My sweet girlThere are some days when hardly a bite of food is swallowed. (Not with me, I unfortunately eat just fine.) Olivia either won't put food in her mouth or if she does, she chews it up and spits it out. Today was one of those days. I don't know if it has to do with her reflux or her prematurity or a lack of hunger or if it's behavioral. She can swallow food, but sometimes it's as if she really doesn't want to. Does anyone else experience these types of eating difficulties? I am feeling so frazzled. I'd love to hear from you.
+copy.jpg)
7 comments:
Firstly - love the blog look! I have been keeping up with your blog for a long time and love hearing how Olivia is doing :) Secondly - is she on any meds for reflux? We have an infant who was on Prevacid Solutabs, and they were causing loss of appetite (apparently not uncommon), so just thought I'd ask :)
She is on Prilosec. . .never thought about loss of appetite. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. :)
My sister was actually a week late poor mom :)
That child never ate. She did the same thing-would chew and chew and spit it out. She just did not enjoy eating and still doesn't. She was always on the thin side but grew and developed into a thin, very picky eater.
Have you touched base with other parents of preemies in the March of Dimes community called Share Your Story? http://www.shareyourstory.org/
Wow, that's exactly how Romy is. She goes through phases, for a week or two she'll eat pretty well then all of a sudden not really eat anything beyond a bite or two. Like Olivia, she chews up and spits out food a lot. Currently she's 26 months and just under 19 pounds.
Her doctor put her on Periactin to stimulate her appetite and it works but her body easily adjusts to it and after a few days it no longer has an effect on her. So what we do is give it to her when she's having a sluggish few days, just so she doesn't lose weight.
I took her to a feeding clinic a while ago and after a few swallow studies they deemed her ability to swallow normal. They think her eating (or lack of) is a mixture of behavioral and some oral sensitivity issues. You know how a lot of preemies have those types of issues? I wouldn't be surprised if Olivia is experiencing these as well. From what they told me, kids like this tend to outgrow these sensitivities by the age of 4 or 5.
I have also noticed that Romy sticks to certain foods and will rarely branch out into other flavors and textures. Her diet consists mostly of crackers, cheese, chicken fingers, fries and banana's. Have you tried making smoothies for Olivia? Romy will drink them every now and then. We use berries, banana's, even spinach blended with milk or cream, ice and some honey. We also give her at least 1 can of Pediasure a day. It's 30 calories per ounce and has some added nutrients. The only down side is that it's loaded with sugar.
I wish I had more advice to give, but as you can see we're in the same boat. Have Olivia's doctors expressed concern?
I'd vote for it being sensory rather than behavioral. The sensory processing stuff is so hard to wrap your (and my) head around, especially since it's not consistent but fluctuates from day to day, hour to hour. Some days, Hallie just gets disregulated, and this disregulation might manifest itself differently from occasion to occasion. That, plus appetite fluctuations which are typical of toddlers/preschoolers, can wreak havoc with the diet. I'm trying hard to back off on the bad eating days rather than get distraught about them and to look at the bigger picture (how'd the week go, for example). But it's hard to do, especially when we are so conditioned to concentrate so hard on getting the calories into our kiddos and keep them growing.
Anyway, you might mention this to OT and maybe Olivia's OT can generate some ideas to work on the sensory aspect of eating.
Ryan is exactly the same. Some days he eats great...other days I wonder how he survives because nothing goes in/everything comes back out.
Post a Comment