Yet another specialist??

18 months after the feeding tube came out, we're still looking for answers as to why it ever had to go in.  Auggie still struggles with food and often gags on his own saliva.  Our doctor has recommended seeing an endocrinologist next.  He is still not on the CDC growth curve for weight and is about 15th percentile for height, a drop since we last had him measured.  Could we be looking at a hormonal imblance or a thyroid problem?  My gut tells me, no....Adding another doctor to our list means more bloodwork and other work-ups.  I'm on the fence. Update: His wrist x-ray showed his bone age to be at 3 years of age when it should have been 3 and 7 months. The doctor determined that he was not lagging enough behind in growth to necessitate seeing an endocrinologist.  Usually a lag of 12 months warrants seeing an endo doctor. 

Audiology assessment

I guess we weren't done with seeing specialists just yet.  After three visits, the audiologist determined that Auggie's left ear is fully functioning, but not so sure about the right ear.  Let me tell you, it's not easy to perform a hearing test on a 2 year old - near impossible!   Yes, they have toys and distractions, but as the mother, I had to constantly pull new tricks in order to persuade him to cooperate.  Although I'm reasonably sure that his hearing his fine, until he is older we won't know for sure. The good news is that his speech and learning should not be affected even if he has some sort of hearing difficulties with his right ear.

Speech therapy - just another one to add to the list

Auggie started speech therapy in March when an assessment showed that although his receptive skills were above average his expressive language was behind by over 40%.  We are lucky that our speech therapist was his feeding therapist and that she knows him very well and she comes to our house twice a week!!  Very lucky!  Since she started working with him we discovered that he may have speech dispraxia (speech motor planning difficulties) which makes it difficult for him to speak clearly.  His speech has improved so much in the months since he started therapy...of course, it could just be that he is developing, but therapy has given him a clear idea that we are working with him to improve his speech and he is given tools so that he can help himself when he has difficulties - I would highly recommend it if you are in the same boat!!

A long overdue update - food allergies

Auggie will be 2 1/2 in a week and I'm reminded every day how far he has come.  Yes, he is still a skinny kid, but he is a funny, active, happy and sensitive little boy.  I can't even imagine what life would be like if he was still on a feeding tube.  He is now able to tolerate baked goods made with eggs, but we continue to avoid milk and soy protein.  He would love to eat real cheese pizza instead of his strange rice cheese that sticks to the roof of his mouth, but he accepts it and happily eats a plum instead. Truth be told he does not eat very much at all.  He still drinks his special formula from a bottle (he loves the cuddle time as do we!)  and would eat only fruit if he had a choice.  It's still one day at a time and I still track everything he drinks and eats in my little notebook - some day, I know, I will have to stop....