Tangerines

I bought a bag of tangerines (Grandma's favorites) last night at Costco and the boys "ate" them last night! By eat, I mean, eat/spread/peel (in Jac's case)/drink/put on head/play/throw!

Cyproheptadine

Dr. H prescribed Jac Cyproheptadine. It is an antihistamine that has the side effect of increasing appetite. For the first week he is supposed to take it just before dinner and then we slowly build up to twice a a day and increase the dosage.

Oh man does it increase appetite! It would be really bad if you were on a diet! It definitely increases his appetite after he takes it, and the effect seems to last - it seems like his appetite is improved, even the next day!

It has been pretty exciting to see him asking for food at times when he never would have asked for food before! Grow Jac grow!

Bonnie, our new Mother's Helper, taught Jac the word appetite, and so Jac calls it "tite" if you ask him if he has an "appetite."

Ama's cooking

Ama cooks very good food! It seems like every time she shows up to see the boys she has food of some sort - something that the boys like! Asian food seems to agree with the boys - of all sorts! It is so great to see them both enjoying good food - and nice to be back in LA where Asian food of all sorts, from Ama, and eateries is available for the boys to enjoy!

Mr. Nicie with a Fig Newton face

Yesterday I gave Mr. Nicie several Fig Netwons to see what he would do! Oh man! He went at it! There was Fig Newton everywhere! And I mean everywhere! I had to give him a bath afterwards! But he was happy!

Cheese!

Jac has learned the word "cheese." It is clearly recognizable - at least by Joseph and me! When we are at Costco yesterday he saw the Baby Bell cheese that we give him at home all the time and stopped and pointed at it and said "cheese." We were quite impressed!

Today he went to the refrigerator and asked Daddy for cheese. Joseph gave it to him and told him to bring it to me. I was sitting on the couch on the other side of the room. Jac brought the cheese to me and I put him on my lap, unwrapped it and he sat and ate some of it. Earlier, he had asked for cheese and eaten it with Daddy! Amazing - both in that he is so clearly asking for food, eating it, and even understanding Daddy's request to bring it across the room to me.

Theory about Jac's eating?

Joseph has pointed out that Jac's eating of solid food increased about the same time that we reduced the number of calories per ounce of his formula (we had been mixing it to 24 cal/oz. up from the normal 20 cal/oz.). We had upped the cal/oz. per Dr. K's suggestions to get more calories into him. Hmmm ... We decreased it when he was sick and throwing up a few weeks ago. We have not upped it again and now we won't unless he goes back down in his solid food eating again.

Nic eating a biter biscuit

Nic has been eating more - and clearly asking for solid food more frequently so now I am feeding both of them in the kitchen at the same time - it is a little crowded in there.

Yesterday Nic was eating a biter biscuit and he was really into it!

Jac is eating again

Jac has started eating again! I know I have written this post before and I am sure I will write it again - but at least for now he is eating.

He ate butter on bread and butter by itself from an adult fork at CPK.



He ate a York Peppermint Patty (that he found in my candy stash) while wandering around the living room in just his diaper.



He ate sour cream from an adult spoon in his high chair at home.

He also ate other things but these were the most remarkable!

Keep on eating Jacie!

Jac and Nic at In-N-Out

On the way back from Las Vegas we stopped at In-N-Out for lunch. Nic is now gumming foods so I gave him a french fry to gnaw on. Jac has now learned to dip his foods so he was dipping his french fries in ketchup! Whoa! Messy!

Grandma and I have taken to putting Nic on top of the table while he eats. I call him "Hands" because he grabs everything within his reach. It is almost impossible to hold him while you eat because he has a long reach and he will grab anything you are holding. He is a great sitter now so the top of the table works pretty well. While Grandma and Jac were waiting for our food Nic sat on top of the table and played with Grandma's cash!

Jac using chopsticks for the first time

Ama and Akon took Jac, Nic and me to lunch today at a very Taiwanese restaurant in Arcadia today. It was really good, and I had my favorite eggs and shrimp! Jac wanted to play with all of the utensils and cups and plates of course! The amazing thing was when he grabbed the chopsticks in the right way and started using them!

Nic eating a biter biscuit

Nic is putting everything in his mouth and today he was sitting in Jac's high chair while I was emptying the dish washer. There was a biter biscuit on the tray and I decided to let Nic try it. Oh man! He went for it and drooled biter biscuit everywhere. This was Nic's first non-mommy's-milk food and he seemed pretty happy about it. Yeah! I am about to have two eaters! More food and more mess! Happy little boys eating! Yeah!

Jac is eating more

Jac is doing a better job of eating! Yesterday his Occupational Therapist was here (we have switched back to in-home therapy services through Imagine) and he had a good time eating. He has been enjoying eating Medium Hot Japanese curry! Hard to believe but true.

He ate quite a bit of curry off of a piece of celery. The celery was suggested by his OT as a way to help move his gag reflex back. We think that the reason he has so much trouble eating foods is that he has a very strong gag reflex which is quite forward on his tongue. This means that when he gets some food on his tongue and he is not sure what to do with it or how to move it around or swallow it he sometimes gags on it and then throws up.

After he finished with the curry he had some tapioca which he also enjoyed. I am happy to see him be able to eat the tapioca as it has the little bits of rice in it that he has to navigate.

He has gotten very good at eating the Gerber Graduate Crunchers and Stars and we give him those every time he sits down.

I have contacted the GoodLife clinic at Children's Hospital in Denver. I am trying to see if I can find an MD to help us figure out how to get Jac to start gaining weight. His weight has stalled for the last 3 months right around 12 pounds. The good news is he has not lost weight with all of his extra activity but he really needs to gain weight.

When we go out to Kangaroo Kingdom it really strikes me how small he is and next to Nic I realize that Jac should be so much bigger. I, of course, know all of this intellectually but it hits me emotionally more and more frequently the more active Jac gets and the more he interacts with other kids.

We haven't been to Kangaroo Kingdom since I came home from the hospital and I miss going and I am sure Jac does also. He has had a cold though, and that in addition to Nic means we haven't been. I am hoping that Jac is going to make it to KK this Saturday.

New Svan high chair

We bought Jac a new high chair. It is called the Svan high chair and we all love it. It is quite small, matches our furniture and is very adjustable. It is designed to grow with the child - so it can be used as a high chair now, as a booster chair when the child doesn't need a high chair any more, and later it can even be used as a regular chair for an adult! In the picture it does not have the tray on. The chair is designed to be used with he tray (which is in the video) or without the tray, pulled up to the table.

Jac uses it all of the time now to eat. He is making progress with eating, and will fairly happily go in his Svan several times a day to try different foods. He is still mostly eating Crunchies but he is also eating some fruits and some baby food. Today he ate cherries and he loved it! I chopped them up in our little mini Cuisinart until they were very small pieces but not a puree.

Eating is becoming "normal"

Jac and I went to Real D today to have lunch with Daddy. While Daddy ate, Jac sat on the table, and ate with him. Jac had Crunchies and water and Daddy had a sandwich and water.

It is all becoming so normal, so fast. Amazing!

I think next week when we go to see Jac's OT we are going to need to find out which foods would be good for Jac next as he already seems to be getting bored with the Crunchies! He doesn't seem to really take to any of the pureed baby foods very well. It doesn't seem like the texture bothers him, just that he doesn't seem really into the flavors. He will take a little bit of them and then he is done. The Crunchies hold his interest much longer although he does start flinging those after a bit also!

Eating Gerber's Graduate Crunchers

Jac is eating Gerber's Graduate Crunchers (which we had tried before but he was not ready for them).

He just ate them! I was in total shock. The first time we did it he had a little tiny throw up but he kept on eating. The first time he ate about 10 of the little sticks. That evening we did it again and he ate 15 of them. He has trouble eating the whole Cruncher as he has to sort out how to move them in his hand but he is eating them. Last night I gave him the wagon wheel shaped Cruncher and he ate half of it.

In this video he is eating a Japanese baby biscuit that his Ama bought for him. It does not dissolve in the same way that the Crunchers do and he has a little more trouble with it than he does with the Crunchers.

His therapist told us to distract him if he he starts to gag. He is not gagging very frequently but he has his moments and I do my best to jolly him through it. So far since we started again with eating he has only thrown up that tiny amount one time.

Life is starting to feel so different. I realized today when I took him out to Kangaroo Kingdom and to lunch with Daddy that I had not brought his sippy cup or food! And Daddy pointed out to me that I need to start bringing shoes also! Life is changing!

Working on eating in the high chair

Jac's Occupational Therapist (OT) has really been pushing me to help Jac learn to eat - and I am finally listening. I have to admit that for quite a while now I have been convinced that Jac would learn to eat just as he has learned so many other things - with a little extra time. Rolling over took a long but then one day it just clicked - and I had been hoping that eating would be the same thing - that it would just click. But that does not seem to be happening.

So, it is time to start buckling down and doing the hard work that it is going to take to get Jac to eat. His OT has emphasized that he needs to start eating in his high chair so that he learns to associate a particular place with food. This is so that he does not become a wandering eater, or a grazer. He needs to sit down and eat. So we have started this week with the high chair. The longest he has managed to stay happy in the chair is about 10 minutes while we give him various very pureed and smooth things to eat. But 10 minutes is 10 minutes longer than before we started doing the chair so it feels like huge progress.

He has taken Strawberry and Banana baby food and Peach baby food. He has also taken more Okayu. He has done all of this without gagging. When we first put him in the chair we give him lemonade. He really likes it and it seems to help him get ready to eat. We feed him all of these things with a Nuk brush. This is a tooth brush but also a good way to feed. I use two of the Nuk's when I am feeding him so that he can play with one while I use one to get food.

So far so good. We bought some more different juices today to see if he likes them. Tonight at dinner Joseph gave him the tough ends of a couple of french fries to try. He has started to bite things which is a great sign I think - but also means we have to be rally careful that he doesn't bite off pieces of things as he doesn't know how to swallow them yet and will gag and throw up.

If he starts to gag when he is eating something that shouldn't gag him we are supposed to try to distract him out of gagging. When we are at therapy I saw this work when he started to gag and I was sure he was going to throw up.

Jac eating Okayu (sp?) with Ama

Jac's Ama (Joseph's mother) made Jac some Okayu. This is a traditional Japanese dish that if fed to babies. Jac seems to really like it. He has eaten some two days in a row now which is more than I can say for anything else we have tried.
Ama has a very practiced hand at feeding him, a technique we will need to learn. She is very gentle and Jac did not gag at all. The first time she gave him Okayu she really watered it down so it was really more of a liquid and he took that easily. Today she gave it to him with a little less water and a little bit more thick and he did well with that also with no gagging or throwing up! Yeah!

He also ate some grape juice with Ama. She took grapes from their backyard and ground them and fed him the resulting juice which he also seemed to like!

Jac's first "real" food

Joseph and I went to lunch today at a mediterranean restaurant. I had hummus as part of my lunch. Jac has been watching us eat and looking longingly at our food for a couple of weeks now. We decided to offer him a bit of hummus as it seemed like a texture that he ought to be able to handle. I put some on the tip of my finger and offered it to him. I don't think he swallowed any but he got it all over himself and me and had a grand old time!