Our New Food Routine

So much information to get across.  We had another family food school yesterday, which we passed with flying colours, though we still need to work on increasing the positive feeding experience.

So now we are well and truly working on our new eating schedule.  The boys are finding it a bit difficult - Jazz is loving it cos he is eating ALL the time.. hahaha... and sometimes it feels like we are constantly feeding but we are already seeing positive results.

The goal of the meals is for Emma, James and Jasper to eat a good volume of their preferred foods , but also for them to learn about other foods, either new or not preferred.  At every meal and snack, we have to give them one protein, one starch and one fruit/veg.  It is a lot easier than it sounds.  They can have a snack of tiny teddies or crisps, so that can be taken as a starch.  Same as chocolate cake - that is their starch.  Also, they are NOT allowed to snack outside feeding hours.  But since children are supposed to eat every two and a half hours, we are not having any issues with that.  Of course, if they dont fill up at their meal time, they can get hungry but they have to learn. 

So our new schedule (of course when we get home and start diving into the day to day routines of school and kinder we will have to change it) is eating at 8.30am, 11am, 1.30pm, 4.00pm, 6.30pm and 8pm.  In between meals they can have water only.  At the end of the meal they are allowed to have a high calorie drink, such as juice, or in Emma's case - her coke - but she gets offered her formula at the meal time.  We need her to be drinking it at every meal time - her body needs to start recognising that is her meal times - because - her formula is her meal.

Our learning meal of the day is 6.30pm.  That is where we learn about the learning plate - and we do a bit more interaction with the food.  We also play the special clean up game.


5 minutes before we serve up, we warn the children that we will be eating shortly.  We then start doing some movements, or what the therapists call "Postural Activation Exercises" - to warm up the big body.  They can run around and march.  We also get them to move the foot stools to the sink to give them some pressure exercises.  


The next thing we do is we say "It is time to wash our hands now" (dont tell them that it is time to eat).  Use the hand washing as a sensory exercise by using different soaps, water temperature, different sponges or flannels, or brushes.  We then all sit at the specially prepared table (with food in the middle and learning plates).


We then do the family serving style, where the child can help themselves to as much or as little as they want of each bit of food.  Either goes on their eating plate or learning plate.  And then we eat.  Yum yum.


Once the eating has slowed, we then move onto the learning plate (of which I have talked about in earlier blogs).  After that... FUN clean up game starts.  


It can be exhausting - but we are seeing results.