Beyond Doritos... If youve been around Tucker for any small amount of time, it is very likely that he was clutching a large bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos OR Cheetos. Or if he didnt have the actual bag, the evidence would be on his fingers or his shirt:) This is the ONLY consistent food that Tucker eats on a daily basis. Yes, he takes a bag of chips to school each day for his lunch. As a small toddler, he used to lick the cheese off the chips and drop them wherever he happened to be at the moment. Piles of licked Doritos and Cheetos adorned our floors, tables, and chairs... Finally, we trained him to put them back inside the bag when he was finished licking all the flavor off. I have apologized to a handful of people for their unfortunate discovery of this practice! One big fear we had was his ability (or inability) to swallow whole foods as a baby. We tried to feed him baby food and would always end up with a food shower. We had an Occupational Therapist come into our home when Tucker was just under a year old to work with us on his oral aversion. Our biggest goal at this time was to get him to swallow instead of just tasting...tucker discovered his love of chip flavor right around two or three years old. Because he loved the flavor so much, we decided to work with him on actually chewing and swallowing the chips instead of licking. It was our annual family trip to Redfish Lake and the constant and persistent encouragement from Grandpa Clayton that finally broke the licking barrier! Tucker chewed and swallowed his first chip that Summer and boy was that a big deal! We were so proud! And from then on he has continued to chew and swallow all of his chips:) People still ask when they see a bag of chips lying around if they are Tuckers or not! We tell them to eat at their own risk, due to the fact that he takes his chips everywhere he goes, but they wont get a licked-on chip anymore:) At ten months old, after trying for months to get him to drink and eat to no avail, we placed an NG tube to help him get the nutrition he needed. He had the NG tube for over a year and at just over two years old, received his G-tube (it is placed directly into the stomach) and has had it ever since. This is where he receives all of his nutrition. The chips and chocolate are just fillers! At first we used a pump and ran it all night to give him all of his nutrition but eventually Tucker was able to tolerate bolace feeds (as seen in the pics below). He receives this special nutrition along with his meds every morning and night. He does a pretty good job of doing it all by himself but we do have to remind him when its time to feed or he would never feed himself on his own. A side effect from kidney disease is the inability to feel hunger... They told us that once Tucker receives a new kidney they will be able to remove the tube and he will feel hungry and most likely start to eat! This will be something to look forward to! I am excited about that!
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 18:19:40 +0000
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