Learning to eat, at age four

Leah Southard, 4, must take many medicines each day. Leah receives most of her nutrition from a feeding pump kept in a backpack she wears almost constantly. (Allison Long/Kansas City Star/MCT)

For children who must be hooked to feeding tubes as they battle through early medical interventions, learning how to eat again after they’re better can be a painful and difficult process.

LIKE everything else about four-year-old Leah Southard, from her tumbling brown hair to her little pink and gray sneakers, the kid-size backpack she wears is darn cute.