My Daughter's Breakthrough with Eating

On Sept. 9 after nine years of being in several food therapy programs off and on with no success, my birth daughter McKenna cleared her first major hurdle since being born with food aversion.

The first 45 minutes were spent with just she and the therapist from Cook Children's Hospital and then they called the adoptive mom Vicki in so she could see McKenna eat four pieces of cereal and drink some tea.

"I cried," wrote Vicki. "So happy."

They had been trying a different liquid daily at home '" apple juice, Capri Sun, chocolate milk, flat Sprite; anything McKenna wanted to try plus different broths.

She still likes Chicken Noodle best.

Vicki writes that McKenna might have somewhat have gotten over her fear of swallowing and hopefully she is on the right track now.

"She wanted some Goldfish for dinner and I already packed her lunch for tomorrow with the cereal that she actually swallowed. It's Gerber Graduates Puffed Strawberry/Apple Cereal," said Vicki in an email. "She asked me tonight when we said her prayers why I cried at the doctor's office. I told her I was just so proud of how hard she was working."

On Aug. 18 she had made progress with her new doctor and the goal was to have her eating by December.

July 14 the physician had told Vicki that McKenna's goals and Vicki's may not be the same; i.e., McKenna eating by mouth and getting her g-tube out.

"Mac is very smart and outgoing and hopefully one day everything will just click," Vicki said at that time.

I spent almost ten years trying to figure out why McKenna has a food aversion which resulted in her having to have a feeding tube at age two. After doing relentless research, talking to numerous doctors who told me it was nothing I did, I found out in June this year that it was, in fact, something I did, something I took because my doctor at the time told me it was safe.

When I found out I was pregnant on Jan. 2, 2000, I immediately got off of the Depakote and Effexor XR I was on for depression for fear it would affect my unborn child.

My new gynecologist at the time assured me it was correct to stop taking the Depakote but that the Effexor would not hurt the fetus and that in my severely depressed state that any benefits outweighed the risks.

Although the drug company, Wyeth knew about the drug causing food aversion, they did not disclose this information to the physicians or the general public but as of 2004 the Food and Drug Administration has this information on all the labels.