I thought it was time for a quick update. All is well in the Long household. Jason is back to his healthy self and over his sickness that he had for a while.
Last week Tuesday we had polygam in hospital for the day which went very smoothly and we managed to get home by 6:30pm. Jason as usual was such a well behaved little patient. Played on my laptop, his new laptop from Uncle John and Aunty Rosemarie and watched dvd's. He really is well behaved thank goodness. It isn't easy keeping a 4 year old happy for 10 hours in a small hospital room!!
Speech therapy and occupational therapy continues to go well. He loves both his therapy sessions and the therapy really does help with his development and understanding. I have booked his first swimming lesson this week which I am sure he is going to LOVE. He is a real water boy and with December on it's way and Jason being healthy and not in hospital so much, I felt it's time for him to learn how to swim now.
Eating wise we still continue to try all the time. He will take sips of water, cold drink, tea and milk but they are tiny sips nothing to quench a thirst but at least he is interested in trying. Eating we are battling with. We leave food lying around, have him at the table with us, offer him food but not much interest there. His main eating times which I would love to see is at school with all his friends. On Thursday he had two spoons of yogurt, a bite of a biscuit and a piece of popcorn - awesome news for us. Again it's a case of monkey see, monkey do. This is one thing we learnt in Graz at play picnic. The kids copy each other. And obviously in Graz they are hungry so the eating and tasting was a lot more. Never mind December is just around the corner and we will try our best to take away day feeds, make him hungry and I am sure he will eat!!
Five weeks in Graz taught us a lot. I do believe in my heart that had Jason not been sick while we were there we would have come home with an eating child. But it was not meant to be. For some reason we had to go through what we did and boy did we learn a lot from all the therapists and help that we got there. We were able to see two groups of completely different children from different sides of the world and each one of them progressed differently. "Magic" seriously happens in Graz. Kids that have never eaten before slowly but surely start eating. Pure magic and amazing!!
I have also learnt through the contact that I have had with the other families that have been to Graz, that once they are eating, that's not just it. It takes a lot of hard work and continuous patience and understanding until eventually one day they are eating and drinking on their own without even thinking about it. It does make total sense, we have to remember that some of these kids haven't eaten in years!! Jason never got passed stage 1 soft purees and drinking was always painful for him, so he has to learn to eat and drink from scratch. He hasn't eaten in about 3 and a half years!
On the 11th November Poppy's tube was removed after 5 and a half years!! Poppy was in our first group and wow she has come so far - well done to Michael and Jade and Poppy of course for all the hard work. We are very pleased with the news!!!
Last week Tuesday we had polygam in hospital for the day which went very smoothly and we managed to get home by 6:30pm. Jason as usual was such a well behaved little patient. Played on my laptop, his new laptop from Uncle John and Aunty Rosemarie and watched dvd's. He really is well behaved thank goodness. It isn't easy keeping a 4 year old happy for 10 hours in a small hospital room!!
Speech therapy and occupational therapy continues to go well. He loves both his therapy sessions and the therapy really does help with his development and understanding. I have booked his first swimming lesson this week which I am sure he is going to LOVE. He is a real water boy and with December on it's way and Jason being healthy and not in hospital so much, I felt it's time for him to learn how to swim now.
Eating wise we still continue to try all the time. He will take sips of water, cold drink, tea and milk but they are tiny sips nothing to quench a thirst but at least he is interested in trying. Eating we are battling with. We leave food lying around, have him at the table with us, offer him food but not much interest there. His main eating times which I would love to see is at school with all his friends. On Thursday he had two spoons of yogurt, a bite of a biscuit and a piece of popcorn - awesome news for us. Again it's a case of monkey see, monkey do. This is one thing we learnt in Graz at play picnic. The kids copy each other. And obviously in Graz they are hungry so the eating and tasting was a lot more. Never mind December is just around the corner and we will try our best to take away day feeds, make him hungry and I am sure he will eat!!
Five weeks in Graz taught us a lot. I do believe in my heart that had Jason not been sick while we were there we would have come home with an eating child. But it was not meant to be. For some reason we had to go through what we did and boy did we learn a lot from all the therapists and help that we got there. We were able to see two groups of completely different children from different sides of the world and each one of them progressed differently. "Magic" seriously happens in Graz. Kids that have never eaten before slowly but surely start eating. Pure magic and amazing!!
I have also learnt through the contact that I have had with the other families that have been to Graz, that once they are eating, that's not just it. It takes a lot of hard work and continuous patience and understanding until eventually one day they are eating and drinking on their own without even thinking about it. It does make total sense, we have to remember that some of these kids haven't eaten in years!! Jason never got passed stage 1 soft purees and drinking was always painful for him, so he has to learn to eat and drink from scratch. He hasn't eaten in about 3 and a half years!
On the 11th November Poppy's tube was removed after 5 and a half years!! Poppy was in our first group and wow she has come so far - well done to Michael and Jade and Poppy of course for all the hard work. We are very pleased with the news!!!