There's more than one way to skin a cat!

My five followers may remember mentioning that Randy was diagnosed with failure to thrive in late 2008. Although my rational mind knows that it was due to his numerous hospitalizations and shunt surgeries, there's something very painful in hearing that your child is not thriving due to adequate nutrition. As a mother, it cut like a knife. That was also the beginning of our feeding woes.

Randy went back on NG feeds, but for overnight only. He would pull the tube out a few times a week. He would gag and choke in the middle of the night. He would vomit constantly. But he gained weight and length and the doctors were happy.

April 2009, his pediatrician was concerned that he was only taking stage 2 purees. He sent him to feeding therapy. We worked on desensitizing his hands and mouth. We used techniques to help him tolerate textures. He responded well. In July 2009, he was eating chicken drummette, baked fish, chicken nuggets, soft green beans, soft carrots, crackers, dry cereal along with his purees. Then I went back to work, he went back to daycare and went back to eating baby food.

Feeding is still a battle today. While he eats plenty of foods, they fall into three categories: soft: bread, chicken nuggets, macdonals fries; purée: applesauce, stage 2 Gerber (don't judge me); or crunchy: cereal, chips, crackers. Occasionally, I can coerce him to eat a few bites of spaghetti or beans.

He ate about 1/3 of that dish. But he's growing. I just don't know how nutritionally sound his diet is.

So I'm trying another tactic. I am going to start baking. I'm starting with muffins. I'm putting things like flaxseed, purée squash and carrot, and wheat germ in them. I welcome recipes. Remember his egg white and milk allergy (he can tolerate small amounts in cooked food).

Help me out.

I have an I Phone!!

Random pictures. I can post and add pics from my phone. Yay me!

Summer Fun 2011

Operation ditch paci

This is night one. I'm very nervous. Will update tomorrow. Almost time for bed.

Surgery comPlete

There we lots of fluid in his ear. Doctor said his adenoids were of "moderate" size. Without the chronic ear infections and congestion, he would not have taken them out. He says the adenoids being out should improve his ear infection.

I took pics, but can't upload them from my phone.

Surgery tomorrow

Tomorrow Randy gets his third set of ear tubes and his adenoids removed. Although I feel very relaxed about the surgery, your extra prayers will be appreciated.

Medical Update

June has been quite a busy month.  Randy visited the allergist, neurosurgeon, speech therapist, as well as the ENT that I blogged about in the last post.

Allergist:  More of the same.  His pediatrician switched his nasal spray from Nasonex to Pantanase due to the chronic cough that was accompanying the stuffy and runny nose.  He told me to defer to the allergist to see if she was OK with the switch.  She seemed OK with it, but I think she was a little irritated that I did not come to see her for the switch.  She sent him to Children's to get a blood draw so that she could repeat his allergy screening.  She could not do the skin test because Pantanase is an antihistamine and will interfere with the test results.

Neurosurgeon:  He was very pleased with his progress.  He had him walk and talk and was pretty impressed with how many skills he'd gained in a year.  The MRI showed enlarged ventricles on one side.  The neurosurgeon is not sure if this is his "new norm" or if he is easing his way into a malfunction.  He was not very alarmed since his behavior and function were good, but he did not want to brush it off as nothing.  Randy gets a repeat MRI next month, one week before his ear tubes and adenoid surgery.

Speech Evaluation:  I took Randy to the local children's hospital for a speech evaluation.  He has not been in speech since August 2010 when his therapist at the therapy center went out to have a baby.  Personally, I was not impressed with his speech therapist.  She was nice, but I was not wowed by the sessions.  The therapist at children's was very thorough.  She had him name pictures and point to things.  She had him repeat words.  She stated that he performs much better than one would expect when they look at his history.  This is not the first time I've hear this.  I sometimes minimize the severity of a bi-lateral grade 3 bleed.  She will mail the report once it is scored, but she says that his expressive speech and articulation are not that severely behind.  His major weakness is his receptive speech.  This is not the first time I've heard this either.  She also mentioned his attention.  She says his attention span is shorter than to be expected.  I was a little shocked to hear this.  She said that he will be put on the waiting list (6-9 months).  She suggested that I try a different therapist at the therapy center we go to.

So, when I took him in for OT, I talked to her about the speech eval (they had already gotten the results) and she suggested a person that would be good for Randy.  I was honest with her about the previous therapist.  She was in no way offended and will be getting him set up (she is the case manager there as well).