Baby Aden's wish to eat food

Aden's story started in Queensland Australia.

At 23 weeks pregnant Aden's Mum, with Aden's Dad, decided on a trip to the Gold Coast. With the impending arrival of the baby bundle it would be the last opportunity to travel very far for a while. Leaving for the Gold Coast at the end of April 2017 looking forward to relaxation and the warm this popular spot provides. Three days out from our return Aden's Mum was admitted the the Gold Coast University Hospital with labour pains. After doing all they could to stop the birth, Aden was born, 24 weeks and 3 days at birth weight of 670 grams

A huge shock and very scary time for Mum and Dad but it was clear from the beginning that Aden was a fighter, trying hard to breath on his own with his limited lung capacity.

There were many ups and downs but finally after 4 months Aden had gained enough weight and well enough to travel on his first international flight to his home in NZ. Getting over brain bleeds, sight, hearing issues and lungs developing to where Aden could breath on his own with no assistance were all great milestones in his development.

Aden is now 16 months old (12 months corrected), crawling everywhere and trying hard to walk like all babies do but he has a feeding tube dragging behind him.

The one thing that we were not told by anyone and were not prepared for was that Aden could develop an aversion to food. Having a feed tube from day one and latter developing severe re-flux where he was bringing up most of his feeds plus the memory he has of different hospital devices inserted down his throat has caused this aversion to food. Attempts are always made to give Aden solid food which is met with flailing arms and is an unpleasant experience for all. It is very upsetting to see your baby not thriving as he should be and seems to defy everything we thought we knew and took for granted about something as simple as eating. This should be a fun time in a child's development but is simply not for Aden.

Assistance to bring a feeding specialist from Germany who specializes in weaning premature baby's like Aden off his nasal gastric tube. The specialist has a 90% success rate and has weaned almost 2000 babies off their feed tubes. The specialist has agreed to come to NZ in November as he believes he can help Aden get off the tube before he becomes totally dependent on it and believes it is part of his normal life. There is no one in NZ that can provide this and the medical fraternity believe Aden will grow out of his feed aversion in his own time. This could be another two years to five years. They believe that not eating food can cause delays in development and after all Aden has been through and the milestones he has overcome we want to do all possible to make sure he starts to eat without the tube.