Meet Hayes

We feel truly blessed to have been a part of the feeding team study. Dr. J and his team are absolutely amazing. They were always upbeat and honest about Hayes’s journey. Hayes was not breathing when he was born and was diagnosed as having HIE, which included breathing problems, seizures, hypotonia, and feeding problems. We were hoping to make it home for Christmas, so we could enjoy the holidays as a family, but Hayes was having serious feeding issues. He would only drink a few milliliters of breast milk, and the nurses would finish his feeding through an NG tube. Most of the time he would vomit everything he had just finished drinking.

We were getting frustrated with his lack of progress and couldn’t understand why he was having so much difficulty with his feedings. Enter Dr. J and his feeding team. We were reluctant to put Hayes through any more testing/procedures, but after talking with the group and a promise of no negative consequences from the study, we went through with it. The outcome was not what we expected. His feeding muscles did not respond to the different stimuli. We were devastated to think he may never be able to feed himself. It had already been weeks of a rollercoaster of up and down prognosis during our stay at Nationwide. We felt defeated with this added issue. Seeing our distress, Dr. J sat down with us, and we will never forget his words: “I have hope for Hayes, and you need to have hope, too.” Those words meant the world to us and made us realize that hope is the only thing you have at times. It is what got us through the difficult times. We continued to push with what we thought was best for Hayes.

During the second feeding assessment, immediately Dr. J’s eyes lit up. Hayes’s feeding muscles were beginning to develop. It felt like a miracle. Dr. J felt that Hayes was going to be successful in learning to feed, and his words inspired us to try and get Hayes to learn to swallow. We did not want him to be sent home on a gastric feeding tube because we had faith that he could accomplish this goal. We are thankful that our baby boy participated in the studies and will be forever grateful to Dr. J and his team for giving us HOPE.

As an update, Hayes finally started sucking down 8 ounces of breast milk/formula at about 5 months of age and started eating table food at around 8 months. He never came home on a gastric tube, and we praise Dr. J and his team for their guidance and wisdom for helping us help Hayes become successful with his oral feedings. Words cannot express how deeply we feel about Dr. J and his team.