Wow! It's been a while since I've written a post! A lot has changed since the little man's
first birthday in regard to his eating.
He conquered a HUGE hurdle and has begun to eat by mouth. We are so
proud of him for taking "bites" and not needing his feeding tube
throughout the day. The majority of our attention has been toward this feeding
journey that we're on. Josiah has really
come a long way, but it seems that we're at a standstill. His lack of weight
gain, constant throwing up and aversion to textures have made it very difficult
to make progress.
We have three main goals right now. One: Figure out what
causes him to throw up. Two: Get him to eat/chew textured foods (and enjoy it).
Three: Get him to drink from a straw. Now to the average joe, these really seem
like pretty simple goals. A few nights ago, as we were trying to get our tired
and sobbing baby to eat a sweet potato, I looked at my husband and said,
"Man, this stinks! I've seen other babies just pick small bites of food up
off their plate and eat with no problem. Why can't this just be
easier??"
When we are about to try a textured food, we have to prepare
ourselves--build ourselves up for the challenge. It's going to be a battle, but when we see
him pick up one bite of food; the size of an ant, mind you, it's a giant
victory! We feel like we've accomplished something huge! So that's one of our
goals--to make it to a place where it's not a battle, but something to be
enjoyed.
Our third goal also seems pretty easy, but for a little
person who has NEVER used the suck reflex, it's a pretty big challenge. He drank from a bottle for 2 days and we've
sampled with sippy cups, but nothing has ever stuck. It's quite the process to
teach him to drink from a straw.
Currently, in speech therapy, our therapist dips a straw in water and
puts her finger over the end. Then, keeping the water in place, she puts the
straw in Josiah's mouth and lets that tiny bit of water drip into his mouth. We
do this again and again, but she eventually keeps her finger on the end of the
straw to get him to try and suck the water out, rather than let it drop in his
mouth. And eventually, she turns the straw into the cup in one fluid motion to
keep his suction going in hopes of him drinking water through the straw. Sounds
easy...right?
And that first goal...the one I skipped over because that's
basically how we feel in general. There
seems to be no solution to his throwing up, so we feel lost. We've tried medication, checked allergies, done
GI studies, etc. Doctors are stumped by
him and have no insight for us. Meal times become frustrating because
everything ends up coming back up anyway. So we pray. We pray every night as we
put him to bed. We pray that his tummy
will get stronger and that God will heal whatever it is that's ailing him. Pray
for God's hand on this tiny life.
