Last night we discussed our new discipline techniques and how we would respond to each situation and misbehavior. We then agreed we would both use the same technique every time with no deviation. Evelyn's issues make it that we MUST be consistent. She has to know what to expect. It is a mix of her personality and this disorder that she craves predictability which we haven't had in the past. We changed our parenting techniques as we saw fit.
So last night while I was at work, Patrick sat her down for dinner (always a fun time!) She instantly started her tantrums, screaming, throwing things, choking on food etc. He stared at the same place on the wall the entire time and never acknowledged her. She kept going through this pattern where she would scream, throw her cup, push her plate away, etc over and over. In between each "pattern" she would take a bite of food. We had previously never ignored her long enough for that to happen. Total she ended up eating 4 Ritz crackers. More than she's eaten in the past week combined! I know, it's not a great dinner. But we have to get her back eating foods and then slowly start going back to normal healthy meals.
Breakfast came today and same thing. Instant tantrum. We ignored her. She ate a few bites of cereal. She had one bad bite of yogurt and that was the end of that. Yogurt was all over the floor, table, and wall. But we kept on ignoring her. When the timer went off for the end of meal time, we made her clean up everything which she did not enjoy. Then I decided to eat my breakfast. I had KIX cereal. She asked for a bite and I gave her some. She did awesome! She ate tons before leaving for school. She even ate them the whole way to school! Now you have to remember, she gags horribly on any crunchy foods so this is a huge success!
When Patrick picked her up from school the teacher said she did well. She painted a picture, stayed on the rug for rug time and she even ate pretzels at snack time! I am so happy.
We served her a regular lunch along with the KIX we knew she would eat and she only ate KIX but it's getting her used to the idea that it's ok to eat, and it's ok to eat at the table. Lunch had zero ....yes ZERO problems. I can't remember the last time we had a meal without screaming or throwing things.
We also started our discipline techniques. Getting dressed was one time out and she got dressed without an issue. Leaving school she had a tantrum and Patrick let her know she would get a time out and she stopped and left peacefully.
Today was so peaceful. Hardly any problems! It's like I am almost in my old life where my kids were "normal" and life just happened. We didn't have to focus on Evelyn's issues 24/7. She even took her nap without a peep. And guess what!!! She went potty at school and before nap! Hopefully we are on our way back to potty training. And only one poop today. The laxatives screwed her up so bad. Her last dose was Monday and as of yesterday was still having 6-8 poops a day.
I honestly think our biggest mistake ever was going to Children's Hospital. When we brought Evie there we had a happy, healthy, smart, cooperative girl who had a little problem pooping and was underweight. One week later we had a child in constant pain, more terrified to poop than she ever was, a raw oozing butt from diaper rash, a girl who went back to diapers, threw constant tantrums, refused all foods, became a Carnation junkie, pooped in her pants 10 times a day, who couldn't go in public, and basically our lives were miserable. Never again will I go back there. We have stopped EVERYTHING children's told us to do, other than adding some calories to her food. I can't imagine what our life would be like if we kept doing what they said. We are slowly getting our lives back together.
I believe Evelyn has always had the SID, but I think following Children's directions made it manifest itself more than we ever imagined. Before her symptoms were manageable, and after they were not.
Eating is a huge issue that manifested itself. Now that we stopped all their recommendations, it seems as if some things are getting back on track and back to normal. However, without therapy I don't see the food issue getting back to normal.
It's been only two days of our toothbrush therapy :) desensitizing her mouth to objects, and she started eating already! That's awesome progress. I am excited for her to go next week so the speech pathologist can start her work getting the eating back on track. The kid can't live on KIX forever!
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