Feeding Update

Trey waiting for therapy to begin.

Well I thought it would be good to post about Trey's eating progress since it has been awhile since I have. Trey had a couple of weeks where he was battling his first ear infection and then a lingering cold so he just wasn't too interested in eating or drinking.

But lately he has been doing quite well with his willingness to taste foods. That means for Trey bringing food to his lips or getting a little actually in his mouth and usually spitting it out. He still has episodes of gagging at times or will get a piece of food in his mouth that he is unsure of and just refuses to swallow and drool everywhere. Which is always a struggle. For instance last night he was able to lick some black olives and strawberries. Some pasta did make it in his mouth but then he gagged some and spit it out. But he tried several times which is encouraging.

So his therapist's goal is now to move past his willingness to just taste and increase in volume. We know Trey feels safe with certain dry textures (his chips) so we need to build on others. We are going to offer small amounts of rice milk in a bowl before every snack or meal and slowly start to increase the thickness. The goal is for Trey to begin to feel safe with spoon feeding, drinking rice milk orally so someday it will replace his tube feedings and him learning to see his food all gone. It is going to take time but I know he can do it.

He is continuing group therapy once a week and individual therapy at our home every other week which has been great.

We are excited because in a couple of months once we get off a waiting list Trey will start going to preschool 2 times a week for about 2-3 hours at a time. The nice thing about this is that it is provided by his therapy services, it is a small class of about 8 children to 3 teachers and one of his therapist is the head teacher. His classroom will also be the same room he gets group therapy in which will be good for familiarity.

I think this will be great for Trey to learn to spend some time away from me and be around other children in a classroom setting. And also good for me to get some much needed alone time.

So we are excited for all these upcoming new adventures to take place. Thank you for taking the time to read such a long post.

Here are some pictures from yesterday's group therapy session.

Trey practicing feeding a baby with his therapist Kelly.


A fun painting art project.


Time to eat!!!