Who would have thought that a parent could be so happy about their child eating a few bites of mac & cheese and a half slice of bread?
Rachel and I have been working hard to get George to start eating solids. He had several sessions with the CCMC Feeding Team last year, which were helpful, but George wasn't ready to give up his all-liquid diet. Any attempts to put anything slighly texured into his mouth would result in gagging and vomitting.
But more recently, George has been seeking more sensory stimuli in the mouth. His therapist recommended a Chewy Tube, which is a little rubber tube with textures on the end that George can chew on. It was much to my delight that he took right to it, because I was having to get real creative to keep him from chewing up all the wood surfaces in the house, including the piano and radiator covers.
The chewy tube has been an excellent tool to help him practice chewing and having textures on his tongue without gagging. But George still remained on his mostly liquid diet, with some success in eating very smooth purees and puddings.
Just last night, we cooked up some maccaroni and cheese for Samuel, and had some extra, so we decided to try George on a little. Much to our delight, George went right for it. At first, he had some trouble keeping the pasta noodles in his mouth; they would slip right out. But he was trying so hard, and gradually learned how to coordinate his tongue movements with his chewing movements. We experimented with little chunks of white bread too. We were able to pry his fingers open and put the bread morsels into his hand, and then he could stuff the little morsels into his mouth. Rachel and I are elated with this progress, to say the least. George is finaly starting to graduate to the dinner table!