For years, Julia Ramirez (not her real name), who lives in Chicago’s Hermosa neighborhood, suspected something was wrong with her daughter’s eating habits.
As a baby, her daughter struggled with food, eating only a few baby food flavors and refusing mixed varieties. The selectivity continued as she grew older.
Ramirez tried everything. She took classes on picky eating, read books, worked with a nutritionist, and joined online support groups. But nothing seemed to help. Her daughter was sensitive to smells, textures, and even the temperature of food.
“I spent so many years thinking it was just picky eating,” Ramirez says.
Amid these challenges, Ramirez’s daughter was diagnosed with global developmental delay, later accompanied by a learning disability. “I kept getting assured by the developmental delay doctor that this part of her brain sometimes takes a while to develop,” Ramirez says.