He sat in a high chair, and cheerfully ate some bologna, cheese, and strawberries, and then announced that he was "all done." She left him in the chair, and while another person was blowing bubbles, she got him to eat a whole container of applesauce.
That basic idea is her game plan for us going forward: we're supposed to create positive reinforcements to use at mealtimes (bubbles, TV, special toys he only gets at meals), and he only gets them if he's eating. And she said to use purees that we spoon-feed him as part of every meal as a way to get a lot of calories in quickly. (So far that has worked very well with applesauce; not so well with the mashed potato, cheese, and bologna puree that Mike made yesterday.)
She was glad to see that he was perfectly happy after he had the applesauce, which means he has the capacity to eat higher volumes of food; apparently some kids with feeding issues can be convinced to eat more after they say they're done, but then they throw up because their systems just can't handle it.
He also gets his bottles back ("you can't go cold turkey with a kid who needs his calories"), and we're going to go for some regular feeding therapy sessions. She was very optimistic that the behavioral techniques could improve the amount of food that he eats. I have mentioned before that she is super-awesome, so that makes me optimistic, too. :)
Matthew, by the way, noticed that James's bottles had returned, but it was much less of an issue than we expected. He said, "Hey, look! James has a bottle! Can I have one too?" and I said, "No, the doctor says James needs the bottle for his medicine." And Mattie was okay with that. He's still not drinking regular milk again, though, although he happily drank chocolate milk from a cup yesterday.
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