Food for Thought (& not Callie)

Callie has been very slow at wanting to learn to eat baby food, especially from a spoon. She is now 8 months old and has never really ate solid food. Because of her severe reflux she has had thick rice cereal in her formula since she was 3 months old, so she is not starving by any means. (just check out her thighs!) heehee So today I fed Colton and Caleio their own bowl of cooked oatmeal. Colton had just a few spoonfuls left so I thought I would see if I could get Callie to eat it. I put her in her high chair and tried to feed her. 1st bite: the most horrible face accompanied by the appropriate shudder. 2nd bite: another horrible face followed by gagging. I was definitely holding my breath. After the 1st horrible face that she had made I was wishing for my video camera, but since I just had knee surgery I wasn't about to run upstairs to get it. 3rd bite: not such a horrible face,but....UP came everything!! I'm a thinking' she doesn't like oatmeal too much at this point. And maybe I am grateful that I wasn't video taping her!

This eating episode reminded me of Josiah. Ever since he was a baby he has had a very touchy "gag button". Like Callie, he did not like baby food and would gag and throw up if we tried to feed it to him. He never did eat it. Over the next few years, it became obvious that it is a texture thing. And when he would eat (or put in his mouth) something that had the wrong texture he would start gagging. This had subsided quite a bit and I had forgotten that he had this issue when we decided to treat ourselves to a dinner out at the Sizzler for Valentines day. It was soon after we had moved to Eugene. I think he was about 4 years old. We got the kids the buffet bar since it seemed to have several things on it that I thought they would like. I put different things on Josiah's plate, including about 4 BBQ meatballs. He sat next to me at the table. He wasn't really eating anything on his plate, saying he didn't like them. Getting a little perturbed, I insisted that he taste some of them. He obediently took a bite of his meatball and starting gagging. Forgetting that he had a problem with certain foods, I told him to knock it off and eat his food. (I thought he was acting to try and get out of it) Well, the next thing I knew, he was gagging hard and all of a sudden he THREW UP all over himself, the table, the floor....EVERYWHERE. In the middle of Sizzler. In the middle of MANY people. I will never forget he has a texture issue AGAIN!