The master manipulator.

I'm grudgingly impressed with the way Jake can manipulate people (including us). He's a master at avoiding at eating and he's developed some sneaky tricks to use on us and the daycare workers.

Here's a few of the things he does:

Fake tired.
He pretends he's exhausted and tired. He signs sleep and lies his head down on the tray. He slouches forward as well and pretends he's sleepy. This really tricked us at first. We'd get him down and then he's immediately start playing with tons of energy. Now we say, "Sit up straight" and pull his head and body to a sitting position.

Turning his head to Look Somewhere
He'll pretend to be interested in the kitchen behind him and he'll turn his head to watch something, just as we prepare to feed him. So we've turned his chair around so he's facing the kitchen. Now when he spins around, there's only a wall.

Holding Food in His Mouth
He will hold food in his mouth and stop chewing.

Fake Sips
By far his most clever trick. When we first started behavioural therapy he'd drink properly and gulp his milk. He'd drink 100 ml a meal. Now he's back to 5 ml to 50 ml if we're lucky. He figured out that he can simply hold the cup in his mouth, and it looks like he's drinking the milk. He does a fake little swallow, but just swallows his saliva.

The trick is telling tell his daycare worker to be forceful. They don't like forcing kids to eat. We say, "If it was up to him, he'd starve." The trick is also to keep up with his avoidance. As he figures out our strategies, he's able to counter them.