My son has learned to love food

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As I mentioned previously my son was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder which made some things very difficult when he was little. Dinner time has often been a struggle with him because he was a picky eater and he would literally gag on food he didn't like. There were a lot of issues with textures. We had a three bite rule where he had to try three bites of something before he could say he didn't like it. We struggled for years with this. He wasn't trying to be difficult. When he was really little he'd eat almost anything up until he got sick for almost two months straight where he struggled to keep things down. We were freaking out at that point wondering what was wrong having gone to the doctor several times trying to figure out what was going on. My poor son went from eating everything to being lucky if he could eat anything and keep it down. We ended up going to a children's GI specialist where we found out he had acid reflux. He has struggled off and on over the years with bouts of illness where he would get sick and I learned there are certain foods that made it worse and we removed them from his diet for a while and then would reintroduce them after a few months and that seemed to do the trick. Anyway, after his two month sickness and struggling to keep things down, he got super picky and we are unsure if this is because of his experience with being sick or his sensory processing issues but there were some things that were texture related that leads me to believe it was a combination between that and sensory processing. My son had hated pizza for most of his life. Other foods were things he used to love but now hated and it made us sad. Dinner was such a struggle. My son would have literally starved than eat what we made and at one point he was already so thin the poor guy couldn't afford to lose anymore weight. He still ate a lot of healthy foods so his pediatrician wasn't worried. They were impressed with the amount of fruits and vegetables he'd eat even if he was picky about how he'd eat them. Now that my son is a teenager he has started to try most things without a complaint. He loves trying new foods and has added a lot of new foods to his list of foods he loves. My once pizza hating son now loves it. He will eat almost anything I make with a few exceptions. He despises sour kraut and nothing I can do will ever make him like it. He also isn't a seafood fan which is fine because neither am I. He didn't mind tuna when he tried and there are a few other things he'll eat. He doesn't like cooked onion but recently realized he likes it raw on and in things. He doesn't care for cooked carrots but will sometimes eat it in things. He will now eat some things he doesn't care for which is something he wouldn't do before. When I make some things that can easily omit something for him I'll do that otherwise he can either pick it out or suck it up and eat it. At one time a cooked onion would have him gagging and now he can tolerate it in some things. He is so much more willing to try things and our life has gotten easier now that he eats more. There are very few dinners he flat out refuses to eat now. He still doesn't care for vegetable soup but I can on occasion get him to eat a small bowl. He is pretty good about eating stuff he doesn't like within reason. There are a handful of things he would starve before eating but the progress he has made is astounding. He told me he loves food and doesn't understand why he hated so many things before. One of his new favorite things to do is to try new foods. We took a trip to Cincinnati about a year ago and went to Jungle Jim's which is this huge grocery store with a ton of different ethnic foods you can buy along with a lot of other things and we let him pick some foreign snacks and he was so excited. He's been asking to go back for a while. Anything with food involved he loves. We went to the Findlay market while there and got some Cuban bread that I made Cuban sandwiches for dinner with. He still has that on his list of favorite places we have been along with Hocking Hills because he loves hiking. I love that he's become more adventurous and is willing to try so many new things. Food is his motivation for most things. I will tell him if he cleans something I'll make one of his favorite foods and he gets on it so quickly. When he's whiney while we are out we will tell him we'll get dinner after and he usually stops whining. He is very food motivated and absolutely loves to try new foods and I love how much easier that makes life. I can make almost anything for dinner and he'll usually eat it and even if he doesn't like it he'll thank me. He is the most appreciative kid. He always tells me he knows I put in effort to make dinner and he appreciates it even if he doesn't always love what I made. He also loves a lot of healthy foods which makes it easier to make sure he is getting healthy foods. I sometimes buy fruit and vegetables for him to snack on in the summer and as long as he remembers they're there he'll go through them pretty quickly. We planted a vegetable garden that we are hoping sprouts up. He loves cherry tomatoes and loves to snack on them so we are hoping we get a lot this year. I'm just so proud of my boy and how far he has come.