The term takes on an entirely different meaning when you have a child with autism or sensory issues.

J has decided that food is not for him any longer and it is a war to get him to drink more than milk and eat more than chocolate munchkins.

This isn’t like with most children though. Most children will eventually get hungry enough to go on to something else to eat. J however will refuse food and drink that is NOT preferred to the point of causing himself harm. He will dehydrate. He will remain hungry. Milk gives him sustenance but it’s obviously not enough. I say this not only as his mother but as a child who was seriously picky with food – I would refuse a lot of foods but eventually hunger would win out and I would figure out some way or another to eat at least a part of what I was offered. He’ll just cheerfully go without as though unphased as I hear his stomach rumble two rooms away.

I’ve tried vitamins with him before to little success. They caused him digestive troubles and it seemed counterintuitive to give him something for his health that was actually making him feel miserable.

There are some feeding techniques I am aware of and as he returns to school post April vacation I hope to start implementing them as part of a more strict routine. The break has caused other disruptions in progress and behavior, as all major changes in routine do, but this eating business is what has me the most stressed.

I blog about it mostly because whenever I tell the world about a struggle he’s having he gets a bat signal about it and has to show me up shortly thereafter by doing exactly what it was I was saying he wasn’t doing. I am hoping this pattern continues and tomorrow he eats like a ravenous wild animal of everything that I offer to him.

I can dream, right?