79) Got snacks? Sasha has free-range access to his own snack cabinet now! How did he do?

Sasha's snack cabinet at the beginning of the three-day exposure

After 6 months on a therapeutic dose of oxytocin (6 iu daily), we did the unimaginable...we unlocked a snack cabinet just for Sasha! As a baby step, we decided to give him an introductory 3-day trial with a generous stock of healthy snacks he likes to eat.  To optimize his chances for success, we decided to pack the snacks in single serving containers so he can eat a pre-packed portion size. In the cabinet at the outset of the first three days were 5 small containers of peanuts and raisins (2/3 peanuts, 1/3 raisins), 3 containers of popcorn (enough for a medium-sized bowlful) and a package of low carb crackers (to be eaten with peanut butter, the way Sasha likes).  The cabinet contains snacks he eats for his school lunches and for after-school/before-dinner snacks and contains food that is reserved for Sasha ONLY. It stays unlocked 24 hours a day. We also leave the fridge open during the day (locked at night) so that he can choose food from the fridge instead of the snack cabinet if he decides he'd prefer to help himself to salami, cheese, celery/peanut butter, carrots sticks, or fruit. 

The rest of us have the same snacks locked up in a separate cabinet. There is no unhealthy food that is off-limits to him kept anywhere in the house.  In order for this experiment to work, Sasha needs to know that there is nothing special locked up anywhere that he isn't able to access himself. At the end of the first three day trial period, we will be able to take a look at the food that is left and use it to assess how he did and how much food to stock for the next 3-4 days.  If he does ok (managing his rations, eating reasonable amounts and at reasonable times of the day, avoiding large and rapid weight gains), we will continue the trial and extend the amount of open-access snack foods to one full week.

This is a radical departure from our 5 + years of food locking and policing!  One huge contrast to the old days is that we are now erring on the side of stocking the cabinet generously because we want him to have a sense of abundance.  Another change is that we are backing off quite a bit while he makes his lunch that he brings to school. Since he has the freedom to help himself to the open fridge and his own snack cabinet, there is really no point in monitoring what he packs for lunch. Although I am still curious about what and how much he brings to school to eat, I am resisting the urge to inquire into his lunch contents so that he knows that we are trusting his judgment and so he can gain confidence about his ability to self-regulate his food. With these newly gained liberties, we know that there is a chance he will exploit the system; overeat or eat at inappropriate times (middle of the night)...especially as he is getting used to this freedom.  We are hoping that the novelty will eventually wear off and that he will habituate to it and learn that there is no need to overeat, sneak, or hoard food. 

Sasha's snack cabinet at the end of the three-day exposure

Although it is too early to judge success sustainability, I am still very happy to report that Sasha had a successful and positive experience for the first three days.  In his description of his experience, Sasha reported to me this morning that he liked having his own open cabinet.  He shared that his "head hunger" was minimal this week- to his surprise, he was not preoccupied with the open cabinet of snacks that was now accessible to him.  Interestingly, he admitted that he has had a history of sneaking food from the other snack cabinet (when it contained all of the snacks for the entire family). Of course, we already knew that he had this tendency so the interesting part was that he was admitting it in an unsolicited manner: in fact, this morning he self-reported that he was not feeling tempted to sneak food from the remaining locked cabinet (where the rest of the family's snack food is stored) because he knew that he had (the same) food accessible to him whenever he wanted it.  He also said that he liked having the food individually portioned out so that he did not have to think about how much to serve himself. 

Sasha was basically reporting that he has felt calmer this week about food and I must concur that I observed his calmness as well. Because we know not to take Sasha's reports as gospel (due to his tendencies to lie when it comes to food), our main gauge to tell if the experiment has a net positive impact on his overall health will depend upon his ability to maintain his lower BMI since we don't want this freedom to come at the expense of his metabolic health.  Again, we know his weight seems to wiggle up and down so the minor ups and downs are not significant- however, this week (even with the open snack cabinet), Sasha lost weight again- down one kilogram from last week.  Sasha is now 5'9.5" and 157 pounds  or 176.5 cm and 71.4 kg... 22.9 BMI, 85%- his lowest EVER since brain surgery!

WOO HOO!  I think it's safe to say that we will continue on with the open snack cabinets this week!