we have an eater . . . and a screamer . . . and happy parents

The tube wean is over. 

And the results?  He's now an eater, according to his occupational and speech therapists.  He's not exactly eating everything or as much as he should be for his age, but he's eating, which he wasn't three weeks ago.  

His favorites are vanilla yogurt, mixed with some purees, like pears or prunes (when, you know, he needs a little extra help), and rice cereal.  He'll eat a whole bowl full.  I'm embarrassed to say it's not too bad, even the prunes.  We even mix some mashed avocado in every now and again, just to give him a few extra calories, which he doesn't seem to mind.

The process was full of ups and downs and tears and cheers.  And lots of food.  On the floor.  On the carpet.  On the walls.  On . . . well, you get the picture.  Things weren't looking so good about a week ago.  He had made some progress but still wasn't a willing participant.  But the last week has seen the little guy go from unhappily tolerating a few bites of purees to putting a death grip on the spoon and shoveling the grub in faster than he can swallow it. 

He still has trouble with solids, even meltable ones, and usually gags and sometimes barfs when he gets a crumb or two in his mouth and has to swallow them.  But we think all the practice he's getting with the pasty mixture he's now eating will get him used to chewing and swallowing, hopefully soon.  And his therapists think that as he develops better oral and motor skills he will be willing to bite and chew some substantial solids since he'll be more in control of what and how much goes in his mouth.

So all-in-all, I'd have to say the wean was reasonably successful.  Didn't achieve all the goals we had hoped for, but made some great progress and hopefully established a solid foundation for future gains.  And he only lost about 1/2 a pound during the process, or about 2.5 percent his body weight. 

We've also learned that, as he has gained more control over his feeding, he has decided to exert this new found independence in other areas, like screaming to make his intentions known.  Sometimes he screams when he wants something, like to go outside, and sometimes he screams because he's happy, or tired, or hungry, or who knows why.  I thought it was funny at first.  Not so much anymore.

We're really happy though that he's getting all his nutrition from real food and not from the sugary synthetic formula he had been drinking.  We still give him a couple bottles of whole milk each day to make sure he's getting enough calories, but we haven't had to use his feeding tube for weeks, except to give him medicine and a little extra water when he's been dehydrated. 

So we have an eater, and a screamer, and a couple happy parents.