Hi everyone:

Today I received a phone call from a behavioral feeding therapist regarding a
16 month old girl.  The Mother is currently working part time and exclusively
breastfed her for the first 4-5 months.  Then she introduced cereal
uneventfully for about the next 2 months.  The mother then started adding
fruits and vegetables to the cereal. The baby began refusing all solids then
and has been on only breast milk since then.  She has gone as long as 9 hours
 waiting for the breastmilk.  She refuses to drink from bottles and tippy
cups.  She will take a few sips from her mother's drink.  She will mouth
foods (took a couple olives off a pizza, chewed them and spit them out).  The
mother has continued to offer foods during all this time.  They have tried
both metal and plastic spoons.  The baby does seem to accept strawberries
occasionally.  The therapist feels that there is nothing wrong with her
swallowing and thinks it is behavioral.  I have not seen or talked with the
mother.  I asked the therapist to explore more history (i.e. aversive oral
stimuli, changes in the mother such as allergy shots, etc., timing of
immunizations, etc.)

Does anyone else have any ideas to offer or have you worked with a similar
case?  Please let me know.  I am delighted to be contacted by this therapist,
since, in the past I have heard of instances where the mother was advised to
wean to force the baby to take other foods.

Martha, queen of perplexity