Hi Dina and welcome:
Thanks for posting your intro and sharing a bit about your family's issues. Your two oldest are close to my two boys in age.
A few years ago Matthew was drinking Ensure Plus, but we learned through that he had a casein allergy as he started eating non food items (PICA). He had such feeding issues, still drinking the bottle and becoming dehydrated, which required a few Hospitalizations due to no drinking and also being anemic.
At one point his therapists wanted a g-tube, but the Pediatrician, GI Dr and I were against it. He went on Risperdal and drinks soy milk and gained weight, got his iron levels up and with almost three years of feeding therapy he is now at the highest percentile for his weight and I had to ask the school not to use food as a reinforcer due to his Dietitian saying no more weight gain.
He turns nine tomorrow and actually still drinks a bottle - we are in final stage, need to prepare for behavior issues, and also he wears Goodnites since I do not intend to potty train until the bottle is gone.
He takes his meds with the bottle too. He now consumes chicken nuggets and tomato soup.
I can imagine how rough those six weeks when Kristopher was only drinking the Ensure was on your family. Do Kristopher and Megan go to the same school? What grades did they just finish? I held both my kids back when they were in the first grade. It helped Nicholas out a lot, now he is going into fourth grade.
Is there a link available to the newspaper story on your family?
Glad to have you aboard here. Let me know if there is any topic you want covered as far as links or articles go at the site.