Warren’s Story

“CTC’s support for our family has been invaluable and I cannot imagine going on this journey without their care! Financially supporting CTC’s program is important to us, as we imagine Warren will continue to receive therapy until he is at least three years old. We’re so thankful we were connected to CTC!”

Megan and Cassidy’s son, Warren, was diagnosed with severe swallowing dysfunction at the age of two months. “The first eight weeks of his life were so traumatic,” Megan says. “Even bottle feeding wasn’t working.” Warren was given a nasogastric tube (NG tube) to carry food and medicine to his stomach through his nose, and was referred to Children’s Therapy Center for feeding therapy with an OT and SLP.

It turned out that therapy for Warren was therapeutic for Megan as well. “As new parents, we really felt thrown into the deep end with Warren’s diagnosis. I found myself relying really heavily on support from our therapists.”

Initially, therapy was focused on keeping Warren orally engaged while he received his nutrition from a tube. This was especially challenging because his feeding therapy services were being delivered through telehealth during the pandemic. “We had to position the laptop camera so that his therapists could see both me and Warren while avoiding distracting him too much,” she says. “They focused on instructing and coaching me on ways to help him.”

Warren has made great progress in feeding therapy to date. He has moved from an NG-tube to a G-tube (gastronomy tube) and is exploring safely eating solid foods. Megan texts progress updates and questions to her therapists and shares Warren’s milestones with them. “There are so many!” she says. “It’s so fun to be able to share his progress with people who really know what we’re going through. Back in July, one of our goals with PT was to have Warren ‘forward-moving’ by the end of the year. We didn’t have a specific definition for what that meant, as we wanted to see what he could accomplish. And he’s already crawling!”

Megan says that the connection she has with Warren’s CTC therapists are especially impactful. “We see a lot of doctors, but we have such a connection with CTC. The staff has your child’s best interests in mind and are intimately involved with your family!”