Monday, Oct. 5, 2009

Leaving home on Sunday and driving up here was tough. Brennen and I left Sunday afternoon when Sophia was taking a nap. I thought it might be eaiser for both of us...(especially me!)

Brennen did not have any aversions to coming back up, in fact he was excited to use the elevators and play in the toy room at the RM House. I am glad he is so social because it definitely has made this transition much easier.

Brennen started his "preschool" today from the Education Coordinator. He will receive 1 hour of preschool every day from 10:00-11:00. His teacher's name is Ms. Betsy. She is wonderful...like a lot of other teachers I know (wink, wink). Ms. Betsy was very impressed with Brennen and how he knew his colors, shapes, letters and numbers. Ahh..yes, if only my little genius would eat!

Today in feeding therapy Brennen's meals have not changed a whole lot. Breakfast is still rice cereal with pureed peaches and a banana. Brennen did not take any bites of the banana, but licked it. At this point they are not pushing the whole foods at the meal. It is simply offered. When the banana was cut up into bite size pieces last week, he did take 2 bites.

The remaining snacks/meals of the day are 3 oz of pureed peaches, 2 oz of sweet potatoes, and 5 bites of pureed chicken. Usually a whole food of potato chips, grapes, or strawberries is included as well. Each snack/meal consists of 5 oz of pureed food and 4 oz of whole milk.

The dietician informed me that we will be introducing a new food this week. Not sure what that will be or when . They also informed me that the kitchen received a shipment of Brennen's gluten free pretzels! Those are going to be worth every expensive penny that they are because they will be used as reinforcers and/or texture breaks when introducing new foods. For example, Brennen would eat 5 bites of a new food and then get a pretzel break. Just FYI a small bag costs $9.00. They are the only pretzels he is able to eat due to his dietary restrictions. These pretzles contain no gluten (wheat) in them. Luckily, Buehler's does carry these because we requested it!

When Brennen was going through the outpatient feeding therapy program through the Clinic, I would use that system for Brennen when he was eating sweet potatoes at home. (5 bites then crunchy texture break). He is eating sweet potatoes much better now, so he doesn't need those breaks any more for that particular taste.

The program is working, it just feels really slow to me. I know we can't push Brennen to much because the last thing you want to do is to send a child backwards when they are in this intense therapy. I just wish I could fast forward and see what he is eating at the end of the treatment. I know they had mentioned that the Feeding Team's goal for Brennen at the end of the 10-weeks is for him to sit calmly and eat a balanced pureed meal consisting of meat, vegetable and fruit.

I am hoping we can go a little further than that...but I don't want to set my expectations too high and feel like at the end we haven't accomplished anything. I am reminding myself to go with the flow and allow the therapists to do their thing. This is what they do for a living; helping kids eat, who currently are not eating for whatever reason.

Well, I better get back downstairs. Brennen was taking a nap so I will go check on him. I will post more tomorrow!