October 23rd 2007

In my last post, I mentioned taking it upon myself to reduce Julia's feeds. I'm not surprised but Julia had lost 2lbs so we went back to giving her four tube feeds a day. We still feed her by mouth and she's really doing well but not well enough to gain weight. Our speech therapist has recommended us for the outpatient program with Our Children's House. The program is two or three weeks (depending on the kid) long and each day is from 8:30 to 3:30. There is a team of people who will follow Julia (psychiatrist, doctor, nutritionist, and speech therapists) and when she's not eating, she'll be attending a variety of other therapies to help her master all that goes with eating. Suck, swallow, breathe, put food in your mouth, chew without gagging, swallow without choking and then be willing to take another bite. And to think we were certain teaching Julia to eat would be quick and easy. Quick isn't two and a half years later and easy.....well, I'll be polite and simply say no, it's not.