Toddler not on solids yet

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone! I have a 17 month old dd who has had reflux. She also has oral aversions, feeding aversions, and a extremely sensitive gag reflex. She is fed Nutren Jr. formula via bottle with rice cereal added. Since on this formula, weight gain is not a problem. And she gets 4ml of Axid via bottle twice a day. She was on Prevacid but kept refusing it so now we are sneaking it in through her bottle. She cannot take any meds orally without vomiting.

She never liked baby food and at the most would only tolerate up to 4-6 ounces of it on a rare occassion. She has attempted to each table foods but after a few of those feedings, she isn’t interested in that food anymore. She goes to therapy 1X a week and gets evaluations through the feeding clinic. We have had an UGI and swallow study done to rule out any problems but they both came back clear. She is never sick so I don’t think she has a problem with enlarged adenoids. She also still spits up a whole bottle occassionally. I have heard of other toddlers doing this but it doesn’t seem to help matters any.

Is anyone else out there in a similar situation? I know one day she will be eating food like the rest of us because my ds went through similar issues as well. But it’s frustrating to have to go through this again. He loved baby food but had trouble with table foods.

Also I am trying to work with our insurance company to get her formula covered. Has anyone else tried that? Right now I keep getting stuck in red tape and never seem to get anywhere.

Our next doctor appt is Feb 13th with the GI doctor and another feeding evaluation at the end of the month. I just feel like we never progress, always maintaining a certain level. I want to actually take some steps forward! Is there something I could be missing that we haven’t tried yet?

Thanks for any advice!

ForBailey2007-2-5 15:35:56

[Anonymous]

Hi there. We’re in a similar boat. Where do you get your feeding therapy? Gotta run to get the kids, but I’ll post back later. There’s another informative site where there are quite a few people with feeding aversions- http://www.parent-2-parent.com/forum .

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply Lori. I’ll check out the other website as well.

Her feeding therapy is done with an SLP through the children’s hospital here. She started it at 13 months every other week but now we are going weekly since no progress has been made. We are using the same therapist that successfully trained my ds to eat a variety of table foods so I know she is really good.

[Anonymous]

We do purees here too (though he used to eat table food but it all went downhill). I love the other site too. They have lots of info and experience! Big Hugs!

[Anonymous]

Hi Sarah,

Thank you so much! My dd won’t eat baby food anymore but will occassionally (every few days) eat a tbsp or two of noodles with some kind of sauce, danimals yogurt (she gags on yobaby), cool whip, and ice cream are her favorites.

I registered with the other site as well with the same name.

[Anonymous]

HI and welcome

Sorry did not see this before… i mostly check the feeding forums these days but i am a member of the other forum… so let me know where you are going to post and i will respond. You can say we are at a similar place – although Matthew has a tube the last couple of months have been pretty good and he takes all or most of his food orally. however, he is liquid dependent at this point. we are having issues transitioning to finger and table foods. his issue is he does not know how to lateralise his tongue – that means that whatever he eats or takes a bite of, stays in the middle of his tongue until he either swallows and gags or pushes it out of his mouth. The gag reflex for him is really on the sides of his tongue…

I would also love to hear the story of your older daughter. Where are you located…

[Anonymous]

Thais,

Thank you for the response. I’m sorry I probably posted this in the wrong place anyway. I’m not sure if I know where I belong.

First off I jinxed myself by saying she is never sick. We found out this morning she has HFM. I tried giving her some Tylenol last night and she gagged and vomited on it for over 5 minutes. So now we have her on the suppositories and she is finally sleeping.

Her brother would eat baby foods but vomited at the end of the meal. We finally found someone to treat his reflux but he had other issues as well. He had developed oral aversions, some mild sensory issues, poor oral motor skills, and also had apraxia. He started the feeding clinic at 17 months and therapy at 21 months. He finished feeding therapy one year ago (3 1/2 yo) and can now eat most textures very well but does gag occassionally. He exited the feeding clinic last May. And he continues to receive speech and will for a few more years. His oral motor development is still lacking a little and we can tell that with his speech.

Is your son in therapy?

We are in NC.

[Anonymous]

Paula

I have seen your post on teh other forum – will post a response there. Most of the kids on that forum are in therapy. Matthew is too. We are going to Kennedy Krieger for teh intensivev program soon. Where do you take your daughter for therapy?

[Author]

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