OT: Week 21, Time Yourself

Averi really didn’t make any progress on the bottle this week, despite my efforts to add strawberry and even chocolate syrup to her milk. She is getting better at eating with a spoon and I feel like she is almost as coordinated as she used to be.

This weekend my mind took a break and I forgot to pack her formula when we went on an overnight trip to our neighbor’s lake house. When we ran out of formula Dan volunteered to run to the store and get some until I explained that her formula requires a prescription and comes in the mail. We simply had to offer her as much baby food as she would take and call it good. She ate a whole jar which hasn’t happened in a long time.

Then I forgot her milk again when we went to church yesterday. We were 2 ½ hours late giving it to her and she was actually acting hungry and fussy. I was really excited to offer her a bottle, in hopes that she would be more motivated to eat. Don’t get your hopes up, it was still a battle.

Today, Frances decided to spoon feed the strawberry milk to Averi because she simply did not want the bottle. Surprisingly she ate it pretty well and we were able to get 2 ounces in her. Why is it that she will eat it from a spoon but not from a bottle?

Frances came up with a new game plan for me, which I really needed. I am just going to spoon feed Averi for 15 minutes at each feed and then write down how much she eats. Depending on if she starts eating more in the same amount of time or not, we will be able to tell if she is getting worn out after a certain amount of time or just reaches a certain amount of full and then decides to stop.

We also tried putting baby food in a sippy lid and she didn’t do any better then with the bottle. It’s frustrating because I know she’s capable of drinking from a bottle after all the consecutive swallows she took at the swallow study, but she just chooses not to be interested. Hopefully timing myself will lead to a more peaceful week.