Jacob & the giant peach

I have to share this little story about what a very brave boy Jacob is! Those of you who know him know what a struggle food is for him. He has been limiting what he will eat even more (is that possible??) lately.

But it is obvious that there are many things he truly wants to eat. It is so scary for him, though. He has a really strong gag reflex and often gags just looking at foods other people are eating. But he does try. At preschool he has taken bites of cantaloupe AND carrot, which is monumental. I think he wants to be like the other kids. And around the house he will pretend to eat some things that the rest of us are eating, usually fruits or vegetables. He will pick up the item, hold it to his lips and make a chomping sound, then say, "Apple! Yummy!" It just breaks my heart!

So on Friday, I was giving Natalie some peaches at breakfast. Jacob took her bowl and was playing with a peach slice inside, and when his timer went off for therapy to begin he brought the bowl back to his room with him! His IA took the opportunity to work on some food therapy with him and got him to the point where he was putting his finger in the peach juice and actually putting it on his tongue...no gagging.

She also got him to pick up little pieces of peach, but he got very scared and was yelling, "NO THANK YOU!!" The texture was probably too much for him to handle. But then he still went back to tasting the peach juice.

We also tried some pureed peach baby food and she said he was pretending to eat it off the spoon. He would even lick the back side of the spoon (free from peaches!). And he'd make the chomping noise and say, "Peaches!" He really wanted to do it, it seemed.

Jacob makes us so proud! He is such a hard worker, and really tries. I am amazed daily at how brave he is!