Born To Drink Apple Juice

 

 Samuel has NEVER liked juice.  In fact, he's never really liked anything in his mouth expect for maybe a salty goldfish cracker now and again that he'll spit out after a few seconds.  His g-tube supplies 100% of his nutrients every day.  Every day feels like a battle just trying to get him to put something in his mouth.  We try not to over pressure him.  He is very stubborn.  Tonight at dinner he "had some peas with his salt" and then demanded some water.  We told him he could have water after he took one sip of apple juice (pick and choose your battles sort of thing).  He refused at first but finally caved.  Stephen and I started discussing fun rewards and charts we could make as incentive to get him to put food in his mouth.  When we mentioned purchasing the movie "Born to Be Wild" as a reward Sam piped in and shared that he thought it was a good idea.  He has seen the movie in the theater nine times now.   Stephen quickly drew a palm tree with an orangutan on it and every time Sam took a sip of apple juice he could color in one space climbing up the tree.  We thought he would stop around two or three sips and we would be working on this chart for the rest of the week.  Stephen and I were both shocked to see him take over 30 sips of apple juice (more than half the juice box).  All three of us were so excited we rushed to Target to buy their last copy of "Born to Be Wild" on DVD.