Week Two!

I've been really excited to write this week's update! It's been a really good week for us, with a lot of good news so here it goes!


Jack is doing W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L.L.Y. He is beating everyone's expectations. With how severe his separation anxiety was last week and how rough the first few new food meals were, everyone was preparing for the worst.


On Monday they started making him eat the new foods they offered. The first bite of banana at lunch took 8 minutes. At dinner it took 4. At breakfast the next morning it took less than 30 seconds. At lunch he picked it up and ate it all by himself!


Ever since Tuesday, he no longer fights the bite of new food. The way it works is, he gets four foods a meal. He takes 19 bites of those foods, 5 bites, 5 bites, 5 bites and 4 bites. In between his bites he gets praised and gets to watch Octonauts and play with Playdoh. At the end of his normal bites he has to try one new bite to be done. He has no problem with the last bite of food. No fighting, no gagging, no crying. Just chewing and swallowing!


This week in Feeding he's eaten Banana, Waffle, Chocolate Pudding, Apple (which he stopped because he was getting hives after eating them), Grilled Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich! In addition, he's tried Pretzels in Speech Therapy to teach him to chew with his back teeth and he's eaten Cheerios and Cheese Puffs to work on texture issues in Occupational Therapy.


This morning at breakfast he's trying steamed Broccoli! Steve's going to call and let me know how it goes! Tomorrow they're starting Spaghetti!


As of right now, his discharge date is set at May 7th. The full 8 weeks but I was talking to his social worker and they're thinking that he *might* be out sometime between April 23rd and April 30th, making it a 6 to 7 week admission!


That's a good update for now! I'll update next week with his new list of foods! Hopefully week three goes as well as week two!


Oh, if anyone is interested, his address at the hospital is
Jack W.
C/O Kennedy Krieger Institute
Room 309
707 North Broadway
Baltimore, MD 21205


Until next week!