Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Brennen had an amazing first day of therapy! We began our day at 7:45 a.m. with filling out paperwork and then Brennen had his first meal at 8:15 a.m. They started today with foods that Brennen is tolerant of and comfortable with. His breakfast was rice cereal and 2 oz of pureed peaches. During the remaining 5 scheduled feedings of the day he had 3 oz of pureed peaches and 2 oz of pureed sweet potatoes. At the end of each feeding he drank 4 oz of whole milk.

Brennen ate the majority of his meals very calmly with little to no anxiousness with the exception of the 4:30 feeding; which was the last feeding of the day. By this time, he was getting tired of it and had enough. I can't say that I blamed him because by this time I was exhausted too. What a little trooper!

In-between the feedings, which are scheduled approximately 2 hours apart due to the low volume of food consumed, Brennen played with toys and rested. Tomorrow he will be able to see the Early Childhood Education Specialist and begin some "preschool" classes. I know he will enjoy this break. He really is doing amazing and I am so proud of him. He will also begin seeing an Occupational Therapist who will work on coping with some of the sensory sensitivities Brennen is experiencing. They also explained that Brennen will have some Recreational Therapy which allows him to have some large gross motor play. I know he will LOVE that part of the day!

The feeding team explained that they are going to give Brennen the rest of this week to settle into this new change of routine by keeping foods we know he likes and is comfortable with. Next week we will begin some of the more challenging tastes and textures, like chicken. Please be in prayer for Brennen that he will be accepting of these new textures/tastes as we begin working through some of these sensory issues.

Being here at the Ronald Mcdonald House. you see very quickly that although these feeding issues can be frustrating to us, we are definitely blessed and humbled by the fact that we are one of the more milder cases here. I said a prayer as I was eating in the kitchen area and looked around at the families at the surrounding tables. I thanked God for my beautiful boy and girl who have little to no serious health issues. It would literally break your heart to see what some of these families are dealing with on a daily basis. I am not saying that I was naive enough to think that Brennen's issues were going to be the most severe, but it definitely puts everything into perspective.