Feeding Update Friday: Week Ten and Eleven

Okay, so the last update was that Greyson was able to move towards table foods for his mealtimes as opposed to all purees.  We've given it a good three week trial period, and we have not liked what we've seen.  While we knew we would be losing some volumes because of the switch, we've seen a pretty steep loss in volumes, even in his one-meal-a-day of yogurt.

When given softer table foods, Greyson is mostly just playing with them.  Sometimes he'll take tiny, tiny bites of something, and sometimes he just flat out refuses.  His breakfast meal of yogurt has been between 1 and 6 ounces, which has varied greatly from his consistent 4-6 ounces before the switch to table foods.

Talking with Greyson's OT and SLT over the past two days, we have come up with a new plan.  We are going to go back to mostly purees, while still presenting him with a few more table food choices.  This way, he will still be getting more consistent volumes while getting more experience with table foods.

I know this is a work in progress, but it can be absolutely exhausting to try to figure it all out.  On a positive note, Greyson is doing well playing with foods.  Today when I was making lunch Greyson was at the table with some slices of colby jack cheese.  I peeked over at him and saw him smiling so big, pointing at his ears with both hands saying, "Mommy!  Cheese, ears!"

  

He had shoved tiny pieces of cheese in both ears, and thought he was the coolest thing ever!  

Feeding Update Friday: Week Five

Greyson continues to amaze (and amaze, and amaze, and amaze...) us.  Shane and I have been battling some kind of bug that made us very achy and exhausted, and Greyson has been slightly congested.  Even battling a small cold, Greyson has continued progressing with his feeding.  We were almost sure that his feeding would suffer when he wasn't feeling well, and so far that has not been the case.  What a champ!

Amazingly, Greyson has not caught what Shane and I both had.  We have some not-so-secret-but-relatively-unknown weapons for keeping Greyson's cold a "small" one, and believe it's the reason he hasn't gotten our bug.  We've been boosting his immune system for about 2 weeks now with vitamins and supplements.  Stay tuned for a post about those...

So despite the yuckiness in the house this week, Greyson's been moving forward with eating.  He's barely showing any poor behaviors right now, and has actually asked for yogurt a few times!  YES, folks, asked to eat.  I know, I know.  Tear.  He has taken a slight slide back with his crunchy food, but we continue to work on it.

When we met with the Children's Institute, they told us not to focus so much on how many different foods he was eating, but to focus on the volume of food he was eating.  You will definitely see a difference in the number of foods he's eating, but you will see huge increases in the volume of food he is eating.

Foods that G has eaten this week:
whole yogurt with honey
juice
chicken noodle soup with butter (pureed)
penguins
vanilla yogurt
hot tea with honey
chicken and dumpling soup with butter (pureed)
pizza

Total Intakes:
Friday:  10.5 ounces and 1/2 penguin cracker
Saturday:  8 ounces, 10 mL
Sunday:  5.5 ounces (we had to skip a meal this day)
Monday:  12 ounces (1.5 ounces of that was hot tea)  (our golden day!)
Tuesday:  11 ounces
Wednesday:  10.5 ounces, 2.5 penguin crackers
Thursday:  11 ounces

The Honeymoon is Over

Greyson's been doing really well at his therapy sessions, despite being a very tired boy.  On Thursday, we moved to trying some diluted apple juice (50/50 water/juice) on a spoon, and he took 2 ounces during one session!  That is a major, major deal.

Friday morning, some diluted applesauce was introduced.  Greyson had a lot of trouble with the texture of it, even though it was heavily diluted.  He sputtered and spit out (or wiped out) the few bites he did accept, but quickly decided he was not going to accept any bites.  He began crying, reaching for me, and calling my name.  It's very hard to see your child obviously upset and wanting/needing you, but being able to do nothing.  That behavior (during mealtime) is something that needs to be ignored, so as to not reinforce it in any way (positively or negatively).  There was also some obvious manipulation, because at one point, he looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and smiled.  That boy.  We always end sessions on a positive note, usually Greyson accepting one more bite, and then lots of praise and he can get down.