Many years ago when I was between apartments I spent two months crashing on the couch of one of my best friends. At that time she owned two cats one of whom was aptly named Princess.
Princess was a walking meowing stereotype. She did not cuddle. She only tolerated the humans who shared her apartment because they supplied food and cleaned the litter box. She went about her day with the aggrieved air of someone who felt that their lot in life was utterly insufficient. She was obese.
And she did NOT eat dry cat food.
This apartment dated to the turn of the last century and lacked air conditioning. The months I spent there were during summer. The cat food often sat untouched, attracting bugs and stinking up the kitchen. So I asked my friend if we could feed the cats dry food which would smell less and save her a small fortune. The cat already disliked us so really what did we have to lose?
She said that there was no way that Princess would ever eat dry cat food. She said the cat would starve herself before she ate dry food. Princess, despite her obesity, was a poor eater who barely at the high end wet stuff. What could I possibly be thinking?
I was thinking that we had never really tried.
So after an ample discussion of how we would do this. I cleaned out the cat food dish and refilled it with a box of nutritionally complete kibble.
The first day neither cat would touch the dried food.
The second day Princess was irritable and still did not eat the food.
The third day the bowl was empty.
A month later Princess was a much healthier, less obese cat, who ate dry cat food. She went on to live a long healthy life.
Why a story about cats?
Because I have had too many parents tell me that their children only eat bread. Their children will not eat fruit or vegetables. Their children never eat fruit or vegetables. Then every year we have a birthday party and despite the availability of chips and pretzels, guess what we run out of.
Fruit and vegetables.
And its not just our friends. I attended a birthday party yesterday. The children were all kindergarten aged. Potato chips were available. Guess what the host ran out of..
Did you guess cherry tomatoes and broccoli?
I am not saying that the transition will be pretty. It probably won’t. Your child may stop eating for a day or two. There may even be tantrums. It may make sleep training look like a walk in the park. But the odds are that your child will, if given the opportunity and a very strong push (such as the elimination of his very most favorite empty calorie foods) change what he eats.
He will eventually eat well. And the evidence is mounting that eating well is one of the most important weapons we have against Autism, Asthma, and ADHD. I just saw a new book on treating Autism with diet and other biomedical interventions in the bookstore. The gluten-free dairy-free, nutrient dense, fruit and veggie heavy diet combined with fish oil and other supplements was considered the first line of defense for parents.
Just go to Amazon here and read the first few pages that are provided as a preview.
http://www.amazon.com/Healing-New-Childhood-Epidemics-Groundbreaking/dp/0345494512/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339935823&sr=1-1&keywords=autism+and+ADHD+biomedical
Its not easy. But it is possible. And I have gone from 2 inhalers and an epipen to no inhalers and no epipen. My son has largely recovered from his ordeal.
And while I don’t know you or your situation I do know that he and I are not at all unique. Find a doctor who will work with you. Make a plan.
And I will give you the recipes to execute on that plan
You can do this.
