It is not just Nathan

by Lea Ann Treloar
(Hawkeye,Iowa)

Since Nathan, who is now 11 was 1 year old we have had problems with the way he ate. He stopped drinking milk at a year. He started to eat food from the table like mashed potatoes, hamburger, for a very short time. All he would drink after not drinking milk was frozen concentrated juices. This in turn led to dental problems. He had to have caps on the majority of his teeth because of enamel decay.

By the time he was two we were both my husband an I at our wits end,and felt like bad parents. Life goes on, you learn to cope, get into the daily rut of just living and surving day to day. We tried bribing, rewarding, threatening; nothing seemed to work. You could offer him anything in the world and he thought about it and would rather not try anything different. He has tried new things like grapes, carrots,and bread. He would put the grape in his mouth and try to not chew it, of course this was not acceptable and was told he had to chew it. He would gag and and almost vomit every time, sometimes he did vomit!

He is also sensitive to smells when I am cooking the rest of the family's dinner and runs around the house with his shirt over his nose, or goes upstairs or outside.

I forgot to tell you his main diet and I mean this is all he will eat period! He used to eat processed american cheese slices. He would take four slices and divide each slice in fourths, stack them up like a tower and eat them. He no longer eats cheese. His main diet consists of baked frozen fries, the fast food fries by Ore-Ida. He wood love it if I would deep fry them, but I have told him that being he only eats fries that they can't be deep fried because it is not healthy. He still drinks frozen Welch's cherry juice, but that too has diminished intake. He has to carry his lunch and it consists of dry cereal, corn chips and water. That is another thing he will eat is any kind of chip just about. Also dry cereal, though he does not like it much, and various crackers and popcorn. His grandma has helped him and tries all the time to get him to try new things and has been successful with pancakes. And if I try the same exact everything in making him pancakes at our house he will not eat them.

If I gave him a choice to eat or starve it would definitely be to starve! I do make him take multi-vitamins,they have to be sour soft chewable. He loves extremely sour things. He will drink real lemon juice concentrate right out of the bottle if you let him.

He is remarkably healthy, he rarely gets cold or flu. Yet, his older sister gets colds a couple times a year. One time and this is the only time he had a ear infection from swimming he would not take Tylenol to reduce the fever or antibiotics by mouth and so we went to the doctor and he had a shot in his rump and was satisfied with that. I have even mentioned gastrostomy to him as a remedy to his eating problem, and the most worry he had about that was the reaction from his peers. Not the surgery itself. Of course I was just trying to scare him.

After reading all the articles I realize that is not the way to deal with this problem. I think he gets teased a lot at school. He did better in his grades when he was younger, now he feels like school is a burden and has trouble completing homework.

He is the best reader for his age,it is amazing his vocabulary, and how he speaks... as an 11 year old. He has a lot of trouble with math which is my poorist subject also. He doesn't listen well or just is ignoring us. He has to have the last word or finds excuses for everything. He has no muscle tone and is weak. His energy level is poor yet in the summer time he will jump on the trampoline for hours. He also loves the water and would stay at the pool all day. He is not under weight and is still on the growth chart, though it is barely on the chart. We have taken him to our family doctor twice about this matter. The first time he said don't worry he will grow out of it.

The next time we wanted to see a specialist and went to Iowa City hospitals and clinics, and were hopeful only to be referred to a psychologist and right away she suggested Prozac of all things. Needless to say I was very disappointed in the medical professionals and we have not been back since. I have been at my wits end for a long time and sometimes I feel I am going over the deep end. I think Nathan feels the same way at times, every so often he will mention something to the sort of "Why was I ever born, or sometimes, "I wish I were dead!" This is so heart breaking.

Please help us find someone in Iowa; our funds are limited, and from what I understand insurance is not picking up the tab. I am hopeful now that there are others, but it is still so depressing that having a normal life seems nearly impossible!

It is wonderful that this site has been made available for the parents and the children and adults that suffer with these disorders. Keep up the wonderful work you are doing, or I am afraid we will all suffer from this dreaded and misunderstood disorder!

Sincerely,
Lea Ann Treloar