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“Everyone was communicating and
working together, with Amanda [from
Healthnetwork] being our quarterback.”

One day he said to Jenn, “Mom, my stomach hurts from
here to here,” pointing to his neck and belly button.
It didn’t take long for a fear of eating to develop. And
no wonder! Every time Ward ate, his stomach hurt. So
then Jenn and Mark had another concern: how to get
their son to eat? Many parents worry that their kids
aren’t eating well or aren’t eating enough, especially
when those kids are picky eaters or low on the weight
and height charts. At his checkups, Ward regularly
clocked in at the one percentile for height.

Tour de Hospital Land

Parents know there’s nothing worse than watching your
child suffer and not being able to fix it. In the first ten
years of Ward’s life, Jenn and Mark took him to so many
specialists they lost count.
“Doctors would do small things here and there,” says
Jenn. “Some of the things helped, some not. It never
really got fixed.”
Testing food sensitivities proved to be challenge since
they desperately needed to get calories into their son
and he would eat so little anyway. They tried cutting out
At Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, some of the notorious culprits, like gluten and dairy,
Ward Giordano finally received a diagnosis and but never noticed an improvement.
treatment that helped his chronic stomachaches.
Jenn remembers telling her YPO forum, “I know
something is wrong and I can’t figure it out.”
A Million Times Feeling Desperate

More Hopeful “By late last year, fatigue was setting in,” Mark says.
“We had a conversation and decided we’ve got to set a
goal. We must figure this out—and quickly.”
“I was at a breaking point,” agrees Jenn. “We couldn’t
get to the bottom of it. It’s debilitating as a parent.
ard was one of those dream babies, the kind
W that parents almost hate to tell their friends I felt very helpless.”
Right around this time, the Chair of Mark’s YPO
about because surely their babies aren’t so
perfect. He slept well, laughed easily, and chapter mentioned a benefit that YPO members have:
had an easy-going nature. Healthnetwork Foundation. He didn’t know much about
So it blindsided Jenn and Mark Giordano when, it but said he’d heard good things.
around 17 months, Ward’s temperament did a one-eighty. “YPO has been an amazing, impactful organization for
Overnight, their bubbly happy son became fussy. He cried our family,” says Mark. “When we heard about this thing
on and off all day, every day. Jenn remembers typing into called Healthnetwork, it almost seemed too good to be
Google: “Can you get colic at 17 months?” true. But at that point we were open-minded and would
Ward’s fussiness continued through toddlerhood. have tried anything.” He sent an email through the YPO
As soon as he could talk, he began complaining about system and within hours heard from Amanda, one of
stomachaches. It seemed like his tummy hurt all the time. Healthnetwork’s Medical Coordinators.

8 Healthnetwork Foundation | www.healthnetworkfoundation.org