About Ryan
By Michelle Stillwell

When Ryan was hospitalized at 4 ½ months for diarrhea, which is when they inserted the N-G tube. For some bizarre reason, he stopped drinking his formula. It wasn’t until he was about 10 months when he was only required to take 16 oz that he started drinking his formula again. I, on my own, decided to pull the N-G tube. I didn’t see any reason to leave it in. He didn’t really start eating baby food until he was about 12 months. Between 10 and 12 months is when he lost a couple pounds because he was not getting enough calories.  

I’ve decided to not have Ryan go through this feeding clinic (he was evaluated and a weekly/bimonthly treatment was suggested). We are going to try our own therapy at home. We have been offering him different types of food. He has eaten M&Ms, hard Cheetos, rice, chicken nuggets, and other foods. I think he is getting the hang of different textures in his mouth, since he doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot of gagging. 

I hope I am doing the right thing. My mom has dissuaded me from taking Ryan to the feeding clinic, since she feels Ryan will soon learn. I want to believe this and Ryan seems to be eating more and more table food without gagging. We still have him on second stage baby food and baby cereal only because he is just munching on table foods. We did take him off the Prosobee and he has lost about a pound because he's not getting the 300 calories from the formula and he doesn’t drink a lot of juice. If he has not made a whole lot of progress before he turns two years old, we will take him to the feeding clinic for the treatments.