Can you believe....

This??!!

Or this??!!

I have been reluctant to write this post for fear that Caleb will read it and decide to revert back to his old ways. About nine months ago, Caleb was still 100% bottle fed, refusing to eat any type of baby food or table food. He weighed around 18 pounds (and had not gained any weight for several months) and was 17 months old. At that point, we had been dealing with his eating issues for almost a year. Looking back, I wish we would have pushed for more help right when his issues with the bottle started at around 6 months (3 adjusted) old. Maybe we could have avoided all of this. After "firing" 2 different speech therapists who did nothing for him but send us bills, we finally got a feeding clinic referral. After help from our feeding team, we were able to SLOWLY get him to accept eating off a spoon and then actually swallow pureed food, instead of always gagging and vomiting. It was a long, hard process getting him to eat, but I am glad we stuck with it. After 6-7 months of eating just pureed food (and his bottles), he said (well if he could talk it's what he would have said!) "Enough of this baby food, I am a big boy now." And hasn't looked back since. He's now able to eat soft table foods, which is amazing to me. He still only has 9 teeth (4 that are molars) and still has trouble with chewing and swallowing without gagging, but at least he's eating REAL food! Some days he won't eat anything, and the next he'll do great at every meal. I think that's a "normal" toddler thing though (finally!!). It's just really hard for me to "let go" of all those calories I could sneak into his purees before. He does really well with noodles (spaghetti, ravioli, mac and cheese, buttered egg noodles), and sometimes he'll agree to eat cheese, scrambled eggs, hot dogs, pancakes, and waffles. I think it's also helped that he's finally started to talk more. Every time I asked him what he wanted to eat this week, his answer was "hamwich," which means a grilled cheese sandwich. I have to make it really buttery so it's soft, but he will actually eat 1/2 a sandwich if he's in the right mood! I have been working hard with him on eating green beans, peas, peaches, pears, and bananas, but those things aren't going so well. He will put them in his mouth, chew a little bit and then spit them out. And I should also explain the apple pictures above. Apples are his new obsession of the week. Probably because it's a word he can actually say correctly. He won't even try to eat one if I cut it up, so I have to cut the skin off part of it (leaving some on so it still looks like an apple) and then he nibbles on that part. The pictures make it look like he's eating a lot of it, but that's actually where I cut the skin off. He takes tiny bites and spits out every single little piece from his mouth, but at least he's showing interest in food without me making him eat! We have a feeding clinic appt this week, so I am going to ask them how to work on swallowing the fruits/veggies. It will be interesting to see how much he weighs. (At the beginning of Jan, he weighed almost 23 pounds) Like I said, we still have days when he vomits up everything or won't eat at all, but for the most part HE'S EATING REAL PEOPLE FOOD!! It hasn't been easy to get to this point(lots of tears from both of us and me wanting to throw him out the window several times), but I am just so happy that our hard work is paying off! I had visions of him going to preschool on stage 2 baby food. And this latest development couldn't have come at a better time since his baby brother will be here in 3 weeks (or less)! Now we need to start getting him to drink more during the day and eliminate his night time bottles. But, I am not going to push it at this point. He's going to have a big enough adjustment when his brother comes. I am so proud of Caleb. He's really trying to catch up from his rough start.
(And no, those pictures weren't taken the same day, he just happens to be wearing the same PJ's. And yes, he prefers to stay in his jammies until after lunch most days! Hey, as long as he's eating I don't care what he's wearing!!)