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Park City Utah
2 years ago
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009 - Update
Thank you for all of your advice and emails, etc. This has just been a difficult subject for us. Most micro-preemies (especially 23 weekers) have feeding tubes and we're very grateful that she doesn't. That fear is always in the back of our minds. Micro-preemies always seem to have their share of feeding issues. . .I don't know exactly why that is. . .maybe they've had more than their share of things forced in their mouth. I think our attempts to make sure she takes enough of her bottles has inadvertently made her hate them even more. She doesn't like things forced in or around her mouth. . . bottles, straws, sippy cups, spoons, food. That makes it even more difficult to get her to eat and drink. She likes to do it herself, so we're trying to find a wide assortment of food that she can pick up and eat herself. It would be great if she could hold her own bottle, but she hates her bottle and all she does is push it away. She is an extremely happy baby as long as it's not feeding time. That's one reason we decreased the amount of bottles during the day. We have tried everything. Sorry this is another depressing post. Ryan is feeding her in the other room as she's screaming at the top of her lungs. I attempted to get 2 ounces in her, but I just couldn't do it anymore. And. . . now I heard her just throw up everything! What a way to start off the new year. . . .
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9 comments:
hey Jodi - how many cal/oz is she on right now?
Just 20 cal/oz except with the Pediasure, it's 30 cal/oz. She'll have a Pediasure bottle every other day or so.
You poor thing. It's heart breaking. But said it right in the original post on this subject - she dooesn't want her bottle, and what a baby doesn't want, a baby won't take. I think it's time to respect her ability to say 'no'. Forcing food may have longer term consequences than you would like. This may seem like a wacky and way out suggestion, but do you have trusted friends or family with small children, where you could bring Olivia during meal times to allow her to sit with other children and eat and drink as they do? Peer pressure can be be a wonderful thing! You would have to leave the room though - peep through a window or baby montior - but don't allow her to see you - let her have the freedom to choose what she wants and see what happens. What age is Olivia now?
sorry - scratch that question about age - i can see from her DoB that she is 16 months..............
You can definitely go higher. If she's tolerating the Pediasure you could do that exclusively, or you can mix her formula to 22 or 24 cal/oz. We went as high as 26cal/oz with Sydney on infant formula and are now on 30cal/oz toddler formula, generally that is well tolerated. There used to be these awesome PDFs online with the mixing instructions and I just went looking for them and I can't find them, but if you call your pediatrician's office on Monday, they should be able to give you the instructions on how to mix it before your GI appointment. If your GI is anything like ours, the first thing that will happen will be that she will be moved to a higher caloric concentration - 11oz x 20 cal is only 220 cal/day and since the rule is 100cal/kg/day +/- 20cal, they definitely have no excuse to not help you bump her up. ;) Unless she's eating an enormous amount of solids!!
Another thing that helped me finally get a GI to take us seriously was keep track of everything Sydney ate (or didn't eat) the week before we saw him. When I walked in with a full week of her not eating well (our banner days were 700ish cals/day and that included the 16 or so oz of 30cal/oz Neocate Jr. she was eating) I finally, FINALLY got someone to take me seriously. So I'd definitely encourage you to journal everything she eats and every time she throws up in the next week so that you can wave that in the GI's face, firmly but politely. Haha.
I know how frustrating this is. I'm really sorry you are dealing with this. :(
Oh and when I kept track, I literally wrote down things like:
July 10th:
6AM: 3oz of Splash (90)
breakfast offer #1: 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich, ate one bite (neg.), 1/2oz Neocate Jr. (15)
breakfast offer #2: ate 2 crackers w/soynut butter (30+43), 1/2oz Neocate Jr. (15) total 225
lunch: 1/3 hotdog (63) total 288
naptime cup: 5.5oz (165)
snack: 1/4ishoz pudding w/duocal actually made it swallowed (21ish), one bunny graham (5) total so far 479
1/2 piece fake cheese (22) (also offered quesadilla, wouldn't touch) total so far 501
also wouldn't touch goat cheddar or mozzarella
dinner: poked at it, maybe ate one bite
through the evening/bed: 7.5oz Splash (225) total for day: 726 (510 liquid)
(please don't judge me on what we fed our kid, I was desperate, haha ;) )
anyway, it worked...he took us seriously...so just a thought. :)
You are all in my prayers!
I believe we were told 20-24 oz of fluid a day. Don't stress over these numbers. Most Gerber 2nd foods are 90% water, so you get a lot of fluids from the baby food. So, if she eats even 4 oz of Gerber 2nd foods per meal (3xday), she's getting around 12 oz of fluid without counting the formula. We give K&C 16 oz of formula a day. The rest comes from baby food and water flushes via the G-tube with meds.
Hey miss jodi :)
Ive wanted to respond to your last email, but I havent had the time yet..you know my emails are always short.. :) so...hopefully I'll get one in tonight :) Just dont get too stressed over the bottle thing.. Nathan is 16 months too... and he hasnt took a bottle since 10months old..he just started pushing it away, and rejecting it....he got most of his liquid through his foods... if they put ALL babies under a microscope like they do micro-preemies when they go to a dr. appt. Im sure they would be on ALL moms to get their kids to eat and drink differently. I KNOW her circimstances are totally different..but you are the mom...and you know her much better than the doctors... maybe its bye bye bottle time... she will let you know....:) ttyl
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