Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Eat!

One of the most common sources of conflict in this house is over food.  How sad is that?  Over the years I’ve learned a lot and am working hard on letting go of the emotional aspect from my side of the table. 

Girlie has a very short list of acceptable foods.  She is often unable to describe why she doesn’t like a particular food or drink, and there are no allergies or sensitivities we are aware of, so that makes it difficult to identify a reasonable substitute.  It might be less of a concern if she weren’t also very underweight – she isn’t even on the weight-for-height chart and she consistently lost weight in 2011, only finally having gained at the end to break even at the December appointment.  With that in mind, wouldn’t it make sense to let her eat as much of whatever she wants?  No – in fact, her favorite foods are white bread and plain tortillas, and I bet you can guess what happens if you don’t follow those up with enough liquid and fiber.

We know the tricks.  We sneak in calories, vegetables, and fiber whenever and wherever we can.  Girlie can ‘feel’ the difference between whole milk and 2%.  As much as she loves peanut butter, it has to be spread so thin you can see the bread or graham cracker through it.  She only recently began accepting the thinnest layer of butter on bread, pancakes, or waffles.  She doesn’t like most meats, so no bacon or sausage.  This is not a situation that can be remedied by the old standard, "You'll eat it when you get hungry enough".  Like most children with autism-related food issues, she won't.

One of the things Girlie likes best is what she thinks of as tomato soup; actually it is heated V-8 juice.  Before you ask, no; we can’t add cream to boost the fat and calories.  We’re very thankful that she is getting a serving of vegetables out of it, but we can’t let her have it every day because we have a history of the ‘Bread and Jam for Frances’ phenomenon happening with other foods that were either high in nutrition or high in caloric content, which she won’t eat now because we let her have it too often.



There is an added aspect to the challenge: piling the calories and (gasp!) fat into her goes against everything I’ve learned in order to keep my family healthy!  And waste not, want not, don’t you know – so when Dearest stops at the San Francisco Street Bakery and brings home chocolate covered macaroons in a failed effort to tempt her, I feel a certain amount of obligation to step up to the, um… plate.

Ah, well.  Knitting helps; it helps me smooth out the effects of stress and keeps my hands busy, with no desire to add such things as chocolate or cheesy powder into the project.  I suppose I can afford a pickle…

'Christmas Pickle' ornament knitted with KnitPicks Palette

1 comment:

  1. love the tradition of the "Christmas pickle" I have a glass one that was given to me by a dear friend. A knitted one....now that's creative. May I suggest adding a little almond flour in with the pancake batter. Should go undetected but it will add considerable protein. It might pass the radar.

    ReplyDelete