QuestionHi,
My daughter is 16 months and has been diagnosed with a dairy and egg allergy and also a sensitivity to nuts where she has been given an epipen. I am looking into resources to find alternative recipes and will be trying to offer her some new foods. My problem is that since she was sick in the fall with severe asthma (in hospital on ventolin masks, on prednisone which set off her sleep and eating habits) she will not even try new foods or foods she once liked. She used to eat some "real fruit" that I cut up or mashed and same with veggies. Now she only wants pureed organic baby foods for these. Sometimes I can get her to get in a few veggie if I add red pepper humus to it (don't ask how she ever got into liking that!!!) but she won't even put any new offers to her mouth to even try them. I offer them every few days as they say but I am definitely hitting the point where I'm wondering if she'll ever eat them. Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to encourage her to actual try the foods? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Even with the changes, we are still experiencing rashes on her body, and severe diaper rash as well. Coughing and a runny nose are still there but she also has a cat allergy and we are in the process of finding a new home for them so I抦 hoping that will help out as well.
Thank you for your time and advice.
Michelle
AnswerDear Michelle,
You have a pretty tough case on your hands. Your daughter has had a rough time, poor thing, and the ordeals will indeed have made her go off the idea of food. Subconsciously she has few positive connotations with food. So the priority will lie in making eating a new, fun, enjoyable sensory experience. At her age, it will mean introducing lots of different textures: the pureeing of fruit and veg is emphasing flavours she has decided not too like, too much.
Please stop with the humus though! Or drastically cut down. She is much too young to eat pulses with her sensitivity. It is way too heavy on the digestive system; and peppers, too I can far from recommend. All "deadly nightshade" plants (incl tomato)create potentially picky eaters, because of the way they stimulate the astral body prematurely. Kids with allergies have an astral imbalance to start with.
It may help to look at the phenomenon of Allergy from the following perspective. Essentially it is a reaction of the self against foreign substance. The more "alien" the protein is to the own body the more violent the reaction will be. This might be important to bear in mind when the time comes to reintroduces some of the foodstuffs your daughter is currently allergic to: try to buy organic, preferably bio-dynamic dairy e.g. The "quality" of the product will be less intrusive. For now make sure all your veg and fruit are in season and therefore most flavoursome and most densely packed with goodness.
Perhaps, as the asthma also indicates, your daughter's soul has been overtaxed. This could be a "birth defect" (Karma) and one of those things a good life on earth will remedy in due time. But mind you check that you are not making too many demands on her intellectual capacities prematurely (memory games, analytical exercises etc), or overstimulating her input/output system (tv, pop music, fairgrounds, malls, constant distraction, activities). Make sure she has lots of time and space to potter about (by herself) and muck about creatively. Imitation is very important from now on till about age 3: find opportunities to let her join in with (houshold) chores.Try to keep the environment baby-friendly. Her agitated physical conditions warrant a calm, relaxing atmosphere, soft tones (both colour and music), and natural materials (wood, cotton, wool, sand). All this will help strengthen the ether body (the life forces) and provide more of a protective coccoon around the child. Naps and warm baths (Weleda baby bath is very rebalancing, almost medicinal and great for the metabolic system), plenty of lullabyes and soothing massage. She may need to be treated more like a baby than you may think, still (the puree baby food indicates this). But now is the stage where the "comfort" and "babying" is no longer offered at the nutritional level. This should become an adventure!
The way to therapeutically handle the actual eating problems is two- fold (and not easy, alas):
1)make food special and fun, taking lots of time out and using your own enjoyment as an example she can copy. So it is important to share meals as a family and offer a range of choice so she does not get the feel of being forced and her natural curiosity is stimulated. Peeling a tangerine can be fun for her at this stage. Plant a broccoli tree in the middle of a mash potato island. And remember: one bite is a victory!
2)Move away from the stuggle of eating for a while,which also means forcing yourself not to worry about the amount of food she is actually eating for two to three weeks. Unless she chokes on her food still, serve different shapes of fruit, berries, in a colourful pattern, as a snack and share a plate with her, both picking and relishing together. The same with veg, a train of carrot rounds, peas, green beans, or a happy face with cucumber eyes, a spinach blob nose, a potato wedge mouth. Would thick soups work? Or smoothies? This to feed her up occasionally.
Half the trick is in the effort you put into it: kids can taste the love with which food is prepared, if you let them refind their natural sensitivity (after they've had too many processed foods. Keeping the palate clean from the start is the key to success, I'm afraid.). Breadsticks with two brightly coloured dips might work: a small dish of pumpkin, carrot or sweetpotato dip and a pea or spinach dip, try alternate dipping.
Rice patties with some veg (and chicken/tuna/soy). Rolled up pancakes with fillings. But always try to eat (a variation of) the same yourselves, this will encourage her to join in. And when you want to comment on how delicious it tastes do so amongst yourselves, not just TO her.
The point you need to emphasise is to let her "make up her own mind" to eat. This way you are trying to transfer her self-rule onto a more pro-active level and away from the reactionary subconscious physical level. Stimulate the senses gently. Try to get her involved in cooking, even if it is just putting washing veg in a collander or stirring flour in a bowl. Make some jam or tarts, or pasties, tasting the ingredients as you go along. It's all very labour intensive to be sure! But the only way forward I can think of is to change her relationship with food and attitude to mealtimes(maybe the entire family's?).
I wish you all the luck in the world and may you have much creativity come your way, and lots more stamina.
Good health to you all,
Love Evelyn.
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