Green Eggs and Ham

Let's see . . . what would be the ultimate nightmare for a child with sensory food issues?  A kid who is hypersensitive to the look, smell, taste, texture of food.  How about a breakfast of green eggs and ham to commemorate Dr. Seuss' birthday?

Last Monday Dan and I both attended a special breakfast at Joseph's school for all 1st graders. The kids read Dr. Seuss books in the classroom (Joseph loved this),

then proceeded to the cafeteria and received a "Cat in the Hat" hat (loved this also),

and then received a plate of breakfast food, including very green eggs resting on a slice of ham (definitely not okay with this).

Prior to the breakfast Joseph and I had talked about it. He likes ham, so he felt like he would be fine with eating the ham. Until he saw that the green scrambled eggs were pretty much covering the slice of ham. We quickly extricated the ham piece and shook off the offending green pieces, but the damage was done. His face was about as green as the eggs. 

The rest of the breakfast he looked pained, tormented, terrified, and close to tears.  He didn't even want to eat the fruit roll-up or orange juice included with the meal.  All in all, it was a very touching parent/child experience.  Okay, so I lied. It was pretty much torture for all of us. But we played our parts well enough and helped him get through it.

Luckily, after awhile it was time to head back to the classroom for more Dr. Seuss-themed fun.

This is the paper he filled out in class about the experience. 

 

Notice his emphatic circling of the "no" on "did you like it."  

And his answer to "What did you learn from the book Green Eggs and Ham" - "try things before you say you don't like it.  That sounds an awful lot like what we learn over and over in occupational therapy.  Easier said than done, for sure.