That's Noa!

Okay, so this video really doesn't have anything to do with the story that inspired this posting, but I'm glad that I remembered I had it because it's a lovely clip of what was a real treat for Noa: Daddy at Music Therapy. As you can see in this video, Noa is doing a great job of playing along with this song - she really likes this one!

But the big news this week is that Noa actually ate some toddler mac and cheese this week (thanks Claire!). Of course it was covered in babyfood Chicken flavor (her favorite) which helped. There was a lot of screaming the first time - but she managed. And then today, I tried (I tried to break the pasta in half so the pieces were probably about the size of a pea) - and through there were some funny faces, there was no screaming, and no gagging. And she really seemed to be proud and happy when I told her what a big girl she was. She didn't chew the pasta, but it was very soft - a few times she seemed to move it around in her mouth. But just to allow it in... huge!

It's difficult to explain what a huge deal this is! Noa will be five in just a few weeks and this is really the first time we've seen her take on anything what wasn't pureed.

Alot of visually impaired kids don't eat solid food - sometimes the reasons are clear, sometimes they are not. And many of those kids will NEVER get past pureed food. There are also many VI kids who end up on feeding tubes because they are so adverse to solid food - or because they can't get enough nutrition from what they are willing to eat.

When Noa was younger, we were told the tube was an option because for a while we weren't sure she was getting what she needed - she was soooo adverse to eating. But kids who go on feeding tubes, often don't get off them because... hey, would you? If you don't like eating and you can get all your nutrition from a tube? So we battled through that one and as much as we suffered over the fact that she wouldn't eat solid food no matter what we tried (and we tried everything!) we were always grateful that we never had to do the feeding tube.

SO considering all this - getting some pea-sized soft toddler pasta in the mouth and down the throat without gagging, screaming, barfing (which trust you me, we've seen a lot of over the years) is truly miraculous.