Eli has an eating disorder known as Extreme Food Neophobia. Basically, he is afraid of food. He believes without any doubt that new foods will kill him.
Eli has struggled with eating from the time he was born and once he started on mashed foods he began choking. This choking lead to his fear and the belief that food would kill him. Over the years he has become afraid of more and more food. Currently, his diet consists of pizza, french fries, chicken strips and chocolate chip cookies. Eli attended traditional feeding therapy at Easter Seals for 6 years and unfortunately nothing helped.
Today we are at a point where his health is beginning to be affected. He has Asthma, he gets sick very easily, and his teeth are coming in without any enamel which makes getting cavities very easy. His brain development has also suffered as he has dyslexia and his peripheral vision is off balance requiring special glasses.
We are recently started a few new therapies that are very hopeful. Eli is seeing a psychotherapist, a psychiatrist, an Anat Baniel method therapist for Neuro-Muscular Re-education, an eye specialist that works specifically on the mind-eye connection and a neurologist. The best part about all these different doctors ans therapists are that they all communicate with each other! Every time we go in to see one of they they will mention that they just talked one another. They are all very passionate about what they do and helping Eli. These different therapies have been around for a while, but putting them together to work with a child like Eli is something new. This blog will serve as a journal and hopefully a source of information for other parents with children like Eli.
No comments:
Post a Comment