Berry Bribery

I'm going through a phase.  It could be described as "I'm so sick of looking at chicken nuggets I could scream!" phase.  Ian has been in a food rut for years, and I am over it!  Every morning for breakfast he has, depending on his appetite, 1-3 bananas.  I think we've bought enough bananas over the years to seriously finance, well, a banana republic.  And I don't mean the clothing store.  For snack at school, he has grapes and at home he always wants an apple.  While the fruit is all good, the lunches and dinners are not.  Just about every day he has chicken nuggets and french fries.  Seriously, we buy them in bulk at Costco.  If we go to McDonald's, he orders "chickenfries" as he calls it.  Same thing at Wendy's and Burger King.  This is exactly what I swore, in those long ago days when I was expecting this child, that I said I would never do.  Well, never say never.  Especially when you have a child with Fragile X!
So, I've been posting about this on the Fragile X facebook pages and have received lots of advice (including hot sauce!) and commiseration.  These kids seem to make the typically developing picky child look like a gourmet.  Some only eat hot dogs and yogurt.  Some only cheeseburgers.  Some won't touch fruit, or cheese, or other random foods.  There are a few that will eat everything....and more.  Some parents literally have to lock their cabinets.

Anyway, here's my story about the berries.  If strawberries and blueberries were crack, my son would be a crack whore!  He loves them, and I used that to my advantage today.  I had made him a grilled cheese sandwich and he wouldn't eat it.  I brought the berries out and said if he ate a few bites, he could have some.  The little hand reached out and picked up a small piece of the sandwich.  I almost held my breath as he held it to his lips and stopped, then put it in and ate it!  I gave him a small serving of berries.  We repeated this several times until the sandwich was mostly gone.  Hurray!  I know this is not earth-shattering news, but it gives me hope that we can continue to try new things now and then and hopefully move on from the dreaded chicken nuggets.  Wish us luck!