Jason did very well orally with his fluids today. He managed 1430mls (1290mls paediasure and 140mls juice). He showed lots of interest in food today. This morning he sat with us at the breakfast table with his plate of food and happily tasted his egg with a spoon. This afternoon he insisted on having a raw carrot. He loves raw carrot and it must be a whole carrot that he can sit and chew on. I don't know why he always insists on the carrot as it often ends up with him coughing and spluttering and getting carrot stuck in his teeth which he hates. I guess he likes the flavour. Tonight he sat with us at the dinner table and tried his fish and chips. He enjoyed dipping his chips in the tomato sauce and tasting that. So lots of interest in foods. I will try and get him to try pureed foods soon between milk feeds and see if he will accept. I know he won't accept the spoon so I am going to try the syringe and maybe if he likes the taste he will eventually self feed with a spoon. Who knows. All a matter of trial and error.
School is a big topic this week amongst the moms of tube fed kiddies. Trying to find a school that will accept your child with a feeding tube is not an easy task at all. These kiddies need to interact and learn just as much as "normal" kids but because they have a feeding tube they are isolated and the schools normally take one look at that feeding tube and say "no ways". You can sort of understand but goodness it is hard for us as parents to try and raise our kids as "normal" as possible and find schools that will accept them. We were very lucky with Jason, Jeanette accepted him with open arms and she even offered to give him his water via the tube when he was still being tube fed. Now she gives him his water, milk and juice via the syringe orally. A huge help for us and we are extremely lucky to have Jeanette! This year Jason turns 5 so from next year we are going to have to decide what we are going to do about school for him. At the moment there is no ways he can go to a mainstream school because he is very delayed but who knows a lot can happen in a year. It is a big worry for us but we continue to keep the faith and trust that the right school will come along!
Jason's weight is up again - I even made him jump on the scale 3 times this morning to make sure. So we will start reducing night feeds soon and see how he goes with his day feeds and weight. It is going to be great not to have to worry about preparing his milk every night and not only that I will be able to sleep a bit better not having to check on him to make sure that the pump set hasn't gone around his neck or pulled out his feeding tube. It's been 4 years 8 months and I haven't slept through once. Mind you I doubt I will be able to sleep even if I tried. I am so use to getting up automatically and anyway baby is due 28 March 2012 so we will have a new little one to see to during the night. Perfect timing to get Jason off his night feeds to help me out a little!