Feeding Specialist

have been meaning to blog all week. We have been so busy this week it's honestly the first time I've had a chance to update since our appt. Hawkin had a appt with a feeding specialist last friday. We have been waiting on this for a while and I was very anxious to see what they said. We went bc Hawk has lost about 10 lbs since his birthday. He is in the 23% for weight so we really need to work on it. He refuses to eat most anything and lives primarily off if almond milk, waffles, and mum-mums (which are baby rice cakes). He eats some other things too but it comes and goes. I kw most everybody is thinking "when he's hungry, he'll eat". That's what I thought too..until he would go a days without eating. He can take food or leave it. He often gets choked and often chews his food and spits it out. On his birthday he weighed 30.6 lbs, he now hovers around 20ish. We have talked ab things such as pedisure, like a supplement drink but they are all milk or soy based. He is allergic to both. So Dr. Rhodes (our pcp) suggested to see Dr. Watson (feeding specialist). So we went last Friday..i wasnt sure what to expect other than prepare to be there all day. I should have known then I should've taken someone along. Lol our appt was at 1030 and you were suppose to arrive 30 minutes early. So naturally we did. Hawk was already cranky for being in a new place, he's a homebody and doesn't do well out and about. When we got back for the appt Dr. Watson was very nice..a tad bit too cheerful to tell the truth but very nice. Maybe cheerful isnt the correct term..but anyways she was very very excited. So we went thru medical history and a typical day of what Hawkin would eat, mostly waffles mummums and occasional baby food pouch. She put Hawkin in a highchair and fed him a snack to get a idea of how he eats. By this time we were ab 2 hours in and he was done...totally over it. She gave us "homework" which is to make feeding time fun which includes having "feeding time toys" and giving him a toy playing for 20 seconds then taking it away and placing a bite of food on his tray and saying "eat this Hawk" in a stern voice...then after he eats it play again...and you get the point. It is a long exhaustive process. Also to work on moving his tongue from side to side with exercises and to give him hard food such as carrot sticks ot beef jerky to chew on his back teeth to strengthen his jaw muscles. So we have been working on these things. Overall to tell the truth I was pretty disappointed. I didnt expect her to fix him overnight but i was definitely hoping for a lil more than that. We have to start therapy once every two weeks. Hopefully it will get better. He's so tough and is such a fighter. I couldnt be more proud of everything he's overcame. And we will conquer this food battle too! <3