New Beginnings

Today is a day of new beginnings! May God bless this day and all the days that Jalen goes without solid food. Yes, a ten-year-old boy who can't eat food for the next three months! Instead, he will be drinking an elemental formula called Elecare. Elemental means they take the proteins and break them down into amino acids in a powdered form. Jalen has to drink 60 oz of Vanilla Elecare to meet his nutritional needs. We really are starting all over again, as if he were a newborn baby. Except this time I have to deal with the task of formula mixing and management, something I have never done before (nursing is so much easier, and free!)

Today was a great day to start the formula. We spent the entire afternoon and evening at a brunch over at a friend's house, which gave me an opportunity to figure out how to juggle formula and outings. It went well. I made sure Jalen was full from Elecare before the rest of us ate. We stayed longer than expected, though, and Jalen got really hungry when it was time to go.

Jalen handled his first day better than expected. He did really well until he started to get hungry. He did display some anger and some low-level begging for something to eat, followed by "Elecare is dumb...I'm NOT drinking it." I calmly explained to him that he only has two choices at this point: to drink the 60 oz. per day by mouth, or to get an NG tube put down his nose into his stomach. He quickly agreed to drink it and calmed down after that.

When I asked Jalen what his thoughts were on how the day went, he said it was hard, but not bad. He said he got full quickly, but felt he had to keep drinking. He also felt a little nauseous once because he drank too much. Tomorrow I'll space out his "meals" to make them smaller, but more frequent feedings.

p.s.--I just got a bad burn on my left index finger trying to make some caramel for Jalen. I stink at cooking!