These are the tricks of the trade of feeding therapy - at least for me! Because I don't have the ability to chew very well everything I eat has to be able to be disolved pretty easily in my mouth. I DETEST pureed baby food. Although they are the perfect "safe" food for me to eat I want nothing to do with them. For trach kids, though, that is apparently not so unusual. Since a lot of tasting food is related to how it smells - breathing through the trach and not the nose seems to have an impact. Parents of other trach kids have noticed their kids prefer foods with strong flavors and Mommy has noticed that with me as well. One of the first kinds of ice cream I would eat was ginger - not usually a flavor you would think a baby would enjoy. To expand on that theme Mommy is investing in things like hummus, salsa, sharp cheddar cheese spread, port wine cheese spread and condiments. If I had my choice between Gerber graduate cheese puffs, Goldfish crackers or Ritz white cheddar crackers guess what I choose? That's right - the Ritz every time - they have a sharp tangy flavor and I love them. In fact, today during feeding therapy with Karen I was unwilling to try just about anything. As soon as Mommy pulled out the Ritz crackers, though, I had my mouth as wide open as Mommy has ever seen it - waiting for Karen to put a spoonful of crushed up crackers in my mouth! Mommy and Karen were laughing so hard - I looked just like a baby bird waiting for a worm! So the challenge is to continue to find textures that are a pureed consistency but have a strong flavor. Any good ideas?Peyton Nicole Smith
Archway Iced Molasses cookies are delicious, and soft. You could probably take a small cookie and smash it into smaller pieces. The taste is delicious!
ReplyDeleteI think you would also like the flavor of Little Smokies (sausages) and beef sticks. They are very hard, but can be cut up into smaller pieces that you could probably swallow. If nothing else, I think you would like sucking on a "slim Jim", as they have tons of flavor, and it wouldn't be much different than you sucking from a sucker.