Join us as we celebrate wins, big and small, for families facing PFD! Today, we celebrate the wins of Danny Neiderer! Danny’s mom Robyn was on the first Family Advisory Council and has served as a contract coordinator for the Power of Two program.

Our son, Danny, was born with Silent GERD which turned into Failure-to-Thrive around his first birthday. He struggled with pain any time he swallowed food and meal aversions quickly became our family’s challenge daily. With the support of our feeding therapist and team of specialists, Danny eventually embraced feeding methods helping him to achieve daily nutrition.

Our first win was around his 3rd birthday when he began eating all of his meals without us struggling and counting each bite. Our second win was around the same time period when he finally made his weight back onto the growth chart around the second percentile! Danny had been in “negative digits” off the curve and not even placing on the growth chart since around his first birthday. This win for our family was HUGE! As a parent, I finally didn’t feel like a “failure” anymore! Our third win was around his 4th birthday when we successfully weaned him off of all nutritional supplements and medications. Danny was discharged from all regular specialist appointments and we finally began to believe that we had gotten control over this extremely challenging time in our life!

I can happily report that today, Danny is a healthy and thriving 13-year-old young man who is excelling in middle school, loves to indoor rock climb and swim, and enjoys spending time with his siblings and friends. Our family always tried to celebrate these “small wins” along the course of his journey!

Our family’s 4th win was finding Feeding Matters! Even though we didn’t connect with this incredible organization until the end of our most challenging years, it has been such a blessing to support other families going through similar life experiences.

Our life lesson in all of this: Live life one day at a time and always look toward the light at the end of tunnel! You are not alone!

Thank you for letting us celebrate with you, Neiderer Family!