Life with The Leivas: A new favorite food

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A new favorite food

Olivia has discovered a new favorite food.....asparagus. I know I was a little surprised too but she loves the stuff. Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed that Olivia doesn't seem to want/need me to cut all of her food up into little bite size pieces, instead she loves being able to take a bite of something then put it back onto her plate. Last night we had asparagus for dinner and I carefully cut several up into little bite sized pieces for her plate. She took one look at them and then reached over to my plate to get a whole asparagus. She refused to eat the ones I had cut up for her but loved eating them whole. I tried to get a couple of pictures of her eating the asparagus for my mom who loves asparagus as much as I do but she was eating them so quickly it was hard to get a good picture. I finally decided that I would video tape her eating the asparagus but then of course she didn't want to cooperate.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: i love asparagus too! my freshman roommate used to make fun of me for eating it because it makes your pee smell funny.; Thursday, July 03, 2008 2:09:00 PM

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MPS/Sanfilippo Syndrome

In October, 2008 Olivia was disgnosed with MPS III or Sanfilippo Syndrome, type B. MPS stands for: Mucopolysaccharidoses. It is a genetic lysosomal storage disease (LSD) caused by the body's inability to produce specific enzymes. Normally, the body uses enzymes to break down and recycle materials in cells. In individuals with MPS and related diseases, the missing or insufficient enzyme prevents the proper recycling process, resulting in the storage of materials in virtually every cell of the body. As a result, cells do not perform properly and may cause progressive damage throughout the body, including the heart, bones, joints, respiratory system and central nervous system. While the disease may not be apparent at birth, signs and symptoms develop with age as more cells become damaged by the accumulation of cell materials.

Babies and young children with Sanfilippo Syndrome appear normal, but symptoms begin to appear with age as more and GAGs build up in the cells of the body. There are 3 stages to the disease. Stage 1 the child begins to lag behind peers and begins to display difficult behaviors. Stage 2 the child losing his/her language, becomes hyperactive, chews on everything, and has sleeping difficulties. Stage 3 the child slows down, becomes dependant for all mobility and loses the ability to chew/swallow. There is no treatment or cure for Sanfilippo. Life expectancy varies.