Food Aversion: What to do When Your Baby is Not Interested in Food

When my five-year-old daughter, McKenna, was born the nurses in the hospital commented on the fact that she didn’t seem to be interested in eating – at all. Little did I know at the time that though she was a healthy weight and was not premature, she had a condition called Food Aversion, something most of my friends have never heard of but that my daughter’s adoptive parents know plenty about.

Now, unbeknownst to McKenna, so does she – through years of physical and cognitive therapy, a feeding tube she wears off and on, coaching, involvement in a program through a hospital at one time, other kinds of therapy, and other means all medical and all sophisticated.

My best friend who was there at her birth always asks me, “Does she still have that feeding tube?” to which I reply, “Yes, but she doesn’t wear it all the time.”

I blamed myself for awhile for her problem, not knowing that there was nothing I did. And though everyone around me has told me otherwise, I still think somehow it’s my fault. I’ve even researched the disorder on the internet but to no avail regarding answers or causes.

At five she looks about three and the experts who worked with her say that when she’s 18 they can predict how much she’ll weigh and how tall she’ll be – 105 lbs., 5 feet, 4 inches. I was small as a child and the doctor kept telling me to gain weight but I never had Food Aversion. My niece was a picky eater but not to this degree.

McKenna has licked the icing off her fork from her birthday cakes but she’s never savored a slice. She has eaten ice cream at someone’s party but picks at her food otherwise.

There are a few things she likes which happen to be the same things I like. After much therapy her life is less medically structured now except for making sure she gets the nutrients she needs on a daily basis. Sometimes when she plays too hard her “button” where the feeding tube goes in from time to time will leak a little water. But she’s used to this and takes it all in stride and as far as she knows, nothing’s wrong. In all other ways she is a normal child – playful, fun, happy, spirited, spontaneous, and well-adjusted.

Pediatric eating disorders are common: 25 percent of children are reported to present with some form of feeding problem, according to the Journal of Gastroenterology. And McKenna did have reflux as an infant but she outgrew it. I developed reflux in my 20s and it’s only gotten worse.

According to a website called Feed Your Mind, eating aversion is the result of a complex interplay sensorimotor, gastrointestinal, and environmental responses. If the child is a candidate for surgical procedures gastrostomy tube can enable nourishment to be supplied in a way that does not conflict with oral-motor treatment goals.

The introduction of the feeding tube is frequently made prior to a referral for treatment for feeding problems. When tube feedings are initiated in a child who has been taking food orally the mouth may go through many changes.Music can support feeding at mealtimes to encourage these children to eat, according to Suzanne Evans Morris, a speech-language pathologist at New Visions in Faber, VA.