by Having a kid who is orally aversive can make celebrating birthdays a little bit trickier. We always have cake, so the rest of us can celebrate, and we’ll even blend some of it up and give it to AJ through his g-tube so he can have some too, but at the end of the day, this kid just isn’t excited about cake.
So what do you do instead? Especially when one of the big trends for early birthdays is to do a smash cake, which your g-tube fed kid has absolutely zero interest in?
Read below for a few ideas, some are things we’ve done, others we’ve seen from other families throughout the years!
1. Cool Whip Cake
Okay, so this one’s technically still edible – but there’s no pressure to eat it. It’s fun to play in, even if you do happen to accidentally eat some it’s totally safe. This one was great for AJ for feeding therapy and sensory play as well.
We’ve done it two different ways – once with cool whip spread into a pan, and once using the spray can whipped topping as well. Both have their pros and cons.
Spreadable whipped topping like “cool whip” works better to decorate – we used spray on food coloring to make a rainbow pattern and add his age to the “cake” when he was younger. We happened to have these on hand, but you can snag them at craft stores like Michaels and Joann’s too if you don’t have time to wait for shipping.
Spray whipped topping like “reddi whip” worked well to “hide” toys in. This worked better for AJ when he was a little older and could identify that there were prizes mixed in. This time we used cake decorating gels to decorate and personalize his “cake”.
Word of advice though – both of these can be MESSY. So make sure you do it outside or put down some protective covering… or at the least be prepared to do a lot of cleaning afterwards.
2. Jello Cake
No photo for this one, but you can also use Jello to create a cake. If you wanted you can put toys into the jello before letting it set, or add whipped topping and decorate similar to the Cool-Whip cake noted above!
3. Colored Pasta Sensory Bin “Cake”
Sensory bins are always fun, and this pasta will last quite some time! As a bonus, it’s a great way to use up the pasta you have lying around that might be on the ‘older’ side.
To color pasta we put 1/4 cup of vodka in a Ziplock bag, added a few drops of food coloring, tossed some pasta in, and shook it like crazy. We let it sit in the bags for about 30 minutes, and then dumped it out on cookie sheets lined with waxed paper to dry. We had cheap vodka lying around from my cookie decorating days, but you can also use vinegar instead of vodka. Super simple, and you can do the exact same thing with rice!
4. Colored Rice Sensory Bin “Cake”
No photo for this one, but you can accomplish the same thing with rice instead of pasta. The only warning is that you do have to watch it closer for kids who may have a tendency to put things in their mouths.
5. Cake Toy or Craft
Instead of a ‘real’ cake, you can get a cake or cupcake toy that can be played with for years to come. Some are interactive and even include candles for pretend play. Stacking and shape sorting, as well as color and fine motor options are out there too!
6. Canvas and Paint
So there’s no “cake” to this, but instead when you’re done you have an art project that you can keep for years to come. You can get fancy with this and add a design out of vinyl that you can peel up after the paint dries, or even just use masking tape to mark off some areas and add an artistic element. You can also keep this super simply and leave it as is without any designs at all.
If you do choose to do a vinyl design, we do have a few tips we’ve learned a long the way that may be useful!
- Prime the canvas by painting it white first, or the vinyl won’t stick.
- Use removable vinyl – not permanent!
- Use matte acrylic paints — avoid satin or metallic
- Keep your design super simple.
- After you place the vinyl down, paint another really thin coat of the white to seal the edges so any painting your kid does doesn’t get under the edges of the vinyl.
- Paint the whole canvas a light color so if your kid doesn’t cover every inch of the vinyl you’ll still have that contrast.
- Either use colors that blend well together, or wait in between colors for the paint to dry.
- Try to encourage your kid to keep the paint as thin as possible. if the paint is too thick it will stretch and peel when you go to remove the vinyl.
- Wait for the paint to dry before removing the vinyl
- Highly recommend getting a sealant to place on top of the canvas to protect it when you’re done.
- Most importantly: expect imperfections — despite your best attempts, paint will often find its way under the vinyl. Touch it up with white if you feel the need to.
