Little A is 10 1/2 months old already! Where has the time gone? He has come so incredibly far in these months. Little A does his own variation of crawling because now that he realizes he can stand up and take steps he doesn't want to stay on his knees. He cruises around the ottoman and takes steps with his baby walker. Little A makes sounds and giggles. He has found his hearing aids and thinks pulling them down is a fun game (I can tell you it's not fun, but the audiologist laughed and said good luck for another year - it's just what they do). Little A has finally gotten teeth! Currently we can see the two front bottom teeth, but we think the top two are on their way. He often holds his own bottles while drinking and lounging on the couch as only a couple of ounces of milk run through his tube. Little A loves to eat yogurt, baby oatmeal and any of the Gerber purees as long as they have a sweet taste. He loves to eat bananas in a mesh teether-feeder, so we don’t have to worry about him swallowing too big of a bite (we hope to brave letting him try a whole banana piece soon). Little A has started eating Gerber puffs and has even surprised us by picking it up off the tray himself and bringing it to his mouth. We are just so happy and proud of this little boy!
On Thursday, March 28th, Little A, both grandmas and I went to two appointments in the city. The first was with a nutritionist who was semi-helpful. We thought that a swallow therapist who set up the appointment with the nutritionist for us (after seeing her in January) had passed along information. We were wrong as when she came into the room she asked us what brought us to her. Basically, we started from the beginning of Little A’s feeding story and ended with we really hope to get him off his tube this summer. So we left that appointment with just the idea to see how it goes with feeding him 7.5oz of milk every four hours and continue our three meals of solids a day in between. Nothing that we couldn’t have figured out on our own or with the help of our local, amazing pediatrician. My mom (Grandma JoJo) and I decided we will give LIttle A a few weeks on this new schedule to help him better understand his own hunger cues before experimenting on our own. I can tell you though our future idea is to be brave and let go of this schedule. We will make 30 oz of formula in our Dr. Brown’s pitcher and just make sure it is gone by the end of the day by reading Little A’s cues and just offering him the bottle. He has already shown in smaller opportunities--like when we are out shopping--that he can drink a whole bottle at his own leisure. We will also discuss more of the milk/solids ratio with the pediatrician in May at his 12 month appointment. The second appointment of the day was with a swallow therapist. She was so happy with how he drank his bottle as well as how well he ate the puree mixed with baby cereal. We also showed her how Little A eats the Gerber puffs and she was pleased for the most part with how he moves it around his mouth so it melts down enough to swallow. She told us we could even try veggie sticks since they also melt. Little A does need to strengthen his chewing a bit, so of course she gave us a tool to help set us up for success. It is called a chewy stick - they come in different resistances (we got yellow the easiest and red which is a level up). We dip it in his food or crunch the puffs and put the crumbs on it. Then we put it on the side of his mouth and he chews on it (alternating sides to help strengthen both). Little A likes to chew on it--teething probably helps with this aspect. We will make another appointment with the swallow therapist either in May or over the summer to hopefully determine that Little A is ready to have his feeding tube removed. It literally brings happy tears to my eyes to think about how this little boy went from only getting a taste of milk off of a pacifier to drinking whole bottles (at times) within a year. He is already one amazing dude! I hope this shows other parents who are in similar situations to have hope, set a reasonable goal and practice with your child as much as you can (don’t only rely on the therapists or specialists, but do the homework). When you believe in your child, there is no limiting what they can accomplish!
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| Little A lounging on the couch while drinking his bottle and his tube is running |
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| mesh teether-feeder (makers: munchkin) |
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| chewy sticks |
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