Hayes' Story | From a Complex Feeding Disorder to Eating 'Like a Champ'

Feeding your baby a bottle is an ordinary part of the daily routine for most parents. But for the Braun family, whose son overcame a complex infant feeding disorder that once prevented him from eating, each bottle is a blessing. Baby Hayes was born at 37 weeks and weighed 11 pounds due to complications from gestational diabetes. But that complication would soon be overshadowed when Hayes’ was diagnosed with a brain injury that happened during birth. Neurological conditions can have many different effects on a baby’s eating and swallowing ability, due to the changes in the brain. Rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Hayes’ brain injury kept him from being able to suck and swallow like a typical infant. Frustrated that he often needed to be tube fed through his nose, Hayes’ parents were worried that Hayes might never learn to eat and tube feeding would just be a way of life for him. Enter Dr. Sudarshan Jadcherla, Director of the Neonatal and Infant Feeding Disorders Program (bit.ly/3QaDxQF) at Nationwide Children’s. Dr. Jadcherla and his team of feeding specialists are dedicated improving the quality of life for infants through personalized, feeding management strategies based on clinical and transitional research. For Dr. Jadcherla, the ultimate goal is full oral feeds for every baby diagnosed with a feeding disorder. That included Hayes whose next chapter of his NICU journey involved personalized feeding therapy that would help retrain his stomach to function as it should - ultimately improving his nutritional intake and his neurologic recovery and function. It also meant fewer tube feeds and the possibility of going home without a permanent feeding tube. The strategy worked. After spending just three weeks under Dr. Jadcherla’s care in the NICU, baby Hayes went from being tube fed to bottle fed and now, more than a year later, he is ‘eating like a champ’ all by himself.
Come Inside the Infant Feeding Disorders Program: bit.ly/3QaDxQF
Meet Dr. Sudarshan Jadcherla: bit.ly/3Up59E4
How to solve feeding disorders without a G-Tube: bit.ly/3W4i8fF
Caring for Our Tiniest Patients: bit.ly/4aCMLgT