Join UrbanMoms as we discuss being active and making healthy choices in the “life is good” blog series sponsored by Nesquik.
At a time when most Canadian children may not be getting the calcium
and other essential nutrients they need, delicious milk – like chocolate
milk made with Nesquik – is just a good idea.
At a time when most Canadian children may not be getting the calcium
and other essential nutrients they need, delicious milk – like chocolate
milk made with Nesquik – is just a good idea.
So this is weird.
My younger daughter has suddenly developed a strange food aversion. She seems unable to swallow: she’ll willingly take a bite of something, chew it…chew it…chew it…and, well, chew it some more. Eventually her older sister will yell at her to swallow, followed by a diatribe on how disgusting it is (which, truth be told, it is) to hold masticated food in your mouth for so long.
I just can’t get to the bottom of this new “thing” of hers though. She was never a particularly picky eater; just a normal kid. She never had any strong aversions to textures or tastes, and was mostly willing to try any new foods offered to her. And this new thing doesn’t seem to have a real pattern to it either. She said she can’t swallow “crunchy” foods, but she’ll scarf down chips and cheesies, so that’s not it. Yesterday she said she couldn’t manage pizza at a restaurant and instead ordered a really soft, runny lasagna which she wasn’t able to swallow, and yet later on at the movie theatre she put away a full pack of Rolos with no trouble whatsoever. And before you chime in to advise me that she’s refusing “real food” in favour of junk, that pattern doesn’t really hold either. For instance, she happily ate a nectarine but foundered on a jelly-filled timbit.
Thing is, I’m not too worried about it at this point. My feeling is that it’s a mental thing: she had the sniffles last week, so maybe her taste was a bit off and she developed a bit of a mental aversion to swallowing, which got reinforced. It does bother her though, and she asked me yesterday, “Mom, will I ever recover?” I told her it was quite common to develop food aversions throughout life and assured her it would clear up soon. I explained to her that I myself had a very, very strong aversion to honey and eggs following a unit at school in about grade five where we learned where our food came from. Watching a film of bees making honey and learning that eggs were the sex cells of chickens just blew my mind and I couldn’t eat either food without gagging. What I didn’t tell my little girl was that this aversion of mine lasted years (like, ten of them) and is the reason why I still cannot eat eggs in any form other than scrambled and very, very dry. She doesn’t need to know that.
So what to do? Well, it just so happens we have our annual physicals in a few days, so I think I’ll run it past our family doctor for her opinion. But my instinct tells me it’s a phase she’ll outgrow as soon as she stops thinking about it so much (and maybe a little less disgust from her older sister would help with that). For the time being, I’m not going to stress about it too much. As long as she gets the calories she needs to keep going, I’m not going to sweat it if those calories come from Rolos, chocolate milk, nectarines or ice cream.
Have you experienced a similar sudden food aversion in your parenting journeys (or maybe even yourself)? What did you do to weather the storm? Should I be more worried than I am or am I on the right track by letting it go for a while? Let me know what you think.
I did take her in to the doctor, and although her throat was fine the dr. did make the connection to anxiety. Thankfully we are over this hurdle now and everyone’s eating happily again 🙂
Kelley, that’s interesting about the connection to OCD. I have a friend whose son has OCD and he gets similar kinds of behaviours related to food/eating. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a connection. Not sure the best approach in that case, but for my daughter, just leaving her alone and NOT commenting on it at all was the best approach. I just reassured her she would get over it, and then we totally ignored it at mealtimes and within a few days she was sharing her success with me, “look Mom! I swallowed a whole bite!” etc. A few days after that and she was eating normally again.
I hope your son is able to overcome it as quickly as my daughter did. It certainly can be troubling!
jcm, totally! I kept telling myself it was a stage (and her, too, as it was distressing her a lot) and sure enough, she is past it now and eating well again. What a relief!
Sara, I totally think you’re right. In fact, once she was back home and everyone stopped hassling her about it, she overcame it. As our family doc said, “anxiety can make you choke up: literally.”
It could be “kids being kids”. My 13 yr old just became super picky too. Getting her to eat is like offering to get a tooth pulled “for fun” … NOT going to happen!
I’m hoping it’ll pass eventually.
Mine does this! He is 8. He’ll chew and chew something that shoudn’t need very much chewing, but insist that he still can’t swallow it when I try to get him to move on. I think it is related to his OCD, but don’t know for sure. I can’t quite predict when it will happen and when it won’t, but it makes meals take FOREVER!
Hey Kath. I went through this when I was in the 8th grade and again in the 10th. It was all due to anxiety. I could chew and chew and chew but if I tried to swallow, I’d gag and was unable to eat anything. Could it be that??
I’d definitely have the doc check out her throat. She could have polyps in her throat or a hormonal imbalance, or an auto-immune issues with her thyroid. She could have an over-active gag reflex, which can be fixed with a benzocaine throat spray before eating.
I’m curious to see how this turns out — keep us posted!
Not all that random really, Kristin. It’s a good suggestion! My girls have never been big drinkers (now that sounds funny) – not like some kids who will down 12oz of juice in one go so I do often wonder if they are slightly dehydrated just because they never drink more than about 4oz of any liquid at a time. I will be pushing the water on her big time to see if it helps. Thanks for the suggestion.
This may be random, but has it been really hot where you live? When I get dehydrated (which is frequently because I just cannot get myself to drink as much as I should), I have a hard time eating lots of foods. I wonder if she’s a bit dehydrated? Maybe push the liquids for a day or two and see if it clears up? Good luck – it’s always something!