A Very Special Case.

Today is day one of Feeding Tube awareness week. The topic today is: "Tell your story. Educate people as to what life with a tube feeder is like." Case has struggled with eating his whole life. He spent 38 days in the NICU leaning how to eat. I finally got him to take just enough breast milk from a bottle that they took the NG tube out of his nose and sent him home. Once home the battle only got worse. Case had to be fed round the clock every 3 hours with pumped, fortified breast milk. I was the only one he would take a full feeding from (and by full feeding, I mean 1-2 ounces, at best). He had a weak latch, swallowing issues and other birth defects/stomach problems we didn't find till later in his life. I continued to try to get him to breast feed. The harder I made him try, the more weight he'd lose. Finally, after 4 months of pumping, fortifying and begging my milk dried up and I grieved. I grieved because my hopes and dreams of a breast feeding, 4th

When Case was tiny and in the NICU I knew that if he didn't eat and grow he would get a G-tube placed. I was relieved that he was sent home tube free. I don't know why the G-tube made me uneasy back then but it did. Maybe it was the unknown of it all. Well, at age 11 months we bit the bullet and he got the dreaded tube. After 11 months of forcing, begging and pleading with him I stopped fighting the inevitable and buckled up for the G-tube journey. I have to say, I am very thankful for it. Without it Case wasn't thriving enough.  He was loosing weight and looking sickly. He now is gaining around a pound a month and has filled out nicely. The G-tube is a wonderful gift that has enhanced his life. That's the good. The bad is that what he eats by mouth has dropped significantly. It's almost like he knows the eating by mouth is hard work for him. He'd rather just sit and be fed through his trusty tube Also, with feeds as frequent as they are he is rarely hungry