Mmmmm Food

We have turned a corner when it comes to Wes eating thanks to a stomach bug (and of course months and months of feeding therapy).

In early December, Wes, Colby, and myself all got the lovely vomitting all day (tmi, I know) stomach bug that was going around. After a week and a half of recovering and getting Wes back to normal g-tube feedings, we tried feeding him purées again. Something clicked for him in that time off and he decided not only that food tastes good, but that he is ferociously hungry. He's like an entirely different kid when it comes to eating. He was taking 5-10 small tastes of purees off a specialized spoon, at a very slow pace, without any variety in flavors, and with a lot of persistance to get him to open his mouth. Now he is taking 3-6 ounces of whatever flavor puree we offer him each feeding with a normal spoon and at a normal pace. He's opening his mouth to signal he wants another bite, he's leaning towards the spoon, and he gets mad if you don't feed him fast enough. It's so rewarding when you've been working and working and working on the same things with as much backward movement as forward to finally see significant, measurable progress.

So where do we go from here? We have a dietician coming out to help us figure out how to increase the calories of the purées he's eating (which are typically about 20 calories per ounce) to be closer to the blended food we've been putting through his g-tube (which is closer to 40 calories per ounce). Then we can hopefully work on feeding him orally more than through his tube and work on him chewing so he can take more "age appropriate" foods. We finally have some hope for a future without g-tube dependence.

Oh, and with a new medication he has stopped throwing up at all, WOOHOO!!!

 

 

Comments

  1. DMKJanuary 16, 2014 at 5:27 PM

    Bet he would love a soft ice cream cone!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. KristaJanuary 16, 2014 at 5:47 PM

    Fantastic, Megan! That is great news! You and Colby are really doing a great job raising Wes. I hope you know that.

    ReplyDelete

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