Parent's Report

Dear Marguerite
It has been a while since I wrote you last, but wanted to let you know
that the child I wrote about to you with
Downs syndrome was weaned off the NG tube without the slightest of
difficulty. We had a multi-disciplinary
meeting with the parents, paediatrician, dietitian and myself(SLT) and
PT and made a plan on how we will
go ahead. It took a long time before we were able to action our plan
because the child was sick frequently, but
when the plan was actioned it all went very smoothly and he is now,
although slightly picky in his eating, very
close to being a normal eating child. One of the most outstanding things
has been how well he has been since
the removal of the nasogastric tube so that his development has
accelerated significantly.

I have also used your principles this year in weaning another child off
the tube. She was a child with multiple
health issues and a very tight fibrotic tongue tie. She was never able
since birth to manage food well in her
mouth and was therefore dependent on the tube for most of her first
year. Once the tongue tie was released
she gradually started managing food better to the point where we were
able to get her eating and drinking
enough to wean her off the tube. The principles the program have been
very helpful in that I have been able
to give members of my team information about expectations around things
like weight loss etc.

I hope that I will be able to contact you again in future as your
guidance is an important support without
which we will be reluctant to pursue these cases.

Kind regards and greetings from New Zealand

Loraine Hamm
Speech Language Therapist
Child Health Centre
Whangarei