Summer time is my favorite time of year when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Nothing is better than fresh summer time produce!
I love watermelon, cantaloupe, honey-dew, grapes, strawberries and peaches. I love a good peach. One that has reached that peak of ripeness and smells so yummy and when you take a bite it oozes with juices. And I don't even mind the fuzziness of the skin - its part of the peaches' charm.
I love the taste of a fresh homemade peach pie - a nice fresh from the oven slice with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream on the side. Yum yum.
But my all time favorite peachy thing - is the Georgia Peach Ice Cream I stumbled upon when in Hilton Head Island some 10-12 years ago. Ohhhh was that ice cream the best. It was homemade very buttery peach ice cream and we found it in the "mall" of all places. That particular vacation, I think my brother and I went back to the ice cream store twice during our stay just so that I could have another taste. The next year, I was saddened to find out it wasn't on their menu - yet a year later it was back again, however, that was the last time I ever had it.
So I think I can say that I like peaches. Fresh from the store peaches - not necessarily a big fan of the canned ones, but a fresh perfectly ripened peach - yum yum.
Back in March, my son was given puréed peaches as one of his feeding clinic exercises. The goal was to start out with 10 bites and then move up to 2-3 oz of the puréed peaches. In the beginning, my son sort of ate them. He tolerated them. I think he wasn't quite sure if he liked them or not, but gave it the "preschool" try. And that of course, didn't last very long. It had gotten to the point where we would drive to the feeding clinic and before the car stopped in the parking spot, he'd start whining and telling me that he didn't want to eat peaches. Then at home, we pretty much had to threaten him to eat them. It was getting ridiculous - I'm sure my husband and I were one step from needing social services intervention because the fights were getting out of control. My almost three year old just didn't like peaches and I personally couldn't understand because I like peaches. So my daughter pipes in one day that she's not the biggest fan of peaches either. Hmmm. Then my husband says, he doesn't like them. And in speaking with my mother-in-law, I come to find out she's not a big fan of them either - or is it my father-in-law? Anyway it doesn't really matter who - but I'm thinking there is a "I hate peaches" gene on my husband's side of the family.
So we went back to the feeding clinic a couple of weeks ago and we told the psychologist that my son just doesn't like peaches. So she gave us sweet potatoes to add into the mix. My son was just mortified. Here I'm giving him puréed peaches that are "orange-ish" in color and now I'm adding puréed sweet potatoes - which are also "orange-ish" in color. I can see it in his face - "a hello mom, I don't like these mushy "orange-ish" things that you serve me in 1 oz plastic medicine cups. I will not eat them - never ever!" Not only is that written on his face but he'll tell me as plain as day the same thing. I get it, but I don't understand it. So for weeks I fight with him twice a day to eat these darn "mushy orange-ish" things served to him in 1 oz medicine cup. It has made eating for my son so unpleasant and I feel like I am Atilla the Hun. So last week the psychologist suggested we keep a food log for a couple of days so they can see what he is eating and the caloric intake. My son hasn't gained much weight after an initial jump, but he eats. Eats more than his sister did at that point in life. I just think he burns calories much quicker and that's why he's not gaining weight. Plus he's quite short for his age, so really, we don't want to "fatten" him up too much. He's quite proportional and we come to find out after they reviewed his feeding log of this past week that he's actually eating about 91% of what he needs to eat. To which I say to myself, really? So why have I been forcing "peaches" on my poor son for weeks? So after a quick discussion with both the dietitian and psychologist - they both agreed that he doesn't need puréed foods anymore. He only needs to make sure he gets naturally "soft" foods like yogurt, ice cream, pudding in his diet - for that extra boost of calories in addition to the foods he already eats. Then, there was talk that if he does good over the next week or so, they're going to change his requirements to every two weeks to visit the feeding clinic instead of every week. That's a huge change from less than a month ago, when we were told we probably needed heavy duty intervention of a 12 week program. A program that would require my son to be at the clinic 5 days a week from 8am to 5pm for feeding therapy. I feel like I won the lottery today.
So based on our conversation and my child's feeding log - the psychologist thinks that his problem was the gluten intolerance. That he went from milk only to solid foods and he's eating well balanced and diverse items once he realized that we weren't giving him foods that made him feel sick. She thinks this is good enough, unless he falls back this week on his intake and weight, to make my schedule less crazy and my son will be so very happy.
The poor peach though, my son will think for the rest of his life that peaches are yucky and the "bad guy". I'm sure he'll never touch another peach again as long as he lives. He will be like me with peas. I can see peas for miles and will not eat one - I will pick out all peas from any soups and stews, etc. I don't like them and won't eat them. I did once, because I was at a dinner party where someone dished them out for me and I felt obligated to eat them. I did my best to not gag through eating them - so now I understand why my son gagged through peaches - he just doesn't like them. The jury is still out on the sweet potatoes though!
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