Adam Maul

Adam

Gerry, Adam & Billy

Our son Adam is 3 1/2 and Downs Syndrome and unable to communicate terribly well, so its difficult to know exactly what he is feeling at any particular time. He had his pull through nearly 2 years ago and the bowel has never really functioned well since.

His food intake has been a major cause of concern with numerous different tube feeds being tried along with various high calorie drinks.......he just doesn't have an appetite. We live near Belfast in Northern Ireland (although I'm originally from Australia) and later this year an expert in the field of children's intestinal disorders from Birmingham is coming over for a clinic which we are booked into. We are really looking forward to speaking to him. The support network here has been fantastic with an excellent community peadiatric nurse who is in constant contact, but Adam's problems seem to have left everyone as confused as us.

Despite all his setbacks, Adam is a great little character and fighter. He goes to a mainstream nursery and his development is OK, but his speech is poor and basically everyone loves him to bits. I'll just finish this little note by relating one of my fondest and very special memories. Adam was 5 weeks old and about to have his second operation to make the colostomy...he was having a final XRAY before the op and as he lay on the XRAY table he looked up and smiled at me for the very first time.......and it seems that no matter what he has gone through he can still repeat that smile.