Failure to Thrive – Feeding

Kristen Posts:

Dear ERI COMMUNITY: I am a pediatric nurse practitioner working with a child who struggles with severe oral aversion. At 18 months old she was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder and failure to thrive and enrolled her in the early intervention program. She was much delayed in her gross motor skills and not walking until 19 mos. Fast forwarding to age three, she was diagnosed with Celiacs disease and we thought that was the answer to her failure to thrive and her sensory issues. A year later she didn’t grow in height and only gained a pound weighing a mere 26lbs. After a long agonizing 3 month decision with the GI team we placed a gtube. All this time her family, doctors, and therapists seemed to miss her oral aversion focusing on her delayed grossed motor skills. So today at age 5 she maybe orally eats a select few foods and relies on gtube feeds to keep her alive. Everyday is a struggle to get her to eat and “just take one bite”. What are your experiences with these children in their teen and adult years? What percentage out grow this problem? What have you found to be the most successful treatments? Thanks for all your help.

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