My son is 22 months old, refuses to eat and will only drink from a bottle?

Question

He ate from a spoon from September 2005 - January 2006 but suddently stopped (When he started eating from the spoon, he would only allow me to feed him but he gradually allowed his father to feed him also. Once I started attending school again (worked 8hrs then went to school), my grandmother was the only person feeding him and he stopped eating). He displays signs of autism but has not yet been diagnosed with a specific type of Autism, but his pediatrician suspects it's mild. He also does not speak (only says ma ma and da da) but he loves to watch jeorpady & wheel of fortune and hums the music. He knows all of the motions to children's songs and counts on his fingers. He's very smart but I am extremely worried. We've seen several Occupational Therapist but no one can get him to eat. Please help

Answer 1

Sorry to hear of your dilemma. You are the parent here, and the child needs to respond - to the best of his ability - to the direction of the parent from the start.
A child of 22 months will, and should put food into their own mouth. When offered a choice, he may reach for the bottle first. When a bowl of Cheerios is in front of him he will eventually put some into his own mouth. Concentrate on giving finger foods, like bananas, and other bite-sized treats of various textures and colors. Cut the bottle size down, so that he will still be hungry and have reason to feed himself. Don't worry, he will not starve himself.

Even if he is autistic, he is too old to be spoon-fed. He needs to learn new skills, even if he is somewhat slower at it than average. Often autistic children will form firm habits within their environment. You can support that too much, and you can also choose what is best for your child to move toward.

The ultimate goal of parenting is to guide each child in their own development of self control, respect for others, care for himself and increasing independence. You are facing one of those steps here.

Answer 2

That is something very serious, I wish you the best of luck with that, I do apologize for not being able to answer you. I don't have kids so I wouldn't know what to do either. May be it's the environment he is in and he don't feel comfortable there. That's all I have right now. But it would be nice to fine out the outcome of all this.