Food, glorious food

So, food.
First me...and food.

Someone (thanks mom...really) bought me a DairyQueen Cake for Birthday day. Then we ate about 2/3's of it and then everyone left and the cake stayed and that is BAD. Very bad. I tried to give it away to my neighbour with 3 kids but she really felt her daughter needed to avoid sweets so that was a no go. I have invited people to visit and indulge over the next couple of days...hopefully that happens before I've eaten it all. Oh, and the key Lime bars? And the most amazing apple pie EVER. H.E.L.P M.E...

Benjaminh...and food.

The irony is not lost on me.
I have a kidlet with quite serious eating delays.
Delays people.
The only eating delay I can handle personally is the 3 minute wait in the TiMHOrton's line to get my morning tea and bagel on the way to work...

Oh right, Benjaminh's delays.
We headed out to see the feeding specialist on Friday and now have confirmation that I AM NOT LOSING MY MIND...he is in fact consistently aspirating his fluids, even when I was already thickening them at the rate of 1TBSP of rice cereal per 3 oz fluid as per the ped's request.

This is very bad news. The good news part of this bad news is that it is happening at the point of swallowing and the feeding specialist is quite certain this is a swallowing reflex delay and not physiological...like a "fistula" or hole in the esophagus. In other goodish news he has a well developed gag/cough reflex and is quite efficient at clearing things out when they get flowing on the wrong track...though the big blood vessel bursting attacks he has had of 4 occasions now would indicate his isn't always completely successful.

So, I now thicken everything that he ingests. Formula obviously as well as foods such as pureed fruits/veges and yogurt.

I was asked to thicken his formula using baby cereal to the point that he was able to complete a 5 oz bottle with no coughing or gagging even if it means enlarging the nipple hole. That required 4 or more TBSP's of formula for every 5 oz bottle and after the 4th bottle he was clearly NOT into it. He began to gag and vomit the very minute he tasted that baby cereal. Oh, and the same cereal was thickening his puree's so he vomited his solids as well...for the first time ever. ALL DAY Saturday. Offer him a bite of chicken stew, a favourite he had been eating for weeks and weeks and he vomited everything he had eaten in the previous 4 hours...through his nose (and his mouth as well but seriously carrots through the nose is a bit disconcerting).

So, cereal at every meal and in every beverage all day long was clearly not the answer if it was going to result in nothing at all being in his stomach for longer than 2 hours.

Off I went to the pharmacist...where I purchased a thickener derived from corn. Chemically derived. Not ideal I know but seriously it was Saturday evening and the poor boy needed to eat and keep something down before I could talk to the doctor on Monday so I bought it. 3/4's of one tablespoon of this miracle powder does the same thickening as 3 TBSP's of cereal in his bottle. So a bit of the miracle powder and 1 TBSP of the cereal and he ate and it stayed down and he ate again before bed and he slept through the night and on Sunday I bought shares in the company...

So, he is eating.

Fruit + yogurt thickened with a fair bit of rice cereal for breakfast and a 5 oz thickened bottle

meat + veges thickened with a bit of stage 2 mixed cereal for lunch and a 5oz thickened bottle

mid afternoon 5 oz thickened bottle before nap time

slightly larger serving meat + cheesey veges with a bit of stage 2 cereal for dinner

6 oz thickened bedtime bottle

So, 3 meals high in calories, protein and iron and 21 oz of formula (24 would be better). This is the plan and it worked today.