Saturday, June 23, 2007

University of Washington

I got a call today from UW explaining the types of programs we can pursue with Nick. The first program was one in which we hire a private therapist to work with him at home, and at UW.
The second type of program is a parent training program. Each week, the parents and child make the trip to UW to develop goals and teaching strategies for a home based therapy program.

We have decided to go with the first option. Nick needs more expertise in this area than we can give him. Plus, this therapist would work with him 1 on 1. We can then incorporate what the therapist does into our daily routines. The UW staff is starting the paper-trail to get him in, and we should be hearing more about that soon.

For the last two days, I have been trying to make an appointment with the feeding clinic at Madigan. They are all booked up-so they keep telling me to try again in a few days to see if they have any openings. I will be calling his Dr on Monday to get referals for the home therapies. I am hoping to have this started within the next few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Yesterday I took Nick to the regular pediatrician(how LONG has it been since we saw a REGULAR Dr??) because he still was not eating. This was going on the third day and I just wanted to make sure nothing serious was wrong. We had him tested for strep throat, and they looked in his ears to make sure everything was ok. Everything came back normal, and Nick was proving me to be quite the liar. He was just a little chatterbox the whole time, and charming the pants off everyone who saw him. He has started eating again as of tonight, and we hope this latest set-back will be a thing of the past shortly.

To those who pray, please say a short prayer for Isaiah (http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bcus1143871&tid=6552) He is going on his 11th day of not eating and nobody knows why. I can't imagine the stress this is putting on his family. These kids get into their little *funks* and they cannot tell us what is wrong. It can just be so worrisome at times.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

An old battle revisited.....

This is NOT a battle I enjoyed either. The FOOD battle. I remember many nights of sheer frustration as I watched Michael barely eat enough to live on. He was not growing, not gaining any weight, not eating. We thought surely we must be doing it all wrong! We were under immense pressure to get our child to simply eat. I was so happy when Nick had a hearty appetite and was chugging down 30+ oz of formula along with 3 jars of food at a time. Where has that gone?? Those were such happy days before his issues with food were not even on the horizon yet. Everyone commented on his hearty appetite...trouble though,was just around the corner.

We are battling with food again. Nick has seemingly gone on an all food strike. He eats nothing but Goldfish. He went from a big eater as a baby, to a skin-and-bones live on air toddler. Top that off with his issues already with food textures, and you get a whole lot of frustration. Is it too much to ask for a "normal" kid?? One that does not put holes or dents in our walls from head-banging?? It is so hard to not know what your child wants. He can't tell us what he wants and that just kills me. I love him immensly, but just for once I would like our lives to be "normal".