Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507310077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PITTSBURG LENGTH: Medium
All such goodies were forbidden to pass the 8-year-old boy's lips. Born with only a tiny piece of small intestine, he could not digest food and was allowed a taste of only certain things, including ketchup.
On Friday, about a month after receiving a new intestine and kidney in a transplant operation, Joey was permitted his first food: a cherry Popsicle.
His hand trembled as he lifted the Popsicle to his mouth. He took a lick, then another, then a third and a fourth. That was enough.
``You let me know when you want some more, OK?'' said his mother, Michelle Rodgers, taking the Popsicle from his hand.
Was it good? He nodded, shyly. Did it taste like he expected it to? A shake of the head. How was it different? No answer.
His mother explained that eating scares him because of its newness.
That's not unusual in children eating for the first time, according to Joey's physician, Dr. Jorge Reyes, chief of pediatric transplant surgery at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Often, eating can produce uncomfortable feelings in their stomachs and throats, particularly because they have not learned to suppress gag reflexes.
Once children like Joey are back at home with their families and eating in a natural, casual setting, the activity becomes easier, Reyes said.
About 100 newborns are born each year in the United States with his deformity, short-gut syndrome.
From birth, Joey, who lives in Norwich, Conn., has received all of his nutrients from an intravenous tube. That did not suppress an interest in food.
Every morning, said his mother, he would ask her what was for dinner. He liked to dunk peoples' chips in dip for them and asked to have meals ordered for him at McDonald's.
``Yan Can Cook,'' the TV cooking show, is one of his favorites. From his hospital bed, he happily recited, ``If Yan can cook, so can you.''
Joey, who was moved from intensive care Wednesday, still receives nutrients intravenously. Reyes said he can begin eating real food - the pizza and pork chops he dreams of - as soon as he wants. The doctor doesn't expect that to happen for about another month.
Rodgers is apprehensive about the transition.
``It's exciting, but I'm his mother, and I see all the hard things ahead of him. It won't be just like, `Here, have a cheeseburger,''' she said. ``He's going to be worried and scared.''
From his bed, though, Joey suddenly seemed anything but frightened.
``I want my cheeseburger!'' he said. A relative brought him one that morning. He dipped his finger into ketchup on a Styrofoam container and licked it off.
by CNB