Thursday, January 24, 2008

Feeding Clinic - Middle of Week 3

Interesting week so far.

Tuesday Sarah did okay. Breakfast didn't go well, unfortunately. She gagged on her first bite of food, and that set her off for the rest of the meal. They got her to behave, but it was tough. I honestly can't blame her. I certainly don't want to eat something if it made me gag.

Lunch went pretty well. Nothing earth-shattering, but she more or less did what they asked. She still argues, but she's fighting less and less.

Her afternoon snack was fed to her by a therapist who has never fed her before. It went okay, but Sarah spent a good bit of the feeding trying to see how far she could push the therapist. I can't remember anything special either way about the feeding.

Wednesday was her birthday and was a short therapy day for us. We left after lunch to make her ENT appointment. More on the appointment in a sec.

They said she was acting like a spoiled princess in the playroom, so I guess she knew it was her special day. I have no idea. Anyway, breakfast went okay. She refused to even touch the oatmeal, which doesn't terribly surprise me. So the primary therapist said she thinks we need to just take a step back and go back to baby oatmeal and gradually switch again. I agree. The other problem with breakfast is the therapist who fed her was only pausing the video when she wasn't listening. It had much less of an effect because Elmo frozen on the screen isn't really a big problem for her. Oh well, something to bring up either tomorrow or at the next family meeting.

Lunch I only saw half of. She did okay, from what I saw. She licked little bits of chicken nuggets off her lips, and I think they got her to lick a little bit of spaghetti sauce off a nugget. I can't remember for sure at this point.

After lunch, we headed to Party City for party supplies. Sarah picked out Sesame Street for the theme (surprise, surprise). She was really funny in the store. She kept putting my hand towards the display as if to ask me to buy the entire section! We still need a few more things, but we have most of the party goods now.

Then we headed to the ENT. The appointment went okay. The doctor and I were disappointed that the left tube has come out. It's still in her ear, but it's just sitting there and no longer attached to the ear drum. We were both hoping the tubes would both stay in all winter. Anyway, the ENT said he doesn't want to just replace the tube right now. He wants to see what happens. I'm to call them if I suspect she has an ear infection (not the pediatrician if possible). Otherwise, he wants to see her in two months for a look. Cross your fingers that she doesn't need the tube replaced! I'm very pleased the doctor isn't just jumping straight into surgery. The surgery wasn't a big deal, but it doesn't mean I want to put her through it again.

After the ENT appointment, we went to Toys R Us to use her birthday club coupon. She got a balloon (which she loves) and they announced her birthday over the loudspeaker. I let her pick out a toy, and she chose an Elmo bath toy. No surprise there.

Today I didn't see any of her feeds because I had a midwife appointment and then spent some time with my mom. But the primary therapist made two adjustments to her protocol, and at the end of the day she said Sarah finally ate enough of the new foods for them to measure.

The two adjustments - they are now giving her whole milk at the clinic. She's a little low in calories on the days she spends at the clinic, so they are giving her whole milk to make up for them. We're to continue with 2% at home. The other one - which I was about to suggest - is that they are no longer pushing her to drink from a regular cup. I'm relieved about that. She doesn't like it, and doesn't want it, and I don't care if all she uses right now is a sippy cup. A straw would be nice, but it's a very low priority.

Anyway, she ate 0.1 ounce each of eggs with ketchup (breakfast), graham cracker crumbs (lunch), and Fig Newton crumbs (snack). It doesn't sound like much, but today was the first day she ate enough of anything new to even measure. And that's 0.1 ounce each more of those foods than I've ever gotten her to eat!

In Mommy news, the midwife appointment went fine. I passed the glucose screen (yay!), but I have low iron (boo!). Thankfully the low iron isn't too bad. I just need to get back to taking my iron supplements. Easy enough. The baby has a strong heartbeat, and I'm measuring just fine. The midwife stressed that I need to take more time for myself, especially during this difficult time, and I plan to try and do that.

No comments: