Today, he ate...

in the last 24 hours, Tyler has had tortilla chips, a piece of lettuce, a grilled cheese (a taste, not the whole thing), peas, peaches, shortbread cookies, and kix cereal. Baby steps but we're making solid progress!

Sent from Mary's iPad

March Recap

It's been a busy month for us....

- Eric started his new job at the end of February and has had to go on 2 business trips. The 1st one was one day, the 2nd one was 4 days. It was tough with him gone but we had fun. I was glad to see Eric when he got home, and Tyler missed him too!

- He's mimicking us a lot - he'll say "hi", "honk" and a few other things where he's copying what we say.

- We had our follow-up appt with the feeding therapist at UNC and this also included meeting with a gastroenterologist nurse practitioner. We are still really happy with the folks at UNC; they seem to be well known in the industry and know their stuff. They approach the feeding them from end to end (input/output, if you now what I mean...). So, we're now trying a probiotic to help restore the "flora" in his GI system after those 3x antibiotics, we're staying on track with the prevacid, and we added Miralax (if you're backed up it can back up the whole system). We also are trying some Periactin to treat his almost constant congestion. Two add'l side effects of this medicine are helping him sleep and increasing his appetite. So far he's doing great on this - he ate a waffle at school, he eats oatmeal, and today he ate some tortilla chip. Continuing progress!

- we love his new daycare teachers! We got a cute card for St. Patricks' Day, and can see that they interact with the kids a lot.

- One of my friends is pregnant so between her and another friend who we are hoping will be pg soon, we were able to get rid of a lot of Tyler's old stuff.

- we're on whole milk but going whole hog on regular whole milk was not kind to his digestive system. We tried Lactaid milk and that seems to be going well. We did 2 bottles (of 4; the rest were formula) first, then we went to 3 bottles. This past weekend we went to all Lactaid milk and it seems to be working out well. Generally kids outgrow the need for Lactaid milk and I hope that is the case for him!

Throwing down the crutches?

The last couple of times we've been at the pediatrician we've asked about Tyler's eating and that's what lead us to the feeding therapist. Our pediatrician would say to keep offering different foods to him, that "he might throw down the crutches one day and just start walking". We were dubious, given that Tyler's pretty cautious about everything he does, but we might have gotten to that point over the last week or so! This started with the french fries at the beach...and we got some great ideas from the Feeding Therapist at UNC...and we've been trying to offer more and more things to him. Today alone he's had french toast sticks, vanilla wafers, yogurt, whole milk, part of a hamburger, part of a fish stick and some animal cracker.s A few weeks ago he would have none of this!

So yes, we met with the feeding therapist at UNC and really liked her. She was very knowledgeable and we liked her approach, interaction with Tyler, and her suggestions. She consulted their dietcian who provided suggestions on how much formula/milk/purees/table foods Tyler should be eating. She explained why the diced peaches and pears were not big successes (the natural instinct is to try to swallow slimy stuff like that) and what food would work better (dry solids like crackers, pancakes, waffles, etc.. the natural instinct is to chew those by moving side-to-side in your mouth). And she was right. We stocked up last weekend on some of the suggested foods, and have been trying pancakes & graham crackers this week. He really likes them all. We don't get a ton of chances to try stuff during the week so this weekend we're trying all kinds of stuff before going back to daycare on Monday. We got back in a month for a check up.

She also suggested moving from the OTC Prevacid to the Prevacid solutabs (which are by prescription). We never thought Tyler would take the solutab by mouth but lo and behold, he does!

Tyler's first birthday part was a great success. We had a Mickey Mouse them and although he didn't smash the cake, he had a great time. Many friends and family joined us and Tyler got some wonderful presents.

We went to Tyler's 12-month appointment at the pediatrician on Friday, 3/4/11. Got a clean bill of health and the ok to start whole milk. I'd wondered if he'd be delayed on that since he's a preemie, but he's growing so well there is no need to delay it. The pediatrician said some people ease into it but many kids like it because it tastes better than formula. So we've tried it this weekend and so far, so good! I asked the pediatrician about organic vs. regular milk and he said that although there are no conclusive studies showing the benefits of organic milk, his kids get organic milk. So, I think we're going to try and go organic as much as possible (without freaking out if he gets regular milk).

And we're working on transitioning him to the Toddler room at daycare. We've been working on this for a while since he is the oldest kid in his current room and has no one to look up to, development-wise. His current teachers just left this past week (one gave her notice and one up and quit), and they are moving one of his old teachers up to his room starting Monday which is a good thing. They started having him the the toddler room for short amts of time last Friday and will continue that this month with the goal of having him transitioned by April 1.

In other news...

- Eric got a new car yesterday!

- we're both contemplating iPad2s!