Hershey Medical Center

We took Raymond to the Hershey Medical Center Feeding program last Friday. This was his initial consultation and Chris and I both were really anxious to see what the doctors had to say. We were there for almost two hours. The appointment started like most others. Raymond was weighed and measured. We then sat down with Dr. Williams and went over Raymond's feeding abilities and inabilities. He asked us a lot of questions and decided to give Raymond some applesauce so he could see first hand what we were up against. He gave Raymond the applesauce on a Nuk-Brush and slowly moved it around his mouth. He was pleased that Raymond was allowing him to place objects and food into his mouth (even though it wasn't staying there). Dr. Williams then excused himself and told us he wanted to find a video for us to look at. Isabella went with him to find it and then we all sat together and watched it. The video introduced us to Tina Lee. She is a five year old little girl with Down Syndrome who was brought over from Dublin, Ireland to the feeding program at Hershey. She was showing the exact same behavior as Raymond when someone attempted to feed her. When Tina Lee was first brought to the program she wouldn't allow anything to even touch her mouth. Luckily for us Raymond will tolerate that. There are two major issues that Raymond is having. The first is that his mouth is "reverse swallowing". Instead of his tongue throwing the food to the back of his mouth, it's throwing it forward. The second is that he's not swallowing properly. He can swallow but it's more like a giant gulp on occasion. Both of these are treatable but it will take time and patience from all involved, including Raymond. Tina Lee was treated as an inpatient and underwent intense feeding therapy. She is now doing very well and eating by mouth and no longer by a feeding tube. Dr. Williams is going to take the same course of action with Raymond. His treatment plan will pretty much be the same other then the fact that he will be treated as an outpatient. For the time being, I will be working with Raymond using the Nuk-Brush three times a day for 10 minutes at a time. Dr. Williams also switched Raymond's formula again and Raymond is tolerating it well. We go back in a month to report our progress. Dr. Williams also told Chris and I that he sees on average 40-50 kids a year with Down Syndrome all with varying levels of feeding issues. The majority of the children he treats have autism. We were very happy with the first meeting and look forward to making fantastic progress on the feeding front. If anyone has any questions about it just let me know!

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love,

Erica