Let it be known that on this day in history, L swallowed a pill.

My not-quite-4-year-old SWALLOWED a motherflipping PILL.

This is huge – not least because about a year and a half ago, he was seeing a speech therapist for feeding issues and receiving occupational therapy for suspected sensory processing disorder. (Admittedly, the driving force behind swallowing the pill was that he loathes me poking the pill and squeezing its innards into his mouth, which doesn’t exactly rule out sensory issues here. Just let me have this for now.)

The potentially bigger reason this is huge, though, is that the particular pill he swallowed is a massive dose of Vitamin D (befitting of the superhero phase we’re currently in, we call it “Super D”). One of his biggest hurdles right now is vitamin absorption; certain parts of the gut absorb certain vitamins, and it’s likely he just doesn’t have the parts of his gut that are responsible for most of his vitamin D absorption. Twice each day, he takes a double dose of a liquid multivitamin designed for kids with malabsorptive disorders, as well as a separate vitamin E, vitamin D and liquid iron supplements.

And these doses are large. To put it in perspective: a typical dose of adult vitamin D drops (and remember we’re talking about a 36lb child here) is 4,000 units. His regimen included those 4,000 unit drops twice each day, plus a 50,000 unit “Super D” once a week – and he was still deficient. We bumped up to 50,000 unit Super D twice per week — still deficient. We did recently add in these neat patch vitamins that claim to absorb directly into the bloodstream through the skin, which we’re hopeful might be a turning point for us, and our initial trial in the week before his last round of labs did show his Vitamin D levels moving upward – but by a whopping one point, while still taking his biweekly Super D, so the jury’s still out on whether or not we can switch to more regular-sized doses of patch vitamins (full review to follow after May labs!)

Currently, we put all these vitamins through his g-tube. After his last big surgery, we were able to drop the twice-daily 90 ml of green bean puree that had been part of his vitamin regimen for years (green beans are great for thickening up short gut poop!), and we had started squeezing the Super D into his mouth, which he hated, but it would be a miserable, hopeless battle right now to try to get him to take all the rest of these supplements orally, twice each day. (Have you ever tasted liquid iron?!)

Swallowing a pill, though — that’s new territory. He’ll still need alarmingly large doses of anything that goes through his gut, but we’re slowly weaning off of his overnight tube feeds; vitamins are the last big hurdle. And swallowing pills could open up new doors. Tube-free doors.

To be continued….

Follow @ThisGutsyLife on Twitter