I honestly haven't thought much about his eating in a while because things have been relatively well and relatively poorly at the same time.
For these reasons, we feel like his eating is 100% better than it was a year ago. We are very thankful to all of the work done with him at the Feeding Clinic to get us to this place. We no longer utilize the Feeding Clinic protocol or force him to eat the foods we have predetermined for him. But we do use television for distraction and use verbal feedback and rewards to encourage him to stay focused on eating.
Bennett still "pockets" his food, it seems forgetting he has food hidden within his cheeks. But we've found that if we ignore it, he will either eventually get distracted and eventually swallow it - or he will indicate he wants to simply spit it out. We don't make a big deal about either one.
But our choice to increase his feeding tube is difficult as it may slow his process off eating orally. I have had to simply stop worrying about it and just wait to see what the doctors suggest at our CF appointment. I don't have alot of control in this area so I am trying to be patient.
My greatest desire is to see Bennett's eating skills continue to strengthen so that should we end up needing to put him on the feeding tube for longer amounts of time, these skills will not be totally lost. Bennett has been on the cusp of losing or not gaining oral eating skills over the last two years. So, the longer we can encourage him to eat by mouth, the better.
This picture just cracks me up. |
The nice thing is Bennett has a sweet tooth. So, we often find ourselves encouraging him to eat the high-caloric, high fat foods by rewarding him with a high-caloric, high fat dessert. This works in our benefit: eat a bite of her french fry and you can have an M&M. :)
Bennett likes to go fishing in his chocolate ice cream for lost M&Ms and gummi bears. |
Such a silly boy! |
Clearly, Bennett is eating and is enjoying it! We'll see what the docs have to say in a few weeks. For now, I'm delighted to see Bennett appreciate food. And I'm, quite frankly, delighted to not even be worried about it right now!

I want to officially give you an online *high five*!! This is wonderful news and keep up the good work. You're fighting off the worry because you know you're doing your very best for him. Go Bennett!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to hear that he is eating, and that it is so much better than it was before. Azer used to do that "pocketing" thing too.
ReplyDeleteLately, Azer's appetite has been much better than it used to, and he's still getting 4 cans of formula a day. Sometimes I wonder how other CF kids manage to stay at a healthy weight by eating alone!
what great news! :-)
ReplyDeletebest, as always.