Intensive Feeding Therapy - Week 4

4 weeks down, 4 more to go!  Tonight's post is going to be a short one, because I am exhausted!  In my meeting with the social worker last week, she said that parents have said that weeks four and five are the hardest on them.  I definitely agree! 

Nathan made some really great progress again this week.  He actually ate and drink enough by mouth for six meals this week that we did not need to do a tube feeding after those meals.  At this point, his goal for a meal time is 180 grams total of food and drink, with his final goal being 210 grams per meal.  He ended the day on Friday eating 191 grams for his lunch meal and 198 grams for his afternoon meal.  I am hoping that we will be able to pick up right where we left off tomorrow morning!

Nathan ended up having his swallow study on Thursday of this week.  We had a chance to meet with his speech therapist on Thursday of this past week to go over the preliminary results and will be meeting with her at some point this week to watch the swallow study.  The swallow study showed that when Nathan swallows some residual is staying in the back of his throat, this is likely the cause of the increase of the coughing and clearing of the throat that they have noticed in this meal times with the addition of food and drink.  While the residual is not unsafe, they would like to minimize it as much as possible.  The residual was less with thinner foods than thicker, so they will be alternating his bites between a thick puree and thin puree which should help him clear the residual better and are also working with him to clear his throat during his meal.  The hope is that this well get better as he has more practice with eating.  The swallow study also showed that he may have some volume tolerance issues.  They will continue to watch for signs of this and may add some additional time to his meal which will allow them to slow down the pace while still getting in the volume that they need.

If his progress continues at the rate that it has been, I will begin learning Nathan's feeding protocol on Wednesday of this week, with the hope that I could begin feeding Nathan at home next weekend or early the following week.  How quickly this happens will depend entirely on Nathan.  They have warned me that the first person to go through training generally has it the hardest, which I thoroughly expected.  In addition to me learning the protocol, they are also going to work on increasing the number of foods that are in his preferred rotation. 

Thank you again for all of your thoughts and prayers.  Please pray for another great week of therapy for Nathan and energy for me!