Kate also prepared a chart for us to complete which listed the days of the week, and had a place to write what he had eaten and when. Each time she came we reviewed the chart. This was a good motivator for both of us, as I now had a tool to help me get good food into his belly on a daily basis. And I did not want to be embarrassed by putting something pathetic on the chart, like chocolate biscuits for lunch.

At around the same time as Kate was coming to our house to help improve my son's diet he was also spending time after school at a friend's house. With a lot of encouragement from me and the mother (also a single parent) of another boy in his class my son had formed a friendship. We, or I, took them to soft play or McDs, or the park, and so on, trying hard to nurture a friendship. At first his class mate was a little confused about some of my son's behaviour and also some of the things he said; they even almost came to blows. Eventually though, despite their differences, they did make friends and his classmate is now a great protector of my son and also his biggest supporter at school. They now regularly spend time together, although no sleepovers yet.

His classmate's mum, a great Portuguese lady, fell for my son very quickly (and why would she not?). When my son was at her home one day after school she prepared a meal for both boys, chicken and rice as I recall. She noticed my son, although sitting at the table, was not eating. He was looking at the food as if it was for someone else. So without thinking she just started to feed him and he responded by eating what she offered. Now she was unaware that he had never in his life eaten chicken or savoury rice, and he, I think, was basking in the warmth and comfort of her motherly attention to him. But that is only a theory. I don't really know what it was about their connection. The fact was though, he was eating good wholesome food for the first time in his life. Although he only ate that food when he was with her, and at her house. At first if I walked in on him eating he would immediately stop. My son was about seven and ten months at this time, and it seemed to me that maybe he was putting it all together about food and why we eat and why we try to eat healthy ...

The fact was that with input from several good people he was now eating a healthy diet, and now he eats what I cook for him.It is a bit of a juggling act to fit in meals he will eat with his pedantic nature, grudgingly I provide him with certain meals on certain days. I would rather he was more random in his choices. I also find myself taking him for, take out, french fries on a very regular basis and also to a certain coffee shop where he likes the mini muffins. I do this in an effort to try and vary the different flavours that hit his palate and also because I want him to eat. He is prone to gastric problems and can be laid low with a sickness bug, although less and less these days.There was a time when he would be effected with this bug every three to four months. consequently he would loose weight and then I  would have to feed him up again ...