ALMONT, Mich. -
A local family is entering a contest to help their son battle through a slew of medical difficulties. Elijah VanDyke, who turned 3 years old earlier in October, has started to recover from countless surgeries and complications thanks to the help of a Liquid Hope diet that his mother, Rachael, started last September. Liquid Hope works to provide children that have to eat through feeding tubes with food that contains the necessary calories, vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients.
Unfortunately, the family's insurance does not provide nutritional support, and Michigan's Children's Special Health Care Insurance only covers the cheapest medical solution. But that solution isn't enough to help little Elijah.
Since birth, Elijah has been ambushed with health problems. He was born with four congenital heart defects, a kidney defect and a gastrointestinal anomaly. He underwent his first surgery when he was 15 days old, and his heart went into a potentially lethal arrhythmia just 11 hours later. Weeks of recovery and multiple complications led to the family waiting eight weeks before they could finally bring their baby boy home for the first time.
Five months later, Elijah and his mother returned to the hospital for a routine checkup and found out he would need a second open heart surgery to replace damaged valves. Elijah relied on an external pacemaker to keep his heart beating properly until the permanent pacemaker was placed 11 days later.
Over the next three years Elijah underwent other surgeries, including a Nissen Fundopliation, reconstructive genitourinary surgery, two pacemaker surgeries, multiple scopes and three sets of ear tubes.
Last year he was diagnosed with hypotonic cerebral palsy. He is currently being fed almost entirely through a tube because of the cerebral palsy and a strong oral aversion. During an 18-month span in 2012 and 2013, Elijah battled dangerously low blood sugar levels while eating a totally blenderized diet.
Last September Elijah began a blenderized diet with real food, which paid immediate dividends. His blood sugar levels stabilized, his hair grew in thicker, his strength improved and he started walking for the first time just before his third birthday.
Rachael discovered Liquid Hope shortly after putting her son on the new diet, and says it has changed the whole family's lives. After being hospitalized 17 times in the first two years of his life, Elijah hasn't been hospitalized at all in the past year.
Rachael says Liquid Hope has allowed her to make the 90-minute one-way drive to her son's 12 specialists, and the family doesn't have to worry about how they will feed Elijah wherever they go.
The family is asking for help in a contest to support Elijah's Liquid Hope diet. He is trying to become the 2014 Child of Hope. The creator of Liquid Hope, Robin Gentry McGee, holds a contest to choose one child to act as the Child of Hope Ambassador, asking the public to help the organization decide on that child. The company can only afford to offer one child a year's supply of Liquid Hope, so only the child with the most votes by Nov. 1 will win this year.
If you want to help Elijah and his family, you can click here to go to this website and make a donation. Anyone can donate meals, which are $7.99 each, to Elijah or the general fund that helps all the children. You can learn more about Liquid Hope on the company's website.
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