So after reading my last post... we had stopped Prevacid and that started ALL the problems I was writing about. After we met with Dr. Jeiven she suggested we go back on it, and let me tell you, it worked wonders and I wish I had started it back much sooner than we did. The bloating, gagging, throwing up, refusals went about 95% away. Slowly but surely Abby started back on her food accepting track.
I have it written down somewhere, but we officially weaned her off of Prevacid probably a year later (I think April 2017 is when we stopped it for good).. and it took me 6 months to wean her off of it because we didn't want to throw her body into shock from stopping it like we did last time.
Abby started Kindergarten in August of 2017 and I was excited and nervous to see how she'd do eating a meal away from me. At that point Abby was doing pretty well during meals but still needed plenty of prompting "Take a bite." (poor thing probably had dreams of us saying that to her)... She didn't "love" food, but she didn't hate it anymore either. She definitely finally started to enjoy some foods like spaghetti, rice & broccoli/green beans, pancakes...normal stuff ya'll!
The first day of school came and I was eager to check her lunch box when she got home. My heart sank when I saw she had only taken maybe 3 bites. She couldn't tell me why she didn't eat but we made sure to tell her how important it was that she eat her lunch to keep her body fueled. Day 2 came...lunch box was full again. I asked her what happened and she was upset saying she didn't have enough time that she opened her lunch and took a bite and then they told her to put her lunch away. ??? Knowing that Abby still was extremely small for her age and didn't have the luxury to skip lunch or miss out on any calories really, I jumped into mama bear mode and asked the principal to let me come and observe lunch time (without her seeing me!) - I did tell her about Abby's feeding issue and the struggle we had been through. She assured me that she probably was just busy talking to the kids and wasn't focused on eating, but I know Abby and I didn't think that was the case. So day 3 of Kindergarten and me and the principal are hiding behind a tree watching lunch time (makes me laugh now that I think about it)... well to my shock, the problem was clear as day, these kids had 10 minutes or LESS to eat their lunch while the lunch ladies nagged at them constantly "hurry up hurry up, eat, eat fast, you don't have much time" - not okay. Not okay at all. My heart was sad not just for Abby but for all those kids, TK included (they're only 4!). So quickly we had it worked out that Abby would now get to go to lunch early (15 minutes early) so that she would have enough time to eat. Very thankful that the school worked so easily with us - her teacher has been great too at keeping me updated on abby's eating habits at school.
So now... it's January and Abby has had a decent amount of time to get into the swing of things with school, she's made lots of friends, and I have to say, her eating has gotten so much better during this season. I don't really know why, other than she's either growing out of disliking food, or she is more curious to try things now that her friends are eating other things. She is still fairly picky, but knowing where we started, I'm so so proud of her! Just in the past few months Abby has picked up quite a bit of new foods that she used to not like... chicken nuggets, French fries, corn dogs, tofu, MILK (did you hear that.. MILK, guys she likes MILK - what she used to despise! haha)...and she definitely has a sweet tooth! She's still on the very small size for her age, and is technically off the charts, but she's eating, she's gotten a little taller, and she finally grew into a size 9 shoe after being a size 7/8 for almost a year haha! Brynn is 2 and wears a size 8... haha! Abby is just shy of 30 lbs but hopefully she'll hit that mark at her next weigh in at the doctors (they're back to checking it because she's still so small) at the end of the month.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout the past 5 years.. those close to us know that the first 2 years with Brynn was no walk in the park - her feeding/sleeping nightmare was a very close runner-up to everything we went through with Abby. But God is good and His mercies are new every morning and he's been so faithful to us throughout all the trails - sustaining us when we didn't think there was a way out, and giving us rest when we had weeks/months/years of no sleep. To Him be ALL the glory!
Here's a few pics of Abby getting student of the month last month, one of her in her class (yes she's tiny compared to her classmates) and one of her and Brynn, both acting silly!
