Friday Update

Hi,

Ethan made progress this week. It was great! He is now eating 100% strawberry yogurt, not a mixture, he ate his vanilla yogurt out of a bowl instead of the container, and he will accept a 50% milk/50% strawberry smoothie mix. Hopefully he will keep making good progress next week because they're going to try some new foods.

Mark is arriving in Baltimore on Sunday afternoon and will spend his first day in the program on Monday. He's excited to see how the program works and to visit with us. We will start 'parent feeding training' on Monday too.

We had to make an unexpected accomodation this week, which is why Ethan is being weaned onto the 50% milk/50% strawberry smoothie mix. Ethan has gone from losing weight in the program his first 2 weeks to gaining weight like a fat boy the 2nd two weeks. The yogurt and the smoothie we've been giving him were originally recommended (way back when he was an infant) so he would gain weight, so they're very high in calories. He has 4 feeding sessions per day (9:30, 12:30, 2:30 and 4:30) and he has a yogurt, a smoothie and snacks at each session. This is way, way, way more than he ate at home so he's getting too chunky. Today, I noticed his shorts were getting snug so I looked that the size so I could get him new ones. His shorts were 18 month size! LOL, they fit fine last week! Not many 6 year olds are out there in 18 month shorts, I'm sure! This one won't be for long either!

We're still not sure whether Ethan is safe with thin liquids like milk, so we have an ENT scope on Wednesday afternoon to check his airway for potential aspiration problems (that's breathing food into his lungs). We have the PEG (gtube) scheduled for June 25th, and a cardio consult on July 2nd. These appointments should be able to shed light on whether his feeding issues stem from underlying medical problems.

Have a great weekend!
Molly & Ethan