Starving To Death

We all know that one person in the group that is always eating.  Whenever you see them, they have something in their hand that will shortly be stuffed into their mouth.  Usually its me.  Not going to lie.  When I worked outside the home, I always had food.  There was a dog that came to the office with one of my co-workers occasionally.  This dog was not overly social, but when he came to the office he didn’t leave my side.  Why? Because I always have food. 

Well, I think this is a trait that G2 has inherited.  Who knew you could inherit an appetite?  At first it was cute.  When he was a toddler, he could hear a snack wrapper from across the house – even if you were hiding with said chocolately treat in your closet (not that that ever happened for real *ahem*) and he would toddle over to you with his sweet little face and his chubby cheeks and tilt his head to the side and say “Schnaaaaack?”  Adorable.  Unless you weren’t familiar with it, in which case it was creepy – as my mother found out.  She cracked up when she asked me what was happening one night while babysitting and my response was “Oh, give him food.” 

He’s 8 now and he has never outgrown this.  The child is literally ALWAYS hungry for something.  I shudder when I think of his teenage years.  We’re going to have to become one of those crazy coupon families that has shelves and racks of canned goods.  People will come over and say “Oh, are you preppers?” to which we will respond “No, those are G2’s snacks for this week.” 

One of the issues that we encounter with him and his sensory issues is that he isn’t always aware of what the feelings he experiences mean, he just knows that he’s feeling them.  Being full is one of the things I would like him to feel.  He will always say that his stomach hurts, but I was convinced that it was just that he was feeling something and couldn’t place what the feeling related to.  So I was really working with him on identifying these feelings.  He would say “Mom? My tummy hurts.” And I would say “Ok, now think about that feeling – does it really hurt? Or are you full? Or are you hungry?” Sometimes it would work and I could see him really starting to get in tune with his body.  And then one day came the sass.  Also something he most likely inherited from me.

 “Mom? My tummy hurts.”

“Does it really hurt?  What does it feel like?”

 “It feels like I’m starving to death.”

 Now – recall my earlier comment on his sweet little face and his chubby cheeks?  There has literally NEVER been a moment in this child’s life when he has been STARVING.  Hungry?  Yes.  Ready to eat? Sure.  Starving? Never.  Enter MY sass and sarcasm: “Really?  Starving to death?  And what does THAT feel like?” A split-second pause. “It feels like my heart is breaking and if you loved me, you would give me food.” Ah.  Spot-on, right in the guilt center of my mom-heart. 

A few minutes later I was kissing his chubby little cheeks as fast as he could stuff them full of what I’m sure was a fairly elaborate meal.