Thursday, April 8, 2010

An Exciting Accomplishment for Liam

I've mentioned several times about Liam's oral sensory issues and his difficulty learning to eat. It has been a very slow process with continual progress. He has gone from only taking formula to accepting yogurt to accepting most anything in his yogurt to pediasure. Progress, progress, progress. It's so great to see him making leaps and bounds in something so very important.

So what is the big exciting accomplishment? Banana. Yep. That's it, and it is truly an amazing thing for him. It's not just that he's eating mushed up bananas. Tonight, I took his spoon and just used it to break off pieces of banana.

He took the food off the spoon, moved it to the side of his mouth and CHEWED. HE CHEWED!!! And then, the biggest thing of all...HE SWALLOWED IT!! Go Liam! Since he did so well, I handed him 1/4 of the whole banana just to see what he'd do. He ate it!!! He self-fed, bit pieces off, chewed, swallowed, and went back for more. That kid ate the whole dang banana!!

He is also signing up a blue streak. He isn't quite to where CJ was at his age with signing, but he is catching up. I'm so excited for him and for the amazing steps he's taking in progressing toward becoming the amazing person he's destined to be. I couldn't ask for more.

6 comments:

  1. Yea, Liam!! Way to go! Keep up the good work, Aimee....you are doing a great job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome, Liam! Bananas are a winner!

    Nolan had real issues with chewing and swallowing (still does for some textures, like bread). With him, it was related to his reflux... we worked through it with food chaining. You find a food that is similar in texture to the food they accept, and add to their food repertoire by "chaining" similar textures/flavors. Now, if we could only get him to eat broccoli, lol!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We have been doing the food chaining, too. Poor kid has endured a lot of crazy eating issues, but he's doing well overcoming them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What wonderful news! Way to go Liam!
    If you have some ideas to share with me how to improve the swallowing issues I would be really grateful!
    If you have time my e-mail is:
    jusminje@gmail.com
    and I am also in the NEHI yahoo support group.
    Are there any webpages or books or some thing about this?
    My 10 month old baby has NEHI. He eats all kinds of baby food. He doesn´t seem to fond of bits and chunks though and I am not sure how to introduce them. He does chew on things but he doesn`t like to swallow things with a more solid texture. Yoghurt and baby food he eats well. I gave him some orange and he chewed and sucked on it just to get a terrible rash from it... at least I think it was the orange doing the rash.

    Thank you for sharing Liam`s story!

    Marisa from Finland

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is great news! way to go Liam!

    Aimee, I have been reading your blog and I would really like to talk to you more about NEHI. My 10 months old baby was recently diagnosed through a lung biopsy he had a 6 months.
    I would reaaly like to change thoughts with you. You sound like such a positive person and I would really like to hear more about your thoughts about NEHI.
    My e-mail is:
    jusminje@gmail.com
    I am also on the yahoo NEHI support group and on FB.

    If you have ANY information or ideas to share about how to do with the swallowing issues please would you share those with me?
    My baby eats well as long as it`s smooth food like yoghurt (regular strawberry yoghurt is all right) or baby food, he is not a big fan of bits and chunks.
    I would really love to hear some ideas on how to introduce harsher food like bread to him. He ches on it, but starts to gag when trying to swallow.
    What is food chaining?
    Are there any webpages about this?

    You`re family is beautiful!!!

    ReplyDelete