Feeding Progress!

Truman completed a 10-week group feeding clinic at UTD's Callier Center a week ago, and we had a parent-therapist conference on Friday. Truman made more progress during the 10 weeks of this program than he had in two years of feeding therapy at Our Children's House. I think it was because this program was about teaching parents to become feeding experts and because it was based on addressing the physiological and sensory reasons why children have trouble eating instead of treating the behaviorial issues that arise out of them. Ben and Truman learned exercises to physically strengthen and train Truman's oral-motor muscles and make eating easier and less scary.

In 10 weeks, Truman went from not being able to move his tongue beyond the insides of his teeth to being able to touch the insides of his cheek. He also learned to lick his lips, check laterally (not just bite), and to draw his cheeks in to suck out of a straw and pull food in. There are a lot of other specific things he was able to accomplish that I can't really explain. But the primary thing is that he is not vomiting on a daily basis. It's more like a weekly occurrence now. And, he ASKS for food. We've started being more willing to offer, and he's more willing to try challenging foods. And, Truman actually having the physical capacity to eat means we are all FAR less stressed about eating. There has been a massive dynamic shift in our household that is wonderful.

Things have progressed so far that Truman will now meet with the therapist for one hour every three weeks or so so that she can see how he is doing on current goals and coach Ben on the next step to take. The therapist also really complimented Ben on his eagerness to really roll up his sleeves and solve Truman's feeding issues. She said having a Dad in the program really adds a dynamic to the classes she likes.

We've also phased out the reflux meds as well for the most part because even though he still has it to some degree, he seems OK without the meds.