Slow & Steady

Two weeks went fast. It went well but we are very glad it's done. The short of it is that he is now eating thick-dry puree, wet-fork mashed/puree, and an easier food at each meal. The biggest improvement is that he is moving the food around in his mouth and making chewing motions. Yesterday and today (final day) she snuck in some pieces of roll, muffin, and brownie. Teeny bits that were sometimes with the puree and sometimes just plain. For the most part, if he was distracted enough, he did well with it and worked it around and chewed a bit. For me the highlight was today. The therapist put a bite of carrots in his mouth then left to grab something. As soon as she did he worked a carrot bit out of his mouth and grabbed it. I started to tell him not to but he smiled and popped it back in. Then proceeded to shock me by chewing it up with exaggerated gusto! I cheered and egged him on. He was about to take a brownie crumb when she returned. The game of eat while she's gone was over hahaha!!! Stinker!

The Dr saw us Wednesday and explained that with his muscle disorder his chewing muscles are fatiguing fast. So we need to maintain the puree mixes while he builds stamina and strength. After 4 to 6 weeks we can make it more challenging again. So that's the plan for now. We will be doing outpatient feeding therapy there every other week to keep up with it. 

Slow and steady wins the race. Right? I hope so. 

Thanks so much for your prayers through these two weeks. RoBear and I are worn out and ready for a bit of rest, but it went so much better this time!