The Power of Cookies

Hyrum still doesn't meet many foods. His staples are still strawberry yogurt, applesauce, blended peaches and pears, an eggless raw cookie dough, and cheddar cheese. Normally he eats one of those foods two meals a day and we can convince him to have 2-3 more of them during the day.

Somewhere along the line, though, Grandma Boo introduced him to cookies. At Disneyland, we learned he would quite happily eat 2 or more sugar cookies with pink frosting and sprinkles every meal if we let him. As one of his very few sources of (highly processed) grains, we're happier than we would otherwise be.

Then we unlocked the vast incentivizing power of the cookie. Joy made him a deal: he gets half of a cookie for eating 5 different foods during the same meal and another half for 'trying' a new food. Either a pink sugar cookie or one of these 'butter keks' with chocolate and "Small World" pictures on them (castles and windmills are his favorites).

He made his way through a cookie a day or more last week. He actually put a piece of lettuce on his tongue! (before gagging and pulling it off) He ate a little whole grain bread with enough peanut butter on it! He eats 5 different foods for two meals a day! Peas and carrots are starting to sneak back into his diet and peanut butter shows up every time he has a cookie. Huzzah! We got him his own can of sprinkles he can try putting on new foods to see if that makes them more appetizing. We are careful not to overreact during the meal, but we'll dance online here with you.

Five foods gets you cookie
That's good enough for me.
New foods gets you cookie
That's good enough for me!...
Oh, progress progress progress starts with cookie!