Superboy Clark

Clark was phased out of ECI today.  It's bittersweet.  Mostly sweet because he's met the goals we established for him.  A little bitter because well, we're just so used to doing so many 'things' related to his health & development that I feel a little abandoned.  That's not really a bad thing...it just feels weird to be done with something like that.  Overall, it's a good thing.  

The picture above is from last weekend when we went up to DFW for a life-long friend's wedding.  We all had a blast and Clark was such a good traveler, as always.  He's getting to be such a big boy, it amazes me.  Speaking of growth, he's now 22.5 lbs and almost 34" tall.  Growing, growing.  

Things are going well with his feeding tube.  Recently we've been feeding him a blenderized diet of Raw Meal, avocado, virgin coconut oil & hemp milk.  It's really been agreeing with him, he hasn't thrown up once since starting the blend.  Raw Meal is Garden of Life's meal replacement mix.  It's got lots of carbs, protein & some fat.  Believe it or not, it's also vegan (no animal products or by-products), raw and organic.  I try to do blends with the highest quality stuff I can get my hands on since it's bypassing some of the digestive process and going straight into his stomach.  I just feel better about putting healthier stuff in..you'll definitely never catch me blending up a Happy Meal®!

The formula he was using (Peptamen Jr 1.5) just did not agree with him at all.  He was throwing it up every time and so it wasn't really benefiting him at all.  Not to mention, it made him uncomfortable and the clean up got to be a total hassle.  However, after speaking with our DME supplier, I have decided to try a different formula called Compleat Pediatric which is a blenderized food formula made from turkey, cranberries, peas and carrots...among some other things.  If this works for us it will make things a little simpler and reduce our feeding costs greatly.  Organics, meal powder and coconut oil (!) really add up fast.  I'm really crossing my fingers for good results with the Compleat.

We really appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts you send our way.  Clark has been making some great progress recently and that has made life just that much easier!