OT: Week 22, Consecutive Swallows

This week has been SO much better!  Although I won’t be completely sane until the G-Tube is gone, only feeding for 15 minutes at a time has been a big improvement.  I find myself feeding her more often because I know it’s not going to take up a whole hour of my day.  It’s been like night and day from last weeks frustrations!

Keeping track of what she’s eating has also been eye-opening.  She can put down a whole jar of baby food in one 15 minute session, depending on what it is of course.  I have also been writing down her calorie intake and proven to myself that she is taking about half of her nutrition orally.  So, I will continue to ignore GI and reduce the amount of formula she is getting.

Frances said Averi is getting old enough that we should be able to start introducing more solid foods.  She opened up a container of cooked apples and offered some chopped up pieces to Averi.  She did alright with the first few but then she started gagging on them so Frances tried mixing them with applesauce.  By then Averi was turned off and didn’t want to eat anything.

So we moved on to the bottle.  I didn’t offer a bottle to her all week so she had a nice break.  Apparently she liked it because she did awesome!  She started taking 2-3 consecutive swallows before breaking suction to regain composure.  She never does that.  She did so well that Frances gave her more and she took 2 ounces in just 15 minutes.

I don’t know what has changed but she is doing so much better.  I’m trying not to get my hopes up. :)