Tuesday 24 April 2012

Eating

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted! We've been so busy and Marcus has made so much progress. The highlight of my week was taking Marcus to see the dietician and actually being able to discuss his DIET!! We kept a food diary for a week and I was even shocked myself at how much he actually eats now. At the beginning of 2011, I was directed to the Food Chaining website by a fellow CFC mum from America and I read about some ideas which I hadn't tried with Marcus. The most successful idea was introducing Marcus to 'tastes' using powdered foods like cinnamon, Nesquik, garlic salt and ground almonds. I put tiny amount in a little paint pallet and Marcus loved this approach. The whole family got involved and we all dabbed our fingers in the different flavours. Meanwhile, Marcus discovered a love of cake: cheesecake, carrot cake, lemon drizzle anything but chocolate!! Then we managed to move onto thick purees. Marcus really enjoys 'orange soup' I can mix just about anything with sweet potato or butternut squash and he will eat it! It has to be really, really smooth. He still spits out lumps, even the tiniest of granules but I have some strategies up my sleeve to help with that later. Eggs are another winning foodstuff. Boiled, poached, fried but not scrambled. And he only eats the yolk but that's ok because that's where all the goodness is. Marcus is now beginning to bite and chew. Progress painfully slow but we're so grateful after a seven year wait. Our next challenge is encourage Marcus to drink less Paediasure (a fortified milk drink). The thinking is that if he drinks less milk, he will eat more solid food. Marcus' oral muscles are weak and I think he gets tired after eating so the journey may not be as simple as it initially sounds but we have three months to achieve the goal of cutting g down from 6 cartons a day to just 2 ... Can we do it? Of course we can!