Toddler with Goldenhar syndrome doesn’t know how to eat
A one-year-old boy from South Australia afflicted with Goldenhar syndrome does not know how to eat because of a deformed jaw and tongue. His parents feed him through a tube as doctors have given up on how to make him eat normally.
Shannon and Joanne White's son Asher also had facial deformities because of the rare congenital defect characterized by incomplete development of the ear, nose, soft palate, lip, and mandible.
He has never learnt how to eat and we've done everything, from simple things like rubbing his gums to more complex things and doctors are at their wits' end, Adelaidenow.com quoted Mrs. White as saying. People say 'why don't you offer him something sweet, that will work', but it's just not that simple. His tongue doesn't work, there's a lot of problems.
The Encounter Bay couple plan to join a world-renowned feeding program in Graz, Austria hoping that it can teach their son how to eat. The program has a high success rate in teaching children how to eat and the Whites are prepared to pay the $55,000 fee to join the program.