G'day WorriedMum22.
Welcome to the forums that I party hard on! BB is a good place to chat about parenting.
I've put on my problem solving hat, so please excuse me if I become pedantic, I'm just trying to help in my own way. thanks in advance.
issue : popcorn incident likely cause of eating issue. 9 year old boy. Anxiety, stress. Psychologist appointment long way away. need help now.
ok, we can work with all that. these are your options, feel free to consider and/or reject please.
Sounds to me that Son has lost power over his eating. Let's get that back. I presume the popcorn incident happened because he either was talking whilst eating, was startled whilst eating, or didn't chew enough, or maybe had too many popcorn pieces in his mouth. Which of those, or other is the conclusion you come up with?
And, we'll aim to reduce all of them, to really make eating as fun and comfy as possible for Son.
What is/was his favourite food? a couple of options be good here.
What is/was his favourite drink currently? and How are the smoothies going for now?
MAYBE: So what we do for fun! We are going to buy some popcorn place it all in a see through bag and take a hammer to it! We are going to show Son that the more the food is hammered the more it becomes smaller, mushier and less able to be chocked by.
You may need to show some of the current food/smoothies inside the bag too, letting Him feel and experience the mushiness. Say things like "Do you feel how smooth this is, that's all runny and slippery, it slides on down without needing to be chewed."
Say things like "See how this popcorn gets smashed by the hammer. That's like when you chew really had and lots and it breaks up all small and becomes really easy to swallow."
Say things like "And if this popcorn is too dry and crispy, we only take one piece of it before we hammer it all up, then we have a little drink to wash it down."
Does any of this sound useful for today WorriedMum22?