Photo Friday – OOOHHH!
Will still loves to fully experience his food. He still smells like ketchup. Recently he makes this face right before we give him his food. It comes with the sound OOOHHH OOOHHH!
The illusion of normal is gone
Feb 22 2010 1 Comment
The last few weeks have been very hard. My last few posts have been light and fun, but this one isn’t. I have been struggling with writing this for a couple of weeks, going back and forth about what to say and not say, but I have decided to put it out there. After all this blog is about the good and the hard.
We are struggling. Will is not taking to eating solid foods. He was doing OK for a while, but has gone backward since we returned from our ski trip. He ate great while we were gone, but as soon as we got home he went back to putting food in his mouth chewing it and spitting it out. For about a week the only things he would swallow were cheerios.
Then he started swallowing more for a few days, then started refusing to put things in his mouth all together. It has been getting worse and worse, until last night at dinner and today at lunch where he took about 3 bites. Then he sits in his chair and hums. It is the most grating irritating sound you can imagine and he will do it for minutes on end. No matter what you give him it doesn’t stop.
So I have lost it at least a couple of times (including today at lunch) calling Jim crying if he happens to be at work or just putting Will on the floor and going to a different room. As a mom you aren’t supposed to admit that you loose it, but we all do. I try so hard to keep it together, but when I do loose it I realize that part of what I am feeling is my frustration with my kids not be “normal.”
I have to let go of the idea that my kids will be “normal.” But there is something so comforting when you go to the doctor and they say yep, they are normal or this is a normal step. When it comes to food and eating we have never been normal. At least with Jack it happened early on and was very obvious that he was going to follow his own path.
Will has bounced in and out of normal since he was born and I think that may have been harder. He was breastfeeding great, then the milk protein intolerance showed up. Then reflux and we got both of those under control. Then his refusal in August and we figured out it was his swallow and got figured out. Then he didn’t want to purees off the spoon, we thought he want to pick things up. So I worked with him and found foods that would work. Now he doesn’t want any of it.
The thing that looms for me is that we are supposed to be transitioning him from the bottle as his primary food to solid food right now, in hopes that he is off the bottle by 14 months. There is no way that is going to happen.
I just don’t understand why. Why do my kids have these issues when so many around us don’t have any. We were supposed to have been dealt our hard cards with Jack, but then we found out about Will’s eyes. I had almost come to terms with eyes, but when we have more struggles I feel overwhelmed. I know there are families that have a lot bigger issues and I don’t want to take anything away from them. I don’t know how they handle it so well.
So my illusion of normal is gone. I had thought maybe we would get back there, but I know better now.
Fingers are for feeding
Nov 20 2009 Leave a Comment
This week we had our appointment with Robin Glass, Will’s feeding specialist. We haven’t seen her since early October, so I was interested to get her perspective on how Will was doing with his solids. He is very interested in food, just not really into using the spoon. He will pick up anything that I put on his tray and taste it. Some stays in and some comes out, but he is very enthusiastic about it. With the spoon, he will open his mouth a few times, but not really close around it to remove the food. He does much better when I put food on my finger and put it in his mouth.
Robin confirmed that it is not uncommon (double negative, sorry) for some babies to decide that finger foods are more to their liking and loose the spoon early. Will does much better with foods that are thicker, (not the thin baby food purees) keeping the food in his mouth and moving it around to chew it. We actually tried turning the spoon over and putting it in his mouth and using the handle, which he did much better. I guess he just has to do it his way.
Overall, she was very happy with his progress. We still need to work on his chewing technique and his pincher pick-up, but those will come. He is so enthusiastic and willing to try most anything, his skills just don’t match his will yet. I am going to give him fork-mashed or lightly ground foods, instead of purees and soft finger foods to pick up. Everything will be easy for him to “chew” and get to the size he can swallow.
It is fun to watch him eat. He is a full contact eater, enjoying food every possible way, in his mouth, up his nose, in his hair and ears. He will even work to recycle some off his bib if he runs out of stuff on his tray. I am going to try to find some things for Thanksgiving that he can have, maybe some mashed potatoes without dairy and some pumpkin (without the pie).
At the end Robin said that we don’t need to come back to see her unless we have a question. Great! She is such a wonderful person, it will be sad not to see her, but exciting to get good news from doctors over there.
P.S. I have a freezer full of organic baby food purees, if anyone wants them, please let me know.
Having a hard day
Nov 12 2009 1 Comment
Will is having a hard day. He is cranky, not eating very much and generally unhappy. He fusses and cries if you are holding him or if he is on his own. It makes it really easy for me.
We all have hard days, but those days for a baby are even more difficult because they can’t tell you what is wrong. I know his system is off. He has had loose poops for the last few days. He seems to have a bit more phlegm than normal. Then there are his two front teeth that just will not finish coming through completely. They have been working on it for almost a month now. Finish already!
Or is all of this him going through a development growth spurt. I know babies go through these and they will be really cranky for ~5 days. Then they just go back to normal humor, but they may be doing something new.
He hasn’t been wanting to eat much off the spoon for the last week. He is very interested in picking the things up from his tray. I am not sure if this is because he isn’t feeling great, his teeth bothering him or if he has decided that pureed food just isn’t good enough anymore.
I wish I could figure out how to help him other than just giving him Motrin and trying to find the one thing that will keep him happy for that moment. It sure would be nice if babies could talk. Wouldn’t that make our lives simpler.
This never gets old
Oct 20 2009 1 Comment
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Will is a messy eater. Today was the best day yet. He had spinach for lunch, which ended up all over including in his ear, really in his ear (it required a Q-tip to clean it out.)
For dinner he had beets (first experience with beets and he seemed to like them). I promise those are beets on his face and he hasn’t been in a knife fight. (The photo should probably come with a disclaimer.)
He is a very enthusiastic eater, reaching for the spoon or various items on his tray. We are currently working on his chewing mechanics. He seems to be getting better at it, chewing in his biscuits or pieces of fruit or veggies.
We are also anxiously waiting the arrival of his two front teeth. One has partially broken through. We can see the white of the other one, but it isn’t through yet.
If only it was socially acceptable to look like this when we are all eating. I am sure we would have much more fun.
Feeding is a contact sport
Sep 29 2009 3 Comments
I didn’t realize that feeding a baby was a full contact sport. For the short time I did feed Jack he was generally a pretty clean eater. He did get food on his face, but for the most part he was clean. Will on the other hand is the complete opposite, by the time we are done both he and I are covered.
This is how a typical feeding goes.
- He grabs a the spoon and helps you bring it in his mouth, but now is hands are messy.
- He is still learning to open his mouth big enough for the spoon, so he gets food all around his mouth and sometimes in his nose.
- One of his favorite skills right now is to blow raspberries (or spit), until the last few days more of his food would come back out than stay in, now his chin and bib are covered.
- As I try to get the spoon through the gatekeepers (his hands), I tend to drop some on his tray, which his hands and arms now get in it.
- At some point he will rub his eyes and/or put his hand in his hair.
- In the end his entire face (sometimes head), all the way under his chin and up to his elbows are completely covered with whatever he is eating.
- As for me, I end up with it on my hands and forearms, if I am lucky enough not to have dropped any in my lap.
It is very cute, but I have to be prepared for the mess. I wonder what his means for him as he grows up, will he always be a messy eater? If he is, at least he will have fun while he is eating. The interesting thing is he tends to be drawn to veggies, carrots and peas have been his favorites, so far.
I think the key for us is to wear the color of the food he is eating. At least it is fall now and earth tones are in.
Follow-up GI appointment
Sep 05 2009 1 Comment
Yesterday Will had his GI follow-up appointment with Dr. Burpee at Seattle Children’s. The test results for the pH probe, Upper GI and Endoscopy were all normal. He had 31 episodes of reflux detected by the pH probe during the 24 hour period. One of them lasted a minute, but none longer than that. His Upper GI should normal anatomy, with no twists or other issues. The biopsies from the Endoscopy were all normal, except one in his stomach which showed minor irritation. Dr. Burpee said that about 40% of the time they get one of those results and it was nothing to worry about.
Since we started thickening Will’s formula he has been eating better. He is still not back up where he was, but now he is eating around 24 oz per day. He is much happier during the feedings and eats smoother usually. (Fingers crossed I am not jinxing anything by actually writing this down). We are trying a few solids too, but so far he is slow to take to it.
Dr. Burpee wanted us to decrease his medicines, but we aren’t ready for that yet. Things are leveling out for us after our eventful summer and it is nice to have things working again. We agreed that when we were comfortable that we would first stop the Zantac and then later decrease the Prevacid. We are going to go see him again in 3 months. He is a very nice doctor and reasonable about us not wanting to monkey with anything right now.
So fingers crossed we keep his feedings going fine and can working on introducing some solids in the next month or so. I can’t wait to see blueberries all over those cheeks.
