Well I Finally Did It!

I made a menu plan for this week.

One of the challenges (I know I've mentioned this before...blah blah blah) is my son, Eric, who has some sensory integration issues for which we've never been able to afford therapy. One way, the main way actually, that this manifests for him is called, apparently, Sensory Eating Disorder. I've also heard it called resistant eating.

At any rate, I'm very concerned that it not degenerate into Anorexia at any point. I must keep him eating. And so, part of planning a menu is planning meals that the whole family will love, and which, with as few modifications as possible, I can feed him.

So, here's what I came up with for this week:

Monday Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches/or on salad with fresh veggies. Eric: Scrambled egg and apple slices.

Monday Dinner: Meatloaf, potatoes, and green beans. Eric: meat patty (reserved from before adding meat to meat loaf ingredients) and oven baked fries. (and halleluja, we had a peaceful dinner with everyone engaging in pleasant conversation as opposed to sulking, yelling and the like).

Tuesday Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal
Tuesday Lunch: Hotdogs, salad, leftover meatloaf, apple slices
Tuesday Dinner: Spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, Eric: glass of raw milk for protein with his noodles and parmesan.

Wednesday Breakfast: Waffles or toast
Lunch: PBJs, apples, carrot, celery, glass of milk
Dinner: Rice with veg stir fry, Eric: Fries with ketchup, glass of milk

Thursday: French toast
Lunch: Hotdog, leftovers, baked potatoes and cheese
Dinner: Beef Pizza with salad, cherry cobbler

Friday: Grits or oatmeal
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, fruit
Dinner: Baked fish, fish sticks for Eric and Ariana, milk, apple slices

Saturday: Waffles,
Lunch: Liver and salad
Dinner: Burgers

Sunday: Fasting for breakfast
Leftover liver and scrambled eggs for lunch
Dinner: Baked chicken with vegetables

-breads and baked goods made with soaked grains or store bought sprouted grain bread/buns
-Hot dogs are nitrite free, organic
-fries are organic, along with everything else
-eggs are pastured
-meat is grass fed
-milk is raw

I'm DONE feeling maternal guilt over Eric's eating problems. I really am trying to do the best I can to feed him nutritiously, and also to get him to eat. I'm seriously considering what to do because I'd like to make him some chicken nuggets, but I can't really afford a big bag of chicken breasts of the type I'd like to get. I might just get store chicken and make nuggets, and call it a compromise, less that perfect thing because the boy's got to eat something. And I don't want him to get totally sick of healthy options on a potentially too-limited diet. At least with this plan, he's not living on breakfast cereal.

I also think that having a plan posted on the fridge will help my reluctant eater to know in advance what is coming, so he can mentally prepare himself for the task of eating it.

Comments

elizabeth said…
The making of c. nuggets sounds like a good compromise; it seems the balance and compromise are important things.

You are all on my prayer wall. My love.
Anna said…
Menu posting is a great idea! Kind of like the menus they used to send home with public school students. BIG BIG thing with Aspies is knowing what comes next so we don't freak or balk or melt, etc. :-)
Edana said…
My dad was the cook in my family.He had a large blackboard with columns for each day of the week. He would write up the next week's menu each weekend so we always knew what was for dinner. He always stuck to the plan too. I imagine he only bought food for those specific meals, but I don't know since I was just a kid. I don't recall any arguments about dinner. :) I hope it works for you just like it did for my dad.
margaret said…
I have synaesthesia which now, being middle-aged, I can treat the way we are supposed to treat logismoi and just ignore it when it starts. Years ago though I went to a support group for basically generalised sensory disorders (in the 80s it was all kind of new) and I remember it being said that most guys who end up with anorexia actually have some kind of sensory disorder rather than the psychological ones girls have. You are doing absolutely the best thing here I think.

Elizabeth, I seem to be following you around the blogosphere today :)
Anonymous said…
Wow. You have my sincere admiration - there aren't many people who would go to such loving lengths. My prayers with you and your family!

Marigold
Has said…
What is baked oatmeal?