Hi there

Our son Samuel is now 1year & 3 days old. He has had five operations & only been home with us since December. The last operation he had was Fundoplication Surgery. He had reflux which made him have apnea's, he stopped breathing on numerous occasions & has had to be bought around by my husband, my neighbours & Doctors. He went for some more check-ups yesterday & has been given the all clear to start eating 12 month old food from jars. I am absolutely terrified of him choking in case his throat is not strong enough. He is on meds every day for his airway Ventolin & Pulmicort 3 times a day. Has anyone else had a child who has had fundoplication surgery & started feeding more lumpy food. :?:

Please someone put my mind at rest :cry:

Tracy

Hi Tracy! Welcome! It's nice to see you here.

I don't think that we have any post-fundo members yet to answer your concerns so I'll try if it's ok with you.

I don't think that your doctor would suggest doing anything that Samuel wasn't physically ready for. Having said that, why not start him off with the runniest solid you can possibly get. Water down his cereal until it's almost liquid and work on slowly increasing the thickness as he shows his ability to handle it. Do the same thing with other baby food and gradually work up to chunky food. I think if you treat this as though he were 5 or 6 months old and you were introducing solids for the first time, giving him time to learn how to manage it, that he should do fine.

I know it's hard when they are so young, have been so sick and in the hospital for so long to get them home and all of a sudden be responsible for all the medical aspects of their lives. It can be frightening and overwhelming but you will both do great!!

Hi Tracy,

Welcome! I dont know much about the surgery but my boy is 3 and just started lumpy foods at a very special feeding center. I agree with Roni though about feeding him and advancing to texture slowly. When my boy started his feeding program, they gave him regular baby food, totally pureed and thin. Once he was comfortable with that, they started giving him real table foods but pureed and thinned a little with gravy, applesauce etc. So the second foods were a little thicker. Once he was doing well with that, they started him on "fork-mashed" food. It was the same table food just not pureed as much and not as thinned. The chunks were tiny, tiny. The first few times, it was really easy foods to swallow - like mashed bananas. They give him very small bites, not much on the spoon and about 15 seconds after he takes a bite to get ready for the next one. If you follow steps like this, it will be easier on your boy and less stressful for you! Once you think he's ready for the mashed food, maybe try mixing in a few little bits of banana into some yogurt so that he doesnt have lots of lumps to deal with. You'll see how he does and you can advance it from there as you both become more comfortable.

Good luck! and keep us posted on how he does!

The canned toddler entrees that you can buy at grocery store also work well. The have small chunks of pasta or rice. They're also easy to disguise the meds in and to add any callorie or protein supplements to.

Hi Everyone

Thank you very much for all of your responses. Samuel is currently on 6 month old jarred food & has Primer Danone yoghurts. When I tried my own food for him, he really didn't enjoy it very much.

How do you get in touch with a special feeding centre Phylis? Do you have to go through your dr?

Thanks

Tracy

Hi Tracy,

The one I go to is called St Josephs Center for Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Disorders in Paterson New Jersey. They are really the best, but there are a couple of other ones in the country - I know there arent many. But St Jo's do some "remote consults" where you'd send in your child's history and a video of a feeding session and they'd consult with you, your child's docs, therapists etc. They have a website where you can contact them with questions - its www.feedingcenter.org. They have an onsite apartment that their out of town patients can rent at a discount if you decide to go for the 4-week feeding program. We didnt need to get a referral from our son's docs because of our insurance but you'll want to check with your ins co to see whether you'd need a referral and what of the expenses would be covered. In the day treatment program, the expenses are broken down into medical, speech therapy, feeding therapy, OT and PT - so your insurance may cover all of them or just some of them. Our ins covers 20 speech sessions per year, 20 OT and 20 PT so I think we've got the 20 days all covered. But all insurances are different so you need to check and they are really good at St Jos in helping to get something covered that may otherwise be denied. Good luck! and let us know how things are going.

Phyllis