July 7, 2010

Well it has been about 1 year that we have been in the feeding program now. Brennen has come such a long way in one years time. When we entered the feeding program, he was eating baby rice cereal, gluten free pretzels and strawberries. For me to imagine him EVER eating pizza or a hamburger at that point would have been a dream.
I am happy to say that we are at that point! Over the holiday weekend, we ate at Wendy's and we ordered Brennen a kids' meal! We all sat at the table and ate our food! We ordered Brennen a hamburger with no bun, oranges, and a white milk. He sat calmly at the table and ate his entire meal. I looked at Tim and I know we were thinking the same thing..this is what "normal" is!
The 10 weeks we spent at the Hospital this past fall were soooo worth any hassles that came with it. I truly believe Brennen would not be eating this well if we had decided to not admit him to the day hospital for those 10 weeks.
His diet has become so much more varied and stable that I was able to begin potty training this summer. He is doing great! Brennen is even going to the bathroom at places other than at home. We still have a little trouble with stooling, but Brennen always did have trouble with that.
Overall, things are going very well. Brennen begins Pre-School in the fall and we are both looking forward to that.
We had an appointment at the hospital yesterday and Dr. Cuddy was pleased with how his diet looked. We still have appointments every 2 weeks for a little while yet, and then we will switch to having one appointment a month. At this point, I am still feeding Brennen and we need to move to him feeding himself. He is beginning to show initiative in feeding himself, but we still have a ways to go.
Miss Sophia is doing well too! She turned 2 in March and she loves swimming in Grandma and Grandpa's pool.
We have a trip planned at the end of this month to the Columbus Zoo and we are excited that we do not need to pack any pureed foods or diapers for Brennen.
This really is turning out to be a wonderful summer! ;)

March 27, 2010

Okay..so I have not been able to update Brennen's progress as much as I would have liked. Life has been incredibly busy and I will have to say that it has taken me longer than what I thought it would to get back into the normal swing of things. It has been difficult juggling work, home, and taking Brennen to feeding therapy, occupational therapy, and swimming lessons. Somewhere in the midst of everything my house needs cleaned too...

But we are surviving and Brennen has made wonderful progress. Brennen's food is still pureed with the exception of incredibly small bites of hot dog! I was so amazed to see his little mouth chewing a hot dog bite! I kept thinking that this summer may be the first time that our whole family will be able to eat the same meal.

This summer we plan on increasing his therapy visits to once a week again to gain some momentum with textures. We are currently going to therapy every other week.

I am very ready for this school year to be over and be able to have a slower pace this summer. Taking Brennen to therapy for the 10 weeks was so very necessary and I am not sorry that we did it. In fact, I would do it again in a heart beat if I had to do it over again.

It has not been easy, but having a child with severe oral sensitivities isn't easy either. Taking Brennen to swimming has been good for him in trying to help him with some of his sensitivities as well. He is starting to become a little more confident in the water and not quite as "clingy" to his instructors.

Well, that's kind of a brief overview of the past 3 months...I will update again as we begin to gain some momentum with eating this summer.

Thanks for checking on Brennen's progress and May God Bless!