Romy has been a busy girl lately. We've recently placed her in a social group for kiddo's with feeding issues. The group is called 'The Breakfast Club,' how cute is that? Basically it's a small group of kids who get together one morning every week and make food, eat, and play. The group is made up of mostly kids with different kinds of developmental disabilities that are all around two or two and half. Romy is the only CP kid and by far the smallest. However she is also the 'best' eater. Most of the kids besides her rarely eat anything besides crackers and high calorie milk or formulas. It's ironic to say the least. Romy's feeding issue is purely the amount she will take in. She does have some oral sensitivity and prefers a core of 6 or 7 different foods but will pretty much try anything at least once. For example, for breakfast she'll have half a waffle or maybe a tablespoon or so of grits and perhaps two or three bites of a banana. Lunch will be two chicken nuggets and few sweet potato fries. Her snack is usually two or three bites of cheese and handful of crackers and dinner is, quite often, half a grilled cheese sandwich. She'll also take a bite or two of something I'm eating throughout the day. It doesn't sound so bad, right? However, she is not a big drinker either. Most picky kids pick up most of their calories with the milk that they drink but Romy rarely drinks more than 16 ounces of anything a day. We bulk up her milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast Mix and it adds at least 260 calories a day but it doesn't seem to be enough. I try to sneak in heavy cream but Romy can tell and will promptly refuse it. I give her high calorie smoothies but most times she'll drink a few ounces and be done.
While Romy is in her play group the parents meet with different specialists to learn tips and techniques. Today we met with a child phycologist. She gave us a lot of great tips and we tried them out today and I am happy to report that today was her best day of eating in quite a while. She ate some trail mix that the kids made, half of a cheeseburger, at least ten fries, a chocolate wafer, 5 cubes of cheese, 3 ounces of yogurt and 6 pizza rolls! I know what you're thinking, it sounds like a bunch of crappy food, right? You're right, but it's FOOD. It's calories and fat that she desperately needs to develop her mind and body. Believe me, we tried the whole "whole grain this, organic that, fruit this and veggie that" thing but it simply does not work with Romy's palate or sensory issues. Don't get me wrong, we still offer nutritional food but if she always eats around it then so be it. The fruits and veggies are there and one day she will try it and maybe even like it. To quote her dietician "Yes, kids can survive off of chicken nuggets." We learned that we must back off when it comes to meal time. In the mean time the Carnation adds vital nutrients and she also gets a daily multi-vitamin.
Overall, I'm pretty excited about The Breakfast Club, especially the social interaction that Romy is getting, AND when I drop her off and leave the room she doesn't cry! Goodbye separation anxiety!
Romy got botox today. Hopefully it will be helpful. Her neurologist is also referring us to a neurosurgeon. We're going to talk about Romy's future surgical options.
Here's my sweet girl! Did I ever mention that she broke her glasses? We pick up her new ones tomorrow. Also, her eyes have improved quite a bit! No more astigmatism, very little, if ever, nystagmus and her prescription went from -5.25 and -4.75 to -4.0 in BOTH eyes! WooHoo!
Lately, we've been letting Romy brush her own hair after her bath. She always brushes it into 'Beiber bangs,' you know, just like Justin Bieber. Funny girl.
4 comments:
Please tell me how you found this group? Maybe i can find something in my area like it. My son has about five food types: nuggets, fries, purees, yogurt, and crackers. He too only drink about 15 oz of high calorie formula and will only take it from the bottle. We do feeding therapy, but would certianly benefit from a group like this.
I hope you get well soon ..
cheer
I would be thrilled if Hallie ate a bite of chicken nugget (heck, even if she licked one). She has about five or ten foods (unless you break down potato chips into their subvariant types). And unless it's from a bottle, she won't drink her milk, either. Five feeding therapists later and about all we have that represents progress is that Hallie will take a bite of banana, sometimes. I give up.
I wish we had a Breakfast Club around here. Maybe peer models would help where nothing else will...
@Abby, I agree. Romy really seemed to want to eat more when others around her were eating.
Post a Comment