A Lick! A Bite!!!

Major breaking news story!

Friday, when I picked Sean up from preschool, his teacher said "Sean took 3 bites of chocolate pudding today!" This is the most he has eaten at school, where he gets feeding therapy daily with an occupational therapist. They have been working on getting him to take one "try me" bite of whatever the other kids eat. Friday's success was very exciting for all of us. Aidan and I applauded Sean and praised him for being such a big boy.

That evening, Doug ran some errands and brought back three chocolate cones from DQ. Aidan, Doug and I were eating them and Sean showed interest in pretending to eat a cone. Doug offered him a taste of his cone, and Sean grabbed onto it with both hands. He took a little lick, with a big smile, hanging his tongue out to show everyone his taste! We all clapped and said "Hooray!" while rubbing our bellies and telling Sean "Yummy yummy!" He closed his mouth and signed yummy yummy back to us, then grabbed the cone for another lick. Again, he turned to his fan club for encouragement and we gave it with enthusiasm. He took one more lick, then decided that was enough for one day. WOW!

Sunday afternoon, Aidan and I were upstairs and I saw Sean WALKING up the stairs with something in his hand. (Normally Sean prefers to crawl up the stairs unless some one is next to him to spot him.) When he got to the top I saw that it looked like he hand Aidan's cheese & crackers snack he was eating earlier. Sean said "Aidan! Aidan! Eat!"

Aidan discovered that Sean had just brought up two crackers, so he took one and offered Sean the other. Mind you, usually when we offer Sean food he says "no no no" and throws it. This time, Sean kept the cracker and watched Aidan take a bite of his. Sean put the cracker up to his mouth and looked at us. We said "Yummy! Have a bite, Sean." Sean took the tiniest little bite and awaited applause. He held the little bite between his lower teeth and tongue, but didn't dare close his mouth. We congratulated him on his bite and encourage him to chew and swallow. Instead he took another tiny bite. Aidan said "Wait a minute, Sean!" (and then Doug's favorite Kramer line) "These crackers are making me thirsty." Aidan ran downstairs to get drinks for them, and brought them back up. Sean took one more tiny bite, offered a bite to me, then decided he was done and put it on the dresser. He still hadn't closed his mouth or swallowed the crackers yet, so he trotted over to the bed and spit it out on the bed. Nice, huh?

Well, he may not have eaten the cracker, but taking a bite is a big step for him. So far all he's been willing to do is lick them at school. I felt like I did whe he took his first step, like we were finally at the beginning of the end of baby food. I felt hope that he will one day eat like everyone else.

I cleaned up the bed, then returned the remains & drinks to the kitchen. I told Doug what happened and he said "Aidan's crackers?" I said yes. He said "I just threw those in the trash a few minutes ago. I saw Sean messing with the trash can, I guess he got them out of there."

Oh dear. We are dumpster divers.....