Lately, my son Nicholas has made some major improvements with food exploration. He has Autism, is non-verbal, and hasn’t eaten anything by mouth in almost two years.

Nicholas had a G-tube placement when he was 6 weeks old for silent aspiration. When he was a baby, he had a couple of swallow study’s, and at 6 months old, his study showed he could try some pureed food. At that time, he still aspirated on thin liquid, but he was OK with thicker food, so we started him out on some baby food.

He was never the greatest eater. He struggled with the taste of foods, being uncomfortable in the high chair, or just trying to keep him in the chair in general. Sometimes, Nicholas would have a hard time sitting up straight, so we’d put a blanket in the high chair to help support him. Sometimes even that would trigger his senses and upset him. Once he was mad, it was hard to calm him back down. His sensory system was very high when he was a baby. He was oversensitive with many things, and was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder by his occupational therapist when he was 8 months.

His OT worked with him and eating for another 8 months after he was diagnosed, until we added on physical therapy and speech therapy. It was hard to get him to eat by mouth, plus he wasn’t tolerating his tube feeds very well and was vomiting a lot. Feeding, in general, was hard.

Nicholas became uninterested in eating when he was 18 months and stopped altogether. He even stopped babbling and making noises around the same time. We worked on eating a little bit off and on, but made sure not to push it. Anything could make him mad. He would gag a lot even just at the sight of a bowl or spoon. Eventually, we stopped trying. He had a little exposure to food in the toddler program at his school at the beginning of this year, but even then, he just wasn’t interested and was very uncomfortable.

In the summer of 2017, Nicholas had eye surgery for Duane Syndrome. His right eye would cross and look upward at times. After that surgery, we saw an immediate difference in his personality. He was more alert and wouldn’t gag as much. He still has low vision, but the surgery corrected the muscles in his eye. He was probably seeing double and certain things were hard for him to process visually.

About a year ago, Nicholas started babbling again and making more noises. He’s now 3 years old and a couple months ago, he started putting everything in his mouth. He was licking and sucking on everything. He became interested in what we were eating and started touching our plates. He was even curious about what his siblings were eating. If I was feeding his brother Daniel or sister Grace, he would scoot over and watch them eat. That is something he wouldn’t have been able to do a year ago. We took advantage of his curiosity and began playing with food in therapy again. We take more of a sensory approach paying close attention to textures and strong smells.

He began preschool in August and they have snack time every day. He’s in the special education program twice a week, so he receives therapy at school, too. His teachers started out by sitting him at the table with the other kids, which he tolerated well. He felt comfortable enough one day to lick some veggie straws, and then licked an orange the next week. At home he played with some Doritos and incorporated yogurt melts into our play. He has licked ice cream off a spoon multiple times in the past two weeks. Nicholas has also been walking more in physical therapy. His therapists talk about how walking and eating go hand in hand all the time. He doesn’t walk by himself yet, but he’s doing really well. All the gross motor skills are coming together. Plus, the eye surgery helps as well. Something else I realized just in the past few days is that we started brushing his teeth consistently about 3 or 4 months ago. He actually tolerates it really well and likes it. He evens laughs sometimes. The stimulation from the toothbrush could have definitely sparked something.

Last week, Nicholas had a feeding evaluation where he played with Cheetos and licked some Froot Loops. His evaluators want us to work on feeding with his in-home therapists, especially with his behavior therapist, because first comes the behavior, then feeding. The doctors gave us some good tips on different foods to try and how to best utilize his low vision with feeding.

There are still some foods he’s not interested in, but he’s able to sit next to me while I eat. Nicholas has always done things on his time at his own pace. Same goes with eating and exploring food. It’s going to take some time and a lot of practice. He’s slowly starting to outgrow some of the sensory issues he used to have difficulties with. It’s a really exciting time for him and his development and we’re happy with his progress.