vinegar and oatmeal anyone?

* I think the ak-mak crackers above in the yellow box are the winners,

although I think this may lower our cracker intake substantially!

So I've been working on improving the little dudes diet. Poor child. Between this and the sensory suggestions his OT and Speech therapist have given he is really going to hate me and eating! I'm having to find a balance because adding hot sauce and balsamic vinegar to his beloved oatmeal is just making both our lives miserable. The things that are my "go-to's" are no more even if untainted it seems because I've lost his trust. Here are the latest examples: The OT wants me to add hot sauce and balsamic vinegar to things that I know he likes and will eat. She wants to wake up his mouth and get all of his senses working and I guess it takes something that nasty to do it. He has some sensory problems and is very hypersensitive to foods, eating, and textures. He will still eat the oatmeal if I feed it to him but he definitely doesn't enjoy it like usual or self-feed or request more or finish it for that matter. Well since doing that he isn't as interested in Oatmeal even if all I've put in it is mashed bananas which is what I've done for a very long time prior to the balsamic vinegar.

Separate from the requests of the OT, I have been trying to change up his diet so he has more of a variety of fruits and vegetables and more quantity. So goes the following: there was his favorite vegetable, butternut squash. This time around he is not having it and I made it like normal, I think. I had fed him carrots the night before and I guess the colors are the same so he freaked. He just won't trust anything. Then I decided to try adding the pureed butternut squash to his applesauce yesterday and he would have none of it. I had to bring a new empty bowl and the container from the fridge and pour it in front of him to get just plain applesauce down him. He sees me in the kitchen preparing food and gets skeptical. I successfully added the squash in with French toad today but don't tell him! I guess I need to put just the smallest amount in and work up as his tastebuds adjust.

I have orders from his OT to make him a plate if the same food I am eating regardless of whether he will eat it or not. I have to do this for 13 days straight. She says it takes that long to break a habit and then I have to try to get him to actually eat it after those 13 days for another couple of weeks. I think this is going to take a while.

Because of his hypersensitivity to textures it's just that way. I will be buying a magic bullet/food processor ASAP! Enough with the blender. For now I'm glad I think he has taken a liking to one of the selections of whole wheat crackers I picked up at trader joes. Good bye fish crackers, cheez-it's, and animal crackers. This will be good for me too (not so tempting to snack on whole wheat sesame crackers!).

I'm starting to try jessica seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious. Anyone used it and what's your experience?