Some progress!

I need to document the "real" foods that Michael is eating. His favorite food is spaghetti. He would eat spaghetti for every meal, every day, if I would let him. But I'm not entirely sure that the wheat pasta doesn't exacerbate his eczema, so I try not to go overboard.

Tonight he ate strawberry ice cream and vanilla ice cream. I had to help him (in other words, feed it to him), but he ate it without complaint. And he agreed that next time he would eat it by himself.

He eats canned peaches just fine. I don't have to cut them up or anything. He can do that. We have agreed that this week we will try to do the same with bananas. Actually, I'll cut them into chunks for him (I've been mashing them with a fork) and we'll see how he does eating them the same way he does peaches.

He has started eating enchilada casserole. This is HUGE. Enchilada casserole is basically enchiladas, but instead of filling the tortillas, I layer everything in a casserole dish. Much easier. Anyway, it has corn, black beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, corn tortillas, cheese, and hamburger. The various textures haven't even been hard for him. I did have to help him the first couple of times he ate it, but tonight he ate half a bowl all by himself. I don't smash it. I just cut it into small chunks, but it still has whole beans, which I was initially worried about. He does so well. He has even informed me that he doesn't need a drink with enchilada casserole anymore. (He usually has a drink after each bite of a difficult food.)

We are having Spanish rice for dinner tomorrow, which he does eat well, and without help. He requested Spanish rice when we were making our weekly menu.

He can eat chicken, and we are teaching him to cut it up into pieces small enough for him to eat. I think that this will be key. He needs his food in small pieces in order to feel comfortable eating it. Since we won't always be around to do that for him, we are trying to teach him to use a knife and fork and cut his own food up.

Today while he was getting ready for bed, he asked me if we could eat fish for his snack tomorrow. Huh?!? I was VERY surprised. He has never asked for anything like that before. So of course, I said yes. We'll cook some of the salmon up tomorrow and see how he does. He's eaten a bite or two before, and said he liked it, but to request it is a really big deal.

He also requested that we have peas with the Spanish rice tomorrow, and green beans at either lunch time or snack time tomorrow. And he says he will eat both of those by himself. It's beginning to look like we might have an entire day of no pureed food!

Let me just say, I am SO proud of him, and I feel that I need to acknowledge the Lord's help in getting him to this point. It's like all of a sudden a switch has been flipped. We're still a long way from being able to put a peanut butter sandwich down in front of him and having him eat it, but I know that eventually we'll get there.