Week 4

Evan continues to amaze me week to week!!! Another great week at feeding therapy this week:) I keep waiting for a set back or for him to quit eating good. He makes me SO very proud!

Monday his therapist Scott returned from vacation. When Scott left, Evan was only doing small amounts of Pediasure off a spoon. So he was shocked when he found out not only is Evan eating 3 different foods, but that he is also drinking from the straw bottle. And not only drinking, but taking a full meal and not needing a tube feeding:) I was also nervous because he had the weekend off. They haven't trained Ryan or I yet, so we can only tube feed at home. I thought that he would have to get used to eating and drinking again after having two days off. I was once again proved wrong by Evan. He ate and drank everything the first meal of the day and he even finished the meal BEFORE the timer went off! He did so well the first feeding, they decided to introduce a fourth food, green beans. This was a big step because everything he's gotten so far has been sweet and green beans is a savory food. Evan in the past has not liked green beans. He did ok with them. He made quite a face and gagged once but he continued to eat them.

Tuesday they continued to work with the green beans along with the other foods he's been eating. He was expelling quite a bit of the green beans out today. They ended up decreasing the amount of green beans in order to give him smaller bites which helped. They want him eating 30 grams of each food for a meal, they decreased the green beans to 15 grams and increased the amount of the other two foods. They again increased his feeding time to 17 min which he tolerated well. Another big change was they took away his added water throughout the day except when he gets his meds. Because of this, I don't have to tube feed him AT ALL for his 12:30 and 3:30 feeding!!!!! His last meal of the day was perfect! He got used to the green beans:) Every Tuesday, I have a care conference with his therapist, social worker, psychologist, and dietician to discuss how Evan is doing, any concerns we may have, and what the plan for the upcoming week will be. They all were raving about Evan! They are so impressed with him that they mentioned EARLY DISCHARGE from the program!!!!!!! He has exceeded their expectations! We got a schedule in place for me to start training to feed him next week, Ryan the following week, my mom the week after Ryan and then he will be discharged (if all goes well)!

Wednesday they bumped him back up to 30 grams of green beans. He did great! No gagging or faces when eating them. Again, he finished eating before the timer went off. After two good feedings, they decided to add beef stew to his meal. He gagged pretty bad the first bite but he kept eating. They did the same thing they did with the green beans and just gave him 15 grams. They don't want any part of the feeding to be negative, so they don't push hard if he starts to gag. Thursday, Ryan was with him. There wasn't any changes from the day before. They just perfected eating the beef stew and by the last meal, he was taking 30 grams of beef stew easily.  Friday was pretty much the same also except they did two non preferred foods with one preferred food during the meal. For instance, they gave him green beans, beef stew, and apple sauce. He was always used to eating two sweet foods with one savory. He did good! They also added cream of wheat and he didn't make any face or gag.

Unfortunately, Evan is starting to get sick! One of the little girls had to go home on Wednesday because she was running a fever and now Evan has a pretty bad cough and runny nose. Historically, when Evan gets sick, Evan won't eat! However, he did great Friday even with all his coughing! So this weekend we are pushing breathing treatments and motrin in hopes to get rid of whatever is brewing. I don't want anything holding him back or making him go backwards.

So we are more than half way done and I couldn't be happier! Thank you for continuing to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. They are being heard and are working!

Lindsey