Day Twenty Eight

I got to feed Daniel today! It was an overall good day. Daniel was in a great mood and that really helps with therapy. I got to sit in on all 4 meals and got to feed him 3 of them. It is a lot harder than it looks. Because of his aversion to having things in his mouth, you have to put the spoon in a certain way or he will gag. It looks easy when you watch a therapist that has 14 years experience but it isn't easy. They usually get about 5 oz per meal into him and on the first meal I only got 3 oz. By the 3rd and 4th meal I was doing better and averaged about 4.3 oz. I need more practice! Tomorrow I will feed him again and then for the rest of the week I will feed him an additional meal at night. Hopefully by the weekend I will be up to par on the placement of the spoon and I will feed him all meals at home. Total ounces that he consumed today was 23.7. Pretty good for my 1st day of feeding (if I do say myself).

Also, they gave me a list of foods I needed to get from the grocery tonight. Daniel and I made the trip after clinic. It was good to be buying canned food instead of baby food. I will get my first training tomorrow on how to puree everything up for Daniel. I hope all of you know that Daniel will come home on pureed food. It will be a little thicker than what baby food will be. Once we are home, we will work up on textures and will need to work with a therapist closer to home to work on his chewing skills. To tell you the truth, if we win the lottery, I would love to come back to Richmond for another 8 week program to teach him to chew. The therapists here are amazing compared to what I have worked with back home. If any of you have an extra $20,000 laying around, I would be glad to take it from you and get Daniel eating a happy meal from McDonald's, lol.

Well, I gotta get off here for tonight. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.

-Angela-