You know your mom is from East Texas when ...

... she lets you go shirtless with a bag of Cheeto puffs.

GI & Other Updates

Truman's appointment with the GI specialist will be September 15. That was the soonest we could get under non-emergent circumstances. He will have a swallow study before that appointment, which is in the process of being scheduled. Depending on the results of the swallow study, I assume the GI appointment could move closer.

In good news, we have a lot less vomit since we took away table food we cut his diet back to only milk, fruit and veggie purees, and dissolvable crunchy things like Cheeto puffs, veggie sticks, and Gerber crunchies. However, in the meantime, we do seem to be making some strides with the behaviorial vomits now that we've taken texture-based vomits out of the equation. Still, it's caused a major stall in developmental progress with regard to eating. I worry that it will greatly impact--or prevent--the start of Parent's Day Out this fall if he can't eat with his peers.

Truman is still just making leaps and bounds in other areas. He seems to understand more and more words every day, can point to several body parts now, can follow simple directions, and (hallelujah) has learned to tell us when he wants to eat or stop eating. He is signing more and more words and is using more objects correctly like putting a phone to his ear or trying to put on his shoes. He has always been a problem solver, but he is starting to seem very mechanically-minded. He is good at figuring out buttons and knobs and moving things to get at things that his parents are attempting to hide or place out of reach. He has a really great memory, too, for where things are, his books, which cabinets have broken baby proofing devices. He has learned to go up and down his slide on his own.

He is digressing in the going to bed department. Sometimes, we are still struggling with him at 11 p.m. Before you all start posting comments about sleep training, remember he has the vomit "trump card." We can't just put him down and let him cry because even moderate crying causes vomit, which means we have to start all over the last meal, bath, etc. We are trying to make adjustments to his napping schedule to see if we make going to bed easier in the evenings.

Truman has turned into a rock star in the swimming department. He is now swimming between two people underwater--not far, but from point A to a specific target, which is a big deal as far as safety. He is swimming without being guided, which means he comes up on his own from underwater. He has also learned to hang on the pool side for a few seconds and where the steps are that enable him to get in and out of our pool at home all by himself. He even signs "more" at swim lessons to take another turn at the slide that dumps him underwater.

The occupational therapist is concerned with Truman's strong left-handed preference. She believes hand preference shouldn't be so strong at this point, so little "CP" hints are being dropped again. Even if that turns out to be true, it looks like he will be able to compensate with his left side just fine. In the meantime, they are focusing on strengthening him on the right for now.

Double Trouble

Truman's friend, Ethan visited over the June 21 weekend. They had lots and lots of fun. Truman taught Ethan the sign for "more" while Ethan taught Truman how to play in the toilet. We're still working on the GI scheduling. In the meantime, we seem to have reduced a lot of the vomiting by faithfully sticking to the purees only diet and letting Truman dictate more about how much he eats. If he had all the say, he never eat more than a couple of bites, and they would always be veggie sticks or Gerber crunchies. In HUGE Truman news, he has learned the word "eat" and has begun giving the "more" sign while saying "et" to tell us when he's hungry. This is a child who has never asked for food before. In addition to eat (et) and light (ight), Truman seems to also be saying eyes (ice), Mama, and more (muh).



Ethan's Mom, Cinda, helps the boys demonstrate their "cool."
The boys have lots of splash-time fun.
The boys try (unsuccessfully) to work together to get outside.
Fun on Truman's playscape.
A visit with Kaden and Colin Winter and lots of VERY noisy banging.

Photo Update: Fun Weekend at Home

We stayed close to home this weekend and had a lot of fun playing. Truman had his first swim lesson of the season, and other than being a little clingy at first, he did great. He has the same teacher as last summer. She said he's ready to start working on swimming underwater with Mama letting go.

Truman spent some time on Father's Day doing a little coloring therapy with Daddy. Of course, that involved coloring his face and Daddy's shorts. For Father's Day, Truman gave Daddy one of those recordable cards. As he was walking across to give it to Daddy, he decided to stop and rip apart the envelope and send the gift card inside flying across the kitchen, but once the music played, he happily stood and clapped with Daddy.

What's a great summer weekend at home without a little homemade ice cream. Truman definitely enjoyed the rare chance to self-feed with his new diet.
Here's Truman taking a break from sidewalk chalk play to very politely sign "more" for the camera and give an inquisitive babble in the hopes of actually fooling Mama into giving it to him this time.











This weekend, Truman has a weekend-long playdate with Ethan from Lubbock. We're thinking about going to Dallas Young Lawyer's Zoo Day on Saturday, and Hollis, who shared Truman's due date, is also coming over to play on Sunday, so it will be Babypalooza this weekend.

Not so fast

Truman had his first observed parent-feeding session with the pediatric psychologist) who felt very strongly that the vomiting she was seeing was reflux (in addition to texture) because of the projectile nature, the fact of its being a stomach-emptying every time, and the fact of how easily and quickly it happens. So, she said Truman needs an immediate upper GI. She also said all of his physical defense mechanisms to eating, such as physically blocking the food, turning his head, crying, and sticking his fingers down his throat, etc., may be prompted by the reflux and not wanting to be in pain. Also, Truman never asks to eat or even wants to eat, except for an occasional positive response to a bottle. She asked Ben to call the pedi and then they will consult. They have also added a session with her now to work on behavioral feeding issues while the other therapist works with texture issues. That's six sessions and three days a week now. Aetna must love us.

I felt a little yesterday like we were latching onto good news a little too much, and it sounds like maybe that was the case. :(

Awesome Weight Check

Truman gained 11.6 ounces over the last four weeks!!! That's huge. He's up to 18 lbs, 6.4 ounces. And, with the recent developmental explosion, his pedi said he would be happy even with a stasis in weight if the developmental milestones keep progressing like they have been. So, no GI referral or tests for now.

He has also grown to 29.5 inches.

Eating Issues

As of last week, Truman's feeding therapist and behaviorial psychologist (who sees Truman for eating issues) have restricted Truman to purees and dissolvable solids (like Gerber puffs and Veggie sticks). He is to have absolutely no other solids, and no table foods in particular. Once we've achieved some decent measurable time without vomit, we'll start introducing other foods slowly again. The idea is to eliminate Truman's texture-induced vomits while we work on the behaviorial vomits. So far, the plan has been a miserable failure as Truman has vomited almost every day (sometimes multiple times in a row) anyway. And, as soon as he learned how to ask for other foods by signing, we stop responding to his signs. That's got to work wonders for his psyche. They also added a monitored parent-feeding session, which he starts this Thursday. That brings Truman's count up to 5 sessions of therapy a week, with the ocassional 6 sessions when he has his once-a-month physical therapy consult.

This afternoon, Truman has a weight check at the pediatrician. We were given a month to see if the appetite stimulant had any effect. If it did not have significant effect--which it didn't--we were told that we would be referred to a GI specialist at Children's Hospital for tests. All the stimulant seemed to do was make him sleepier and hungrier, but the hunger didn't translate into additional food volume.

We need lots of luck this afternoon. Maybe Truman will amaze us after all and break the scales, but we're not holding our breath.