Expanding the menu for a picky eater

Like many children, eight-year-old Greyson Burkhart is a picky eater. For years, he’d only eat a specific brand of cheese crackers and yogurt, which was supplemented with vitamins. Then, he stopped accepting yogurt.

After a visit to the pediatrician, his mom Stephanie Burkhart learned he’d only gained one pound over the previous year, and the doctor thought her son might need a feeding tube.

“We went to Riley Hospital, and they suggested food therapy,” she says. “After his first appointment, they mentioned he could be seen a lot closer by the IU Health Morgan Wellness Department.”

That’s where he re-met a therapist who had helped him prepare for pre-kindergarten, Krystal Loomis, OTR.

“We start our sessions with swinging, for up to 10 minutes, to help calm his nervous system down and prep for feeding activities at the table,” says Loomis.

Then, the group will move into a small room with Greyson Burkhart’s special chair to start working on trying new foods.

“Now, he’ll at least try different things,” says his mom. “He still prefers salty and crunchy foods, but we’ve added different types of crackers, applesauce and puddings to the list.”

Loomis helped her patient get to this point by incorporating an eight-step routine with foods they want him to try:

1. Look at it
2. Touch it
3. Smell it
4. Kiss it
5. Lick it
6. Put it on your teeth
7. Bite it and spit it out
8. Bite it and swallow it

At any point, he can discard the bite as long as he attempts the indicated step (excluding the swallowing step), and the results speak for themselves.

“Before these appointments, he had plateaued at 45 pounds, and at his last pediatric appointment, he weighed 57 pounds,” says his proud mom.