Variety is the spice of life

Things are still going very well here at St. Joseph's. After our successful weekend, the doctors here observed me feeding Richard O. first thing yesterday morning, and were really pleased with his progress. He is now opening consistently and on cue. Our next task is to make sure that I get the spoon all the way into his mouth before he closes, because sometimes he opens wide but then snaps his mouth shut quickly, kind of like a little snapping turtle.

Though Richard O. spent the weekend on the "Yogurt Diet" -- all yogurt, all the time -- the staff here finally let us start introducing Richard to some new foods later in the day yesterday. Yesterday we added pureed peaches and pureed french toast to his repertoire, and this morning our new food was pureed scrambled eggs and cheese. The face he made after his first bite of eggs was pretty funny! Still, he managed to finish all of his food, though he was mildly fussy about it.

Dr. Eicher also told me that they will probably start him on cup drinking tomorrow, so I'll need to have my pump ready to go. We'll see how that develops. As usual, I am optimistic, though I suspect it may be difficult for him at first, like many of the things he has been asked to do here since admission.

I've been reflecting on the nature of adversity, and how it strikes everyone. The families here at the Center for Pediatric Feeding & Swallowing come from all walks of life, all backgrounds, and even all nations: currently, in addition to our family & one other Caucasian family, there is an Indian family, a Korean-American family, a Mexican family...and last week there was a Panamanian family here as well. Among the parents, there are stay-at-home moms and executive moms, firefighters and IT professionals, parents with PhDs and some with very little formal schooling at all.

And yet, among this motley crew, I know that each and every one of these parents understands the heartache and struggle that an entire family undergoes when a child will not eat. We have shared stories of pediatricians who dismissed our concerns (sometimes repeatedly), of well-meaning friends and family who dispensed advice that was completely unhelpful, of many people who brushed off our children's feeding behaviors as the product of poor parenting. As we have found with Type 1 diabetes, it is a relief to know that there are other parents in the same situation as you, and that their children are overcoming their difficulties, and that yours can too.

In the hallways between sessions, it is not unusual for another parent to ask me,
"How's Richard doing today?" It's also not unusual for me to inquire after another child's bowel habits, "How's the pooping going this week?" To the outside observer, these passing conversations must seem odd, even freakish, but there is a common language and phraseology among the parents here that is a relief to share. We have, in effect, become each other's cheering sections and each other's wailing walls. I know that after our family leaves this place that I will continue to wonder about how Mason is doing, and Soha, and Thomas. Their struggle is also my own. When their child has a successful day, I feel that we have won as well. The smile on another mother's face when her child has mastered a new skill is as good as a smile on my own.

And so, we move on. It's almost time for Richard's next feeding, so I'll wrap this up for now. More news to follow, as I'm able to post!