We are still alive over here! Sorry I haven't posted an update in weeks! We are in the middle of moving and remodeling some of our new home so things have been hectic to say the least! But I made it a point to post today as Abby is officially 14 months old today and are you ready for her stats!? She is 17 lbs 13 ounces, 28 inches... which means, she has GAINED over 2 pounds in 2 months and has grown 2 inches!!! Isn't it amazing how food really affects the body so much and so quickly!
Abby overall is doing great, she's growing into a feisty little one and definitely knows what she wants! We love her laughs, giggles, kisses and yes chubby squishy legs and arms and cheeks are coming in!!!! :D
Allyne came to work with us again August 6-8 and we were able to up Abby's daily purees to 1 and 3/4 oz which is a 1/4 oz increase. It's not much but with Abby's volume intolerance we have to go extremely slow or that food will just be thrown right back out, and I HATE when that happens, I feel so helpless :(. Allyne would also like Abby to begin to have more savory "tastes" during the day, so we are to give her 3 savory bites before each meal (like chicken noodle soup broth, or refried beans, etc etc) - to be honest (Allyne I hope you don't read this! haha jk) this has been a bit touch and go on consistency because we have barely been home and it's been really difficult to implement this into each meal, I need to do better!
With the current types of foods Abby is eating (fruit purees), she is at about a 6 month old's level eating wise, so our goal is to get more savory foods/veggies in, and then slowly add in meats! Meats will be a tough one as they are harder and longer to digest so that may be a factor in that small tummy of hers. We'll see!
Pretty much a few days after Allyne left this month, Abby started to regress in some of her eating behaviors - she has been twisting her tongue so that the spoon and food ends up under her tongue, or expelling (spitting it out), gagging a lot and just being a lot more difficult to feed/distract! So Allyne is having us make sure her purees are nice and thin and that we make sure to not offer her the bite until her tongue is in a frontal flat position to accept it. She is getting better but she still is gagging once or twice per meal, I don't know why??? But besides that, we are really happy and thankful for all the progress Abby has made!!
Hopefully I can post another update within a month, but don't be mad if I don't, theres so much to do with the new house, and work, and oh take care of a little bambina who likes to pull on mommys leg all day, then when mommy gives her attention she runs away and plays! hahaha love her to pieces!
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| Her new swing at the new house! |
Yay Abby! I saw a pic of her the other day and thought she looked bigger, so glad she really is!
ReplyDeleteConsistency is HARD when things are busy (and when they're not). I always tell myself to just do it, but it still doesn't always happen. What you are doing is obviously helping! Hang in there mama! Great work!!
Abby sounds a lot like my 2 1/2 year old son - also had severe reflux and oral aversion, though he aspirated so needed the feeding tube at 5 months and was exclusively tube fed until 10 months when we began the loooong and sloooow journey of teaching him to eat. Though he still struggles with textures (I purée everything for him and he eats a lot of yogurt, oatmeal, and fruit squeezes), he is now eating and drinking 100% on his own and making progress along his own path on the growth chart (less than 1%ile). I totally get what you're saying about being willing to offer Anything to your child if they'd eat it! I would be thrilled to serve French fries! Ha. What's worked well for us is keeping mealtimes fun- singing, dancing, games, and now YouTube videos. Anything to distract him and squeeze down a few more bites. And I choose educational fun videos so he's actually learned a lot - colors, shapes, numbers, alphabet! It's just important to make it interactive and not just them staring at a screen alone. Pausing the video until he takes another bite usually works!. We try to have him eat with and watch his friends eat as often as possible. We also let him feed us and have him watch us eat, watch videos of himself eating, friends eating, etc and read books about foods. We have seen feeding therapists and GI drs here in Seattle and are told he will grow out of it, they guess between 3-5 and suddenly he will just be hungry like every other kid and tolerate textures without throwing up. I can't wait for that day! It has been very difficult and hard because so few people can even relate to this struggle, but progress is coming slowly. It sounds like you've found a really good dr and Abby is making some amazing and quick progress. I appreciate your blog! I found it through a person who posted a response to a question I asked on the instagram AskTheMamas feed. It's been a great resource for all sorts of mama issues. Best of luck to you & Abby and your whole family. Sounds like you're headed in a great direction!
ReplyDeletehey Nicole,
ReplyDeleteAbby sounds just like my almost a year old daughter Miraya. We are having CLinic 4 Kids coming over this week. would like to talk to you in detail if you do not mind.
Hi Meghna,
DeleteI'm so sorry I never responded, i didn't even see this comment until today :(. I hope you found the help you needed. If you have any questions, please let me know. I guess I'm not too tech savvy with seeing these comments...looks like I have a bunch that I never saw!