Riley
[email protected]
Ren and Sandra,
Both of you bring up some issues I do deal with with Riley. He does not eat
complete meals, he loves bread, nibbles on other food. 1 slice of pizza fills
him up. He has a limited palette of foods he likes and is just too busy to
bother with sitting down and eating for a while. Fish, chicken, steak are his
favorite protein foods. He will not even stay in the house when I cook beans,
let alone try one. Eggs come and go for him. Cheese sometimes. Peanut butter
bugs him, nuts sometimes will be eaten. He does crave sugars. I try complete
protein breads when I can find them at the store. Today he took a nap. Maybe
he has been too busy. Fatigue greatly increases his temper.
His testicles are OK, I do wonder about his teeth, though. He had crowns put
in at 2, severe rot on his 2 fronts. 1 was damaged and pulled. His other could
be bugging him. He also is just started to lose teeth, lots are wiggly in his
mouth. He has 3 permanant front teeth too, so will need another
surgery/pulling sometime soon. I'll call his dentist.
I thought about food sensitivity, but frankly I feel it is more his temperment
with a slightly hungry body, and I want him to gain selfcontrol. His dad and
his granddad both deal with this. We are trying to show him words work, ask
for help, walk away. We pound pillows. Reading turns him mellow again, yet I'm
not always prepared to do this. And yes, I will find a rope to tie to the
pole. It was dark and cold the other night and I was finished jumproping too.
Thank you for giving me ideas to think about. As always, I learn a ton reading
from the list.
Mary H.
Both of you bring up some issues I do deal with with Riley. He does not eat
complete meals, he loves bread, nibbles on other food. 1 slice of pizza fills
him up. He has a limited palette of foods he likes and is just too busy to
bother with sitting down and eating for a while. Fish, chicken, steak are his
favorite protein foods. He will not even stay in the house when I cook beans,
let alone try one. Eggs come and go for him. Cheese sometimes. Peanut butter
bugs him, nuts sometimes will be eaten. He does crave sugars. I try complete
protein breads when I can find them at the store. Today he took a nap. Maybe
he has been too busy. Fatigue greatly increases his temper.
His testicles are OK, I do wonder about his teeth, though. He had crowns put
in at 2, severe rot on his 2 fronts. 1 was damaged and pulled. His other could
be bugging him. He also is just started to lose teeth, lots are wiggly in his
mouth. He has 3 permanant front teeth too, so will need another
surgery/pulling sometime soon. I'll call his dentist.
I thought about food sensitivity, but frankly I feel it is more his temperment
with a slightly hungry body, and I want him to gain selfcontrol. His dad and
his granddad both deal with this. We are trying to show him words work, ask
for help, walk away. We pound pillows. Reading turns him mellow again, yet I'm
not always prepared to do this. And yes, I will find a rope to tie to the
pole. It was dark and cold the other night and I was finished jumproping too.
Thank you for giving me ideas to think about. As always, I learn a ton reading
from the list.
Mary H.
[email protected]
In a message dated 12/13/02 2:37:44 PM, maryfhickman@... writes:
<< Eggs come and go for him. >>
Me too. Sometimes I get an anti-egg spell and can't stand them, and other
times they're my main food.
Teething could be a factore.
-=-I thought about food sensitivity, but frankly I feel it is more his
temperment
with a slightly hungry body, and I want him to gain selfcontrol. -=-
Probably not just "Slightly hungry, " but hungry for something.
Self control can come later. If food fixes it, feed him!
Will he eat cashews? PayDay bars?
Sandra
<< Eggs come and go for him. >>
Me too. Sometimes I get an anti-egg spell and can't stand them, and other
times they're my main food.
Teething could be a factore.
-=-I thought about food sensitivity, but frankly I feel it is more his
temperment
with a slightly hungry body, and I want him to gain selfcontrol. -=-
Probably not just "Slightly hungry, " but hungry for something.
Self control can come later. If food fixes it, feed him!
Will he eat cashews? PayDay bars?
Sandra
[email protected]
In a message dated 12/14/02 5:22:52 AM Central Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
<< I thought about food sensitivity, but frankly I feel it is more his
temperment
with a slightly hungry body, and I want him to gain selfcontrol. >>
Have you ever closely watched how certain foods make him act? Just try being
more attune and observant maybe, especially with the dyes....just see if you
can figure something out.
Also, from everything you've written here (and I'm no expert) he sounds just
like a chammomilla child. It's a homeopathic remedy and fairly cheap to get
a hold of (around 5-7 dollars usually for one bottle) that can be hugely
calming for those irritable, cranky types.
They taste like little sugar pills, so it's easy to get a child to eat them.
And it has the added benefit of distraction! When Jalen is getting all worked
up it sometimes calms him down just to put a yummy in his mouth.:)
Try to get 200cc if you can find it.
Speaking of food dye, Jalen (22mo) got a hold of some bright blue Jelly
Belly's last night. I just changed a diaper that looked like intensely green,
mushy playdough...blech! (hope no one was eating when you got that visual)
grins....
Ren
"Knowledge will not always take the place of simple observation."
~Arnold Lobel
Unschooling support at pensacolaunschoolers.com
[email protected] writes:
<< I thought about food sensitivity, but frankly I feel it is more his
temperment
with a slightly hungry body, and I want him to gain selfcontrol. >>
Have you ever closely watched how certain foods make him act? Just try being
more attune and observant maybe, especially with the dyes....just see if you
can figure something out.
Also, from everything you've written here (and I'm no expert) he sounds just
like a chammomilla child. It's a homeopathic remedy and fairly cheap to get
a hold of (around 5-7 dollars usually for one bottle) that can be hugely
calming for those irritable, cranky types.
They taste like little sugar pills, so it's easy to get a child to eat them.
And it has the added benefit of distraction! When Jalen is getting all worked
up it sometimes calms him down just to put a yummy in his mouth.:)
Try to get 200cc if you can find it.
Speaking of food dye, Jalen (22mo) got a hold of some bright blue Jelly
Belly's last night. I just changed a diaper that looked like intensely green,
mushy playdough...blech! (hope no one was eating when you got that visual)
grins....
Ren
"Knowledge will not always take the place of simple observation."
~Arnold Lobel
Unschooling support at pensacolaunschoolers.com
Nanci Kuykendall
>He does not eat complete meals, he loves bread,Mary, I have been meaning to post on this issue, but
>nibbles on other food. 1 slice of pizza fills
>him up. He has a limited palette of foods he likes
>and is just too busy to bother with sitting down and
>eating for a while.
just do not have a lot of online time right now. We
are out of town through the holidays dealing with my
hubby's accident and subsequent medical and insurance
issues.
At any rate, I have a son who is just turning 6,
Thomas. Thomas has a number of allergies, both severe
(life threatening), to milder (affecting skin or
sinuses, etc) to more subtle, behaviorally affecting
ones. Thomas cannot eat nuts at all, and we must be
very cautious with eggs, and dairy products. Thomas
is very sensative to what he eats in general.
Thomas also suffers from impulse control issues, is
extremely passionate and intense, and has obsessive
compulsive tendancies. He is impatient and easily
frustrated. He has sensory integration problems also,
and insists on only certain types of material for
clothing, certain cuts and styles, no tags, seams,
etc, and will not wear socks or underwear. He also
has trouble focussing when there are distractions
around, like people talking in a room where he is
trying to watch tv.
The best thing we did for him was to go to an all
organic diet. Eliminating the chemicals, dyes and
preservatives from his diet made a huge difference in
his ability to get himself under control, and has
increased his patience and ability to cope with
stress. Going organic also increased his tolerance
level for his many allergies, and he does not have
severe reactions as reasily, nor suffer from chronic
sinus congestion as much.
The first thing we did though, before going organic,
was to limit refined sugars. Rather than rationing
his treat intake, we began using honey and molasses in
baking, and buying organic treats from our local co-op
with cane sugar and other non-refined sweeteners. He
moderates himself with these kinds of treats much
better than he was able to with the refined sugars.
We also are careful to not buy breads, soups, juices,
etc with corn syrup or other refined sugars in them.
This helped his anger management and self control a
lot.
Another thing we did was limit his wheat intake. We
noticed that Thomas was a what junkie, sometimes
wanting nothing but wheat products all day, eating
plain bread or toast, empty hot dog buns, plain
noodles, etc. When he was eating this way, he was out
of control a lot. Eliminating wheat from a western
diet is extremely hard. We simply try to limit his
intake by using wheat alternatives as much as we can,
and buying bread with little or no wheat gluten in it.
I buy spelt, rice, potato, and other flours to keep
on hand for sauces, gravies, soups, cooking in general
and baking. I use at least half oat flour (grinding
up rolled oats in the food processor) in baking most
of the time, buy corn and rice noodles, etc.
With Thomas we also have to just occassionally stay
home when we have plans to go out, because he is not
able to cope at that time. Or one of us stays home
with him. He needs extra patience when he has a
change in his routine. We try to keep him away from
really large or overstimulating activites, because he
gets overloaded and has meltdowns. But he can take
them in moderation (like the hockey game with his dad
and uncle and brother last week.) He likes to stay
home a fair amount, and is shy of crowds. I see this
as him regulating his stimulation that way. We try to
find special things to do with him that he can handle,
and when we do go to large or noisy functions, we take
our cues from him about how long he can stay before
getting burnt out.
He is improving over time, as he matures. He is very
challenging and exhausting right now, but I know he
will not always be that way. At the moment, with our
family crisis and being away from home, he is proving
to be very challenging for us. But we get by, one day
at a time. You sound like a great Mom, Mary, and I am
sure that you and Riley will find solutions for his
challenges.
I was impressed by the self control Riley exhibited in
the car conversation about being left out, and his
great degree of empathy for Cassie in not wanting to
hurt her feelings. Or maybe he just didn't want to
get into a fight ;-) Empathy is something Thomas
struggles with. Some days he is so empthetic he will
cry when someone else hurts themselves, and other days
he is downright coldhearted. Sometimes he cycles
through varying degrees multiple times, back and
forth, in one day. It all depends on the thousand
little things going on around and in him every day.
Anyway, hang in there Mary, you're not alone.
Nanci K.