I've been meaning to update for a few days but haven't seemed to find the time. Regardless, we've hit a big milestone here. It's been 6 months 9 (and five days) since Jack finished the program at Kennedy Krieger! Woot! I can't believe its already been 6 months! Some days it feels like that was a different lifetime and some days it feels like yesterday.
So where are we? We're doing pretty good! Does he still have issues with food? Oh yes. Would he still prefer to spend his days eating yogurt? Yep. BUT he doesn't!
Jack is doing really well. We've seemed to backtrack a bit on self feeding so we're working on that. He self feeds all preferred foods with no issue but seems to need a bit of a push with lesser preferred.
So what are his new preferred foods? Pizza. Hands down. That kid LOVES him so pizza and oddly seems to enjoy the crust the most. Bananas. Holy cow. I feel like we go through more bananas than a zoo. He would eat 5-6 large bananas a day if we and our inventory allowed. Pretty much anything Italian. Ziti, spaghetti, lasagna. He loves it all.
Foods that still cause a problems? Vegetables, but I feel like thats probably a typical three year old thing to that feel that way. Sandwiches. Unless its PB and Nutella (a rare treat), he's not eating it without voicing at least a small amount of unhappiness.
Overall, where are we? I think we've really found our groove with this whole eating thing. Just like basic parenting, some days are better than others. Some days are rough and nearly every bite can be a fight. Other days we have no issues with food.
We've been working on introducing new foods and he's tried quite a variety of new things. Most recently was cheese quesadilla in hopes that one day we can eat at a Mexican restaurant and NOT order him chicken nuggets. Our big challenge to see how far we've come will be next week with Thanksgiving. While NO ONE is expecting him to sit down and eat a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, goals have been set as to which foods we'd like him to have for dinner. We'll see how it goes.
Now that we're six months out, what's next? He's got a follow up in December. I'm very excited to take him back and let everyone see how he's doing (PLUS to see everyone!). After that I think we go back in May for a one year (!) follow up.
In short- life is good. Steve and I (and our friends and family) are all incredibly thankful for the services that the people at KKI provided. We would not be in this position right now without them. I will spend the rest of my life feeling blessed that Jack was able to go to such an amazing program. We are forever indebted to them.
