Post-Discharge, Weekend 1

Oh, boy.  It sure has been an interesting few days home.

Thursday, Sarah was great. She came home from school happy, had a nice welcome home card made by her classmates, and was fine for dinner.

Friday was a different story.  She was NOT impressed by breakfast.  It was cream of wheat (new flavor, I should know better than to do that the second day home, DUH), grits, apricots, and pears.  She looked at the breakfast like "I don't want any of it."  I knew we were in for it.  So, it was a disaster.  She ate the apricots begrudgingly, the pears required Daddy to help block, and she ate the first bite of cream of wheat and spit it out.  I realized during the pears standoff, the cream of wheat had gotten cold and thick.  I added hot water to thin it out, but the damage was done.  Sarah wasn't having any more of it.  None.  We managed to get the second bite of it in her as the time cap hit. She even vomited twice during the meal, and she only vomited once during one meal (twice during speech sessions) at KKI. Sarah was upset, we were upset, and it was generally a crappy meal.  I still had to get her dressed and on the bus, and she was teary while waiting for the bus.  It sucked.  Anyway, she even told me she was angry, and I couldn't blame her.  We're not to talk about meals that go badly or ask her why she engages in any inappropriate behavior, so I ignored the comments.  I just showed her what I was packing for lunch and moved on.  I e-mailed her therapist to discuss what happened.  She said it was a combo of the new food and her testing us.  Sarah has likely figured out that feeding school is over and she wants to see if she still has to eat the new way.  I'm trying really hard to show her that she has to eat what we give her and follow the rules, but she's been pushing back pretty hard for most meals.

Dinner went better, but was more preferred food.  I think we gave her ravioli, carrots, and green beans, but I may be remembering wrong.  I don't know.  My brain is really foggy.  We loaded her with praise for eating so well and all by herself and all of that, so hopefully this whole rule-following thing is sinking in.

Saturday morning was Daddy's turn for hockey, and he went easy for breakfast for the sake of getting her out the door on time and not waking Mommy up.  It also helps to not have her agitated before practice.  She had oatmeal, pudding, and yogurt, and was fine, of course.  Lunch was ravioli, generic beefaroni, apricots (I think), and flavored applesauce.  She didn't like the generic beefaroni too much, but that's another DUH on my part. If it's not the same brand, it might taste different.  She actually did okay as the meal went on, but I bought the brand name today so I don't have that problem again.  I'm just not counting on her willingness to try new foods right now.  Dinner was okay.  It was ravioli, peaches, and carrots.  She was fine for everything except the peaches.  Again, I'm puzzled because she loves peaches.  I had to feed them to her because she wouldn't take independent bites.  I really don't know what her problem is, but my current theory is maybe the peaches we bought are packed differently than the ones KKI uses.  I have been buying her fruit in light syrup, and I'm wondering if maybe KKI uses fruits packed in juice or heavy syrup.  I have been giving her apricots packed in heavy syrup, so maybe that's it.  I bought fruit packed in juice this time, so we're going to try that.

For breakfast today, she had peaches and pears with her oatmeal (all separate, not in the same bowl).  She needed to be blocked for the peaches and pears, and it sucked.  We didn't meet the time cap, but there was spitting, gagging, and crying.  I do think I didn't mash the peaches or pears well enough, so I'm going to run them through the blender tonight to see if I can get them smaller.

Lunch was fed by Dad when I was out food shopping.  He fed her ravioli, carrots, and corn.  He didn't realize she hasn't had corn at a higher texture yet.  Oops.  I should have told him.  She ate about 3/4 of the corn and then freaked out and needed to be blocked.  We got through the meal, but were within about five minutes of the time cap.  It wasn't fun.  I am not too worried about that meal with it being a new food, but I don't get how she could eat 3/4 of it and then refuse.  That seems weird to me.

Dinner was fed by me and she did okay.  She had beef stew, green beans, and sweet potatoes.  She refused the sweet potatoes and spit out the first bite.  I don't get it.  She loves sweet potatoes, so why is she throwing a fit now? I had to go to non-self feeder for the rest of the sweet potatoes, and I don't like that.  It's not that I have a major issue feeding her, but it is a step back and it's not a food that should be difficult for her.

I e-mailed her therapist again (actually several times this weekend, I bet she's going to be annoyed when she gets those) because I'm just stumped.  I figured she'd be a booger and test me, but this is a lot for her.  I really can't have her slipping back into old habits and I'm sure as heck not going back to Gerber.  She can do this, and she has got to get into her head that we went to feeding school to learn a new way to eat.  This wasn't a weird thing we did for eight weeks.  This is the new way.  I don't know if she's stubborn, or forgetting what to do with food, or what.

On a brighter note, we gave her some diced cucumbers and ranch dressing to practice eating while we had dinner and she ate them.  I never thought I'd see the day.  She's also voluntarily eating pretzel sticks, although we do have to watch her with those.  She's pretty good about doing oral motor exercises, and generally not arguing much with us about them.

We'll see what her therapist says about the bazillion e-mails I sent her this weekend.  I don't feel comfortable even sending any different foods to school or the protocol.  I think we need more consistency at home before we try taking this to school.

Oh, and Sarah had an awesome hockey practice.  I'll try to get the video Dad took on YouTube and post a link shortly.  She is starting to skate by herself a little and it's fun to watch.