Day One

Oral Feeding.
It's time to get this little girl eating.  We took a break from feeding issues for a whole month.  It's been really good for her.  She seems more interested in tastes than before.

I grabbed the NUK/Gerber Healthy Start Training Toothbrush Set

at my local grocery store. Seraph loves them! She chomps away both near her front teeth and near her molars. She likes them even when I dip or spray them with food. Amazing!

She also let me blast her with this sour candy:

Quick Blast Sour Candy Spray - Kidsmania

It just squirts out a tiny bit of the candy when you press the black piece on top. Last time I tried something like this, she'd gag and drool it all out. It helps that her siblings are so excited to try it, too.

I also got miniature marshmallows and threw them up in the air so they'd fall like rain. Seraph thought this was hilarious. I didn't expect her to eat any. But, a few minutes later I saw one in her mouth. She tried it out for a while and then pushed it out of her mouth with her tongue. She really hates anything sweet so this was a huge step for her. 

Goals for August:

1. She will tolerate 5 different flavors 
2. She will put things in her mouth even if they taste like food. 
3. She will sit at the kids' table for at least 5 minutes while we're eating lunch and dinner. 

We're still brushing and flossing her teeth every night. This helps her oral aversions a TON. She LOVES brushing now (used to really hate it, though).

We'll be doing lots of oral play with the toothbrush training set and anything else I can get her to chomp on. (like the rubber ducks. we have about 30 rubber ducks. It started as a collection from doctor's office visits, but now we buy them, too. I don't allow the kids to play with them in the water because I don't want them to get all gross inside.)

We'll also be giving her new tastes of food as often as possible. Hopefully we'll find a flavor that she likes enough to tolerate two tastes of it in a row.

Wish us luck!

Meatloaf, please!

We started a new thing for dinner last week.  7 people in my family...so each person gets a night to be in charge of dinner.  (Mommy is their helper!) It's been crazy fun. The kids love measuring, stirring, and especially picking what to have. I get to kick everyone out of the kitchen save the ONE person in charge of dinner.

Tonight Delightful Finch is making meatloaf. We had it last week, and the kids loved it so much they wanted to have it again.  Beautiful Rabbit declared it the week of yummy dinners every night.  and Strong Bear said I'm the best mom he's ever known. (which, of course, is totally true!)
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Finch [kneeling in front of the oven staring at the meatloaf]: I did a great job, Mom!

Peace

Seraph didn't scream during every second of dinner tonight.  She didn't scream at all.  Not even when I shoved beans and stars in her mouth.  She took it out straight away and played with it!
Her new speech therapist missed our last two appointments.  But, she's assured me that she's coming this week - we have a standing appointment.  To be fair, the first miss was because she was sick...and the second was because she was snowed in!
Excited to see how Seraph acts around the therapist this week.
She's been sneaking sips from her cup instead of dumping all of it on the floor lately. Yay!

Melts in your Mouth

Seraph is still fed via her gtube....and we're in the process of teaching her how to eat.

Twice a day (it's supposed to be every meal but that never happens), I strap Seraph into her chair and shove three bites of food into her mouth.  Breakfast is apple-cinnamon stars!  They melt in your mouth so I just grind them into her teeth a bit.  The cinnamon is pretty potent for baby food.  Her taste buds are fully in now but she's not used to tasting anything.....so we're working on getting used to tastes.  She HATES it!

I leave a sippy cup in reach.  (Filled with water, but I sometimes add some juice to the water)

The food does NOT go over well. Ever.  But....she often grabs the sippy cup to help get rid of the flavors in her mouth.

When it's over, I have to wait til she's not crying before I can get her down.  I usually hand her the sippy cup or put it down low where she can grab it.  Sometimes I spy her sipping from it later.  Yay!

Today I scooped up Angel and fed her the same way right along-side Seraph.  She was a good helper!  She helped me blow Kix around the table, too.  (Seraph gets a big kick out of blowing the tiny Kix balls across the table...it helps distract her so we can take bites of food more often.)

It's incredibly important to Angel to show everyone that she can do anything her siblings can do -- even her lil sister ;)   So, she LOVES being treated like Seraph....even if it means eating baby food.

*Gulp*

Our heart baby hates food.  The doctors didn't prepare us for that.  She hates touching food.  Sometimes she'll tolerate smelling it.  New textures are icky!  (and all textures are new.  Her favorite texture is the thin, smooth oxygen cord...or any cord, really.) We feed her through a G-tube for now. She loves spoons and cups, but won't touch food.

Seraph loves her new mobility, but still hates eating.  Today we played a game where I put Scooby Snacks (the graham cracker kind) in her hand and then she puts it into my mouth.  I don't think she knew it was food.  She loved the game!  She even put the Snack in her mouth a few times!  Mmmmm, cinnamon! 

After, I thought she might want some water.  So, I cradled her and gave her drops of water from a tiny bottle.  On a whim, I sucked on the bottle loudly to show her.  Then put the bottle to her mouth.  She sucked out water!  No, you don't understand....all babies know how to eat but she just doesn't.  She hasn't sucked on a bottle since before her 2nd heart surgery--at 4 months of age!

We played with the water a bit, and then I switched it out for some (vanilla flavored) formula.  Success!  She drank 4ml of formula, and then another 3ml of formula.  Yay!!  She passed her swallow study months ago, but it never mattered as she wouldn't let anything in her mouth.  (Except the barium.  Boy does she love the taste of barium.  Think bitter.)

It's been so long since we had any progress in the food department.  I'm sooooo excited for her speech therapist's visit (Thursday).

She finally explored far enough across the kitchen to find the toy cupboard!  I've been wondering how long it would take her to find it.  In the past, she's avoided the kitchen because she likes the feel of the carpet much more than the tile.  I think the toys will win out from now on.  It happened after the other kids were in bed.  They're going to be happy for her, too.

Good job, lil girlie :)

Time to Eat

We got new spoons for the girls. Seraph started opening her mouth when the spoon with food approaches. Wide. Wide enough for food to enter her mouth. Willingly. I know how it sounds, but she has soooo many oral aversions. Sometimes simple things are the most amazing.

After the food was gone, Seraph shared her bowl with Angel. Angel (copying mommy) pretended to feed Seraph food from the bowl....and Seraph let her!

Gastrostomy Tube (G Tube)

While she's learning to eat, Seraph will still be fed through a tube.  Instead of an NJ tube (which goes through her nose), she'll have a G tube which goes right into her stomach.

They'll put this in while they're doing the Nissan.

After she learns to eat, they'll take it out and it'll quickly heal up. (Time wise, it'll depend on her...but I expect it'll take years to catch up on swallowing, etc)

Because it will be under her onsies, Angel won't be able to pull it out!  So, Angel and Seraph will be able to play together all the time :) 

She'll still be on oxygen, but we're very excited to get the food tube out of her nose.  Her gag reflex will calm down.  We won't have tape her face up so much.  We won't have so many late night visits to the hospital to get the tube replaced.

At first, she'll still be on continuous feeds.  But in a few months, we'll be able to switch her to eating every 3-4 hours during the day. She'll have more freedom.....which is good because she's getting closer to sitting up....and crawling won't be that far behind.