Nectar Sweet

Today we underwent Emerson's bazillionth swallow study down at the Children's hospital. Actually, this was probably his 7th study and his last one was so long ago that he certainly wasn't saying poopy-farted-head and laughing said potty-mouthed head off every time he says it. Amazing where nine months will take you in a toddler's life. Nonetheless, we were there at the hospital to test him after 9 months of challenging him with thickened liquids in the hopes of making it one step closer to removing his G-tube and one step closer to drinking normalcy. His last two studies yielded no change so the past several months of testing him with slimy thickened Kool-Aid and juice and milk and the like had T and I intrigued by the potential outcome or, dare we dream, improvement.

Well, it pays to dream.

Emerson improved an entire level, meaning we can now serve him liquids thickened to the consistency of nectar (previously it was the thicker honey variety). This means there's just one more level to pass before he can tolerate plain old liquids in their au naturel state. He also showed improvement when they tested him drinking milk without thickener -- it's just not totally safe for him to drink yet as he almost aspirated it into his airway.

After four years, we finally feel like this kid might actually outgrow this thing.