Today we went to feeding therapy, which is done, of course, by the speech therapist, she just focuses on oral motor skills. I drove this time and right when we got into the waiting room, Whitney vomited! It wasn't much but it splattered everywhere!
Luckily we were late so there was no one else in the room! She didn't even give us any warning at all! My mom was holding her so it got all over her left sleeve. This was about 3 hours after her meal this morning (which she also threw up).
So after we got that all cleaned up we went in for the last 25 mins of therapy. Whitney did terrific! She opened her mouth wide for the vibrating brush to rub her checks and gums and tongue. Then we reward her with bubbles. And massage her mouth again and reward with bubbles. Whitney hated this activity at first but is getting much better at it. She didn't even gag!! She put a wet spoon in her own mouth today.
I just need to make sure I do this with her at home once or twice a day. I'm also going to try to start giving her more food to taste and hold during meals and through out the day. Normally she doesn't want anything to do with the food but I will keep trying.
I really don't think she is ready to skip a whole tube feeding while I offer her different foods to eat. She only gets about 5oz every 4 hours. So that would be like eating breakfast at 7am, lunch at 11am, then skipping the 3pm feed, and eating again at 7 and 11pm. Maybe if I fed her an oz more two of those times? I might try it this month. I don't want her to lose weight. We did not get her weight check done today but will next week.
Whitney doesn't really have the skills to eat solids which is pretty much the only thing stopping me from offering her certain foods. Plus, of course, she'll hardly eat them any way. But the other day she did eat some Ramen soup with a spoon! Then she gaged on the last little piece and threw it all up.
Whitney's friend Carsten is coming over soon so maybe they can have a lunch together!
I haven't given her the prevacid and bethanechol meds for a couple days...maybe she needs them again.
Just my idea, but maybe try giving her just a couple of ounces like you said at the afternoon meal and see if that encourages her to eat some snacks? Poor girl, so much puke is no fun, for mommy, grandma or baby :( Do you guys carry extra shirts with you for yourselves? You should;)
ReplyDelete