Happy Thanksgiving!..and eating...

November 27, 2004

Hello all!

I just wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving. We

were here at our house with just our family and it was so nice. A

smaller meal, quieter, more relaxed. The rest of the weekend has

been a painting marathon getting our house ready for Christmas.

We have had a lot of struggles with Matt's eating. He had been

taking a peanut butter snack every 2 hours, or so to keep his

behavior on better terms, and to help with weight gain. Well, he

started gagging and vomiting. This has happened in the past with

foods and as soon as he gags, it is all over but the crying. I got

really scared as there wasn't anything else high calorie-high

protein that he would eat. I asked his GI doctor for a G tube. She

said she would consider it, but I had to look into a feeding

clinic. That was a disaster - and a post for a different day. I

was at the end of my rope.

I talked to an AWESOME speech/feeding therapist. She is going to

evaluate Matt in December, but until then she convinced me to stop

forcing him to eat. Make meal time as pleasant as possible. He is

actually asking for food, not good food, but food. Thanksgiving he

ate more turkey than I did (nothing else, but I was excited).

Bottom line (and I know this is long) he is losing a bit of weight,

but his GI doctor is ok with that. I am thrilled he is actually

expressing hunger (I thought he had lost it) and I realize he has

been orally averse and had sensory issues from birth that he has to

overcome. It will be a struggle, but for the first time in a long

time I am hopeful. And I can't believe it all started around

Thanksgiving, the holiday I use to dread the most as it is so

centered on FOOD!

Thanks for listening!

Beth H.

MOm to Matt SGA

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