Feeding Tubes

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

I know there's been some talk & questions regarding feeding tubes and I thought

I'd give my 2 cents. My GI doctor pressed from the beginning for Teddy to get a

feeding tube. I held off. Perhaps it would have been better for Teddy to have

had one as he is 4 1/2 and just 30 lbs and still about an inch shorter than his

twin brother...but I knew that with 4 children I'd probably never have the

opportunity to teach him how to eat by mouth unless I was forced too. So in the

beginning I spent the 4-5 hours/day feeding him a bottle...it's gone down to 2

hours (not including spoon feeding of Stage 3 foods). If I knew he was

aspirating I'd definitely have done it. I'm not saying anyone who gets the tube

is lazy..just that I'm lazy or perhaps overwhelmed enough to know that given the

tube I'd have used it constantly.

Even now, I'm supposed to be working on stretching out his left arm and forcing

him to use his left arm...so perhaps once/day I do that. Thank goodness for the

school system. They've taught him to walk him & down stairs (he'd crawl

before). They've taught him to play catch (kind-of). And they're working on

him riding a tricycle using his feed to push the peddle..right now he pushes

himself around with his feet on the ground. FYI - we use a mirror so he can see

how much food is on his face or falling out of his mouth and a medical report I

read once on adults with PMG said they often stuff their mouths without

realizing it. I think some of our parents with older mouth fed children

mentioned that too.

Got to go and order Chinese food for supper...oh it's so much work to push those

buttons

Kim, mother of Ben (13), (11), Hunter (4) and Teddy (4)

currently in CT but soon to move to Fort Worth, TX