When my son was 8, he decided he couldn't eat meat. We had been trying to get him to eat more protein for a while, and he understood why, so he agreed to try hamburger. He has Sensory Processing Disorder, and is very sensitive to food textures, smells, and tastes. His protein consumption at this point in his life consisted of yogurt, chocolate milk, and peanut butter.
We made him a sticker chart, and he chose to earn money when he made it to the end of the row of ten stickers. In order to earn a sticker, he had to take steps toward trying a new protein.
We had to agree to what each sticker meant, and work in small increments of progress. Each step was a serious negotiation. The first day, all he had to do was smell it. Day 2, lick it. Day 3, put it in his mouth and spit it out (it was a small piece too!). Day 4, chew three times and either spit or swallow. Day 5 he had to swallow, and there were major gagging issues. The pieces were only as small as a pea, and he honestly wanted to be successful. We were not stressing about it, and worked hard trying to make it a non-stressful experience. Days 6-10, he took a bite and swallowed, but was still gagging. It wasn't getting easier.
Maybe we just should have had him take a full bite and swallow from the beginning!
Finally, on day 10 he did was he was supposed to do to earn the sticker, and told us that eating meat made his bones shake. We told him that he did a great job trying all of those times, gave him his money, and he hasn't eaten meat again in the past 2 years.
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