All kids need a little Hope and someone to

Believe in them....

 I Believe in You!

This is my son, Gary Jr, or Bubba as we call him.  I noticed by 4 months that he was having a few developmental delays, was having trouble holding his head up, hated being on his belly, kept his hands constantly clenched in fists, did not play with toys, etc. After much research and lots of tears I had come to the assumption that my child had Cerebral Palsy. I mentioned my concerns to his family doctor and kept getting told that it was nothing to be alarmed at, to give him time.  When he turned 6 months old I contacted Early Intervention, their review signified definite delays of at least 50%.  During the next month we found ourselves taking him for a swallow study for fears of aspiration due to his swallowing problems, and a visit to a Pediatric Neurologist which in turn meant many more doctors and tests.

The swallow study showed that there were indeed suspicions for aspiration, they recommended that I begin thickening his food and get him started in Vital Stim therapy.  This all explained the amount of gagging that our little man had done, the scariest of which was while he was asleep at night.. I was so afraid of something happening to him in his sleep.  We began the Vital Stim therapies twice a week in which they would hook small electrodes to his throat while he was having a bottle.  This helped him develop the muscles that helped in the swallowing.  We are now back to him having regular bottles without the thickening and no more gagging.  He is also eating more baby foods and keeping more of it in and has started eating some textured infant snacks such as yogurt snacks and puffs.