Nash's Feeding Therapy Journey

Nash has Eosinophilic Esophagitis, Sensory Processing Disorder, ARFID, and Autism. All of these diagnoses are working against us on this journey we started to help him specifically with feeding therapy.

We have been on the waiting list at Center for Pediatric Health in Wilmington, NC for several months. We had our initial feeding assessment on 1/23/23. The director of the facility quickly realized the severity of Nash’s case after observing him and has prioritized him on the waitlist as he cannot develop to his full capacity at this rate. We should receive a call any time between now and the next two months.

With his recent EoE diagnosis, we are currently in the trial and error phase to determine whether dairy and/or wheat must be eliminated from his diet. He will undergo another endoscopy next month to see if dairy elimination has helped lower his eosinophil count…and we are praying that it has lowered so we will hopefully not have to eliminate wheat as well, otherwise it will cut him back to only eating 2 items he currently accepts.

This will be a relatively large unexpected expense for us as we put our lives on hold for 9-12 weeks while we focus on Nash. I feel very confident we will see improvement based on the success rate at this facility. There are very limited facilities that offer this intensive therapy, and we feel very blessed the closest one to us is only 3 hours away.

John-Paul, other family members and myself will alternate weeks to be with Nash while the other stays with the girls back in RM. We are hoping we can also include all 5 of us for a few weeks as Nash will need normalcy (and his sister’s support) after coming back to the house each day after intense therapy.

The cost of housing for 9-12 weeks (maybe longer) and the extra costs that insurance will not cover has caused an unexpected financial expense. Anything is truly appreciated more than you all will ever know. Our family is more than willing to sacrifice anything needed to help our boy, but so many people have reached out asking how they can help. Any contribution is a blessing to our family as we navigate this chapter in our lives.

We will keep you updated on this journey!