Mom, may I be excused to go get a blindfold". At first, I'm like "What?". Then, "Yes". Success.

It is ridiculous how much these things come to mean in our daily lives. One day, again, they won't mean anything at all, but today it made me happy.