chewing, and/or lack thereof
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| Thu, 09-14-2006 - 9:27pm |
Weston (ASD, age 10) chews on everything. He is always asking for gum, chewing his fingers and clothes (tho this is better as they've given him other sensory things at school), he has a heavy plastic tube to chew, he loves really chewy snacks, etc. HOWEVER, when it comes to meat and raw veggies he doesn't seem to be able to chew them. We have at least one dinner a week where Weston doesn't chew something enough and then jumps up and flys into the bathroom where he gags, pukes, clears his throat for what seems like forever (and the downstairs powder room is RIGHT next to the table where we eat). When I bugged him about it tonight, Weston said this happens occasionally at school during lunch, as well. It's always w/ beef or pork that is not ground or processed.
Should I speak to the speech therapist about this? would they do anything about it?
Betsy

Oh, lovely.
I bet it's more of a sensitive gag reflex than anything to do with AS. I have known a lot of kids, including me when I was young, that can not chew beef. My daughter (11 years)often spits beef out, she also spits out cheese.
I did have my son's (2 years w/ AS)speech therapist watch him eat and she was able to tell if he was moving the right muscles to be safely biting off, chewing and swallowing foods. This was because he had undeveloped facial muscles. So your speech person may be able to assist.
Maybe figure out what types of foods trigger this and remind your son to cut off very smaller pieces of problem foods and to chew them a bit extra?
I always forget to remind him to chew properly until we're having the problem (maybe I should write a note in my calendar next to the "offending" meal to get out our "chew reminder"-- we used to have a sign that told him to "Chew each bite 15 times" that we just had posted on the wall, this was an every meal occurance when he was younger. The speech therapist we had when he was younger said he was just in too big a hurry, then the OT told us it was sensory. But since these are things he likes to eat and most of his sensory things are undercontrol, I'm wondering.
Betsy
It won't help at school but you may want to also continue to cut his pieces of those into smaller pieces.
I would definitely ask the ST and the OT. It may be a motor planning type issue or sensory as well. Perhaps then can consult together to try and figure it out and some possible interventions.
Do you get a lunch menu at home? If it is a big concern like he may choke perhaps you can pack him a lunch on the day the offending lunches are offered.
Renee
I don't have as much experience with food/sensory things, but I did experience it a little with one ds when he was around 2yo. He LOVED the flavor of food, but he had a hard time with certain textures, like rice, for a long time. He'd take a bite of food, suck the flavor out, but he couldn't figure out what to do with the rice. He'd hold it in his mouth until he gagged or I made him spit it out, then he'd ask for another bite of food. He could eat other foods/textures without a problem. I wonder whether something like that could be going on with your ds (which might be why he forgets to chew 'cus the texture's bothering him)?
Best wishes with figuring it out!