visiting from 9-12: when to get an EI for eating issues?
susan1017
member
My DS is having a terrible time adapting to eating solid foods. At what point should I consider an EI evaluation? My pedi offered at 7 months when he refused the spoon but I worked through it a little and we were doing slightly better. He has always been hit or miss with the spoon and have more failed feeding than successful ones. I have heard of many kids who hate the spoon and prefer to self-feed so I started him on puffs and he LOVES to try to eat them. He gets them to his mouth ok, but he is pushes them out of his mouth and gets extremely frustrated and I have to stop the feeding before we get started.
I have tried every trick in the book to get this kid to eat. The mesh feeder was successful untill he got to excited to eat and gagged on the bag and now he won't touch it. He acts ravenous around food and when I try to feed him he cries at the spoon, refuses soft chunks of veg, and the meshie is now a waste of time.
My question is how do I know if DS needs some intervention or just needs more time? I would very much appreciate any help or feedback.
TIA
Re: visiting from 9-12: when to get an EI for eating issues?
I'm not an expert, but I think it wouldn't hurt to get an evaluation. My son has had eating issues since we started finger foods and I waited, hoping it would get better. It didn't and we now have therapy 3 times a week. In my state (IL), the evaluation was free. We only had to pay if we qualified for services. I don't know how each state works.
It can't hurt to request and evaluation but, It's very hard to get Ei for Eating issues. My Lo was born 10 weeks early and has struggled with feeding and gaining weight from the start and I request one and he was denied.
I know my was a preemis but, he really didn't take to the spoon until he was closer to 9 months old. It may be that you just have to keep offering. Also my pedi suggested I try some soft foods that he could eat with his fingers instead and that seemed to help.
Good Luck...
I am mainly a lurker here, but my son just went through an evaul for this (among other things) and for an eating issue alone they do not him qualify for services. Ds has a immature swallow reflex at 18m so anything above a stage 2 is very hard for him to eat. Edis has some tools of the trade to help him but thats about it.