Therapy

When you plan meals, do you take the "messy factor" into consideration? Maybe you hate cleaning up spaghetti strewn across the table, or jam smeared everywhere within reach. Or maybe the thought of your child massaging carmel into their own hair is more than you can handle.

Or maybe, you are like me. Maybe you think of meal time as therapy time and offer your child every sticky, gooey, messy food item you can find, and feel like cheering them on when, after a few timid pokes, they reach out and get their hands dirty - and enjoy doing it! Antalya has an aversion to certain tactile stimuli. Picking up a piece of cake, touching a marshmallow, or sticking a finger in a drop of pudding, for example, is enough to start her on a gaging fit. We have been working hard at overcoming this reaction. We still have a ways to go, but this week she has picked up and eaten pieces of toast covered in jelly, and she has self-fed herself a bowl of spaghetti. It was great! Here's a few pictures from dinner tonight to prove it!