Hi Laurie,
Hope you and your family are well. Hard to believe that it is already October time seems to fly by. Just wanted to say hello...
Katherine

Hi Laurie,
Just checking in. Is your son gaining weight? If not please go forward with the feeding tube he could really use the nutrition and sometimes a little intervention goes a long way.
Katherine

Hi Laurie,
Thought I would just touch base a see how your son is doing. Did your son end up getting a feeding tube? Hope you both are well.
Katherine

HI Laurie

Have you thought about getting a nutritional consult. She/He would be able to figure out the amount of calories your son would need to take in to help maintain or increase his weight.
Have you discussed this procedure with your son? How is he feeling about it? A Gastrointestinal specialist can talk to you about the procedure.

From a nursing standpoint, continuous feeding are much better versus bolus can feedings. There is less risk of aspiration with continuous feedings. Night-time feedings is a good start and again, a dietician or nutritionist can give you all of hte recommendations. Some benefits of having a g- tube ( gastrostomy tube) are:
obviously maintaining calories/increasing calorie intake, as already said, maintaining hydration, and also serves as an easier and quicker access to administer pills.
Now, you can give his medication through the g-tube. This may be a bonus especailly is you are trying to give him nasty tasting pills/supplements. He won't taste them now.
Occasionally, g-tubes have been known to come out so you would have to take him to the emergency room to have one re-inserted. Depending on the type of tube, it could be done in the ER. If trained, you could re-insert one in your own home. It's not as hard as you think. You could do it.

Thanks, Laurie. We need each other's support, I believe. I am happy to meet you and am on your side!
Darla

What a beautiful family! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us here on PPMD!

I should lclairify when I say younger, I'm not that much younger than you, but my son is younger than yours :)

Hi Laurie,
Nice to "meet" you. You are not to far from us. My husband used to have to travel your way for work, but that has recently changed. You have a very good looking family. Do you go to your MDA clinic in Fargo for care or do you travel here to Dr. Day or do you go to a different clinic? We have been happy with Dr. Day so far and with Gillette becoming a MDA clinic it has made life much easier for us. Welcome to the site, although I think we younger mom's will learn much more from you, so maybe I should say thank you for joining the site :)

I know of a few people in North Dakota, but I have not been in contact with anyone. We found out about our son when he was 2 yrs old, he is now in kindergarten and doing great. I just had him at the MDA clinic in Fargo on Friday. There is actually a MDA Group that started up again. I am a single mom, so life has it's challenges.