gulp

It seems that overnight Waverly's feeding issues have worsened.  The changes had been occurring slowly, but the past month has been dramatic.  I am not ready for this.

Waverly has been gagging a lot while she is eating.  She isn't chewing her food properly, so then she is chocking on it when she swallows.  She is also holding food in her mouth - taking a bite of banana, but just moving around her mouth with her tongue.  It is taking her a much longer time to finish a meal.

I spoke with her teacher about this last week.  I knew they would being seeing the same issues there, but I needed to here it from them.  She said that they have seen changes since school started.  Her teacher was incredibly supportive, knowing that this is a difficult new phase.

I am slowly making the necessary changes to her diet.  She still enjoys crunchy snacks - goldfish, pretzels, graham crackers.  She doesn't seem to have any issue with a crunchy texture.  She loves her pureed textures - apple sauce, mashed bananas, cut up pasta and yogurt.  It is the in between textures that seem to be causing the problems - breads, pieces of fruit, pizza, meat.  I think they are soft enough that she is simply swallowing them before she chews them adequately, thus causing her to choke.

I modified her dinners this week.  I haven't pulled the Cuisinart off of the shelf to begin pureeing her foods, but I have started choosing items that she will be able to swallow easily.

I knew this was coming.  It is how the disease progresses.  But it doesn't get any easier.  This change has been especially difficult for me.  Wavey has always found such joy in food.  Thankfully, with some modifications, she can still enjoy the flavors she loves so much.