Feeding Clinic

Wednesday Eric had an appointment at the feeding clinc. This was his annual appointment where his whole team seen him, including the GI doctor. I knew going into this it was not going to be fun for either of us. The appointment was set for 8:00 in the morning. We were off at 6 am which is way to early for both Eric and I. He loves the ride. Good thing, we made it there with maybe 10 min to spare. We were called and it was time for weight and hight. You would think this would be the easy part of the appointment (for a kid anyway lol), but this is Eric. He has to take off his shoes before he steps on the scale. I can understand the reasoning behind it. This is heavily used and expensive equipment and they need the most accuaray possible. He would have no issue stepping on the scale if I didn't have to take his shoes off. Of course I have to go through that extra step and he gets it in his head that he is stuck there for a while since his shoes are off and he starts getting upset and fighting. He has to stand still on the scale too which he don't want to do. Once we finally finished that it's time for the dreaded height measurement. The clinic does this by putting them against the wall and this thing comes down on his head and the height measurement shows up on the machine. Eric HATES the mere thought of that thing coming down on his head. It is virtually impossible to get him to stand there so they can accurately measure him. He just sits down, kicks, screams, grabs at me, scratches me. It is not fun. Since it's been 12 months getting his height somehow was a must. We gave up on that machine and we were going to get him to stand against the wall, mark it and use a tame measure. We finally got what we needed but it was a fight to say the least. Next we go to the feeding room. The nurse comes in soon after and asks her questions. Since he is not on any meds, not having any real physical problems her visit was quick and easy. Next we talked to the nutritionist about what he has been eating/drinking. She wants to increase the amount and variety of baby food we are mixing in his milk so he can get more nutrients and exposerure to different flavors. This time we had a speech language pathologist speak with us. This was a first. I am glad to see this because his feeding adversions are as much sensory as they are behavioral issues. We were talking about trying to change his cup and increase the textures he will accept. That will take a while and a lot of work. The psychologist then came in. She wanted to do a behavioral eating session with him but I forgot his cup. She got out cheerios and she wanted me to get him to eat them. That was met with another Eric tantrum. He wanted nothing to do with them. He was still trying to calm himself down from the height measuring machine. After this was attempt 2 at his height. They were able to get a good enough estimate after calling in 2 other people to help with him. After this was done we went into the exam room and waited for the MD. Eric was anxious about this. Luckily it was a quick exam and a talk with me. The doctor was satisfied with his growth and nutrition. Since he has not had any major GI issues besides a tummy bug a few weeks ago there was not much to do. Not that Eric would allow much examination anyway. This was another display of his tantruming skills. I honestly wish we could skip this tourture for both him and me but it is policy. There are concerns about his teeth because of his liquid diet and my lack of ability to clean his teeth thouroghly because of his oral sensory issues. They told me to call the dental clinic at the hospital. I call later in the day to find out they have no new patient appointments available right now and their wait list is full. I have to get a referral from the feeding clinic folks to get a chance at getting in there. I got a recommendation from a friend of another practice that offers sedation dentistry and is good with her kids. I will be making a call there. At least I finally got an appointment with the genetics clinic for mid March. For that we are going to start with Andy and proceed from there with me, their dad and the other kids if necessary. I'm just glad I finally got to the right person to get this going. The next feeding clinic appointment is set for Feb. 19th with the behavior psychologist for a feeding session. We are also hoping that someone from the in home provider's organization will be allowed to attend so the feeding part of the plan can be discussed and laid out so it is realistic and works for everyone.