who here has ever had a prem baby? anyone? how did the feeding go?Harlow and the feeding genie have a passing acquaintance at best. as previously noted, he was doing okay, he had the tube out and was holding his own for 13 days. then we had the vomiting bug thing and that was the last time he fed properly. 23rd of august. its october now. and there is no end to this non-feeding nightmare tunnel.
admittedly, with him still getting over his bronchitis, his feeding will not be up to scratch, but he has learned to push the bottle out with his tongue and jam his mouth shut. if you replace the bottle with a dummy, everything is all smiles, replace the dummy with the bottle, he shows you his demon horns...
so, if anyone knows how we can get that little man feeding, we would really like to hear from you.
note: if anyone has a spare 30k, we would really like to send Harlow here : the Graz Clinic in austria. not only will this clinic get Harlow off of his tube, it will also be full of austrian girls... >:]
I hope your little man starts feeding soon. Poor little guy.
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteAs you know, my younger son was born ten weeks early, six weeks NICU, breathing monitor at home for months...(you know). He was on a nasogastric but kept pulling it out even at 30 weeks. They (the NICU) used gavage by mouth and it worked until he was able to use a bottle (about 36 weeks), The vomiting was the challenge. It appeared and felt that he would throw up EVERYTHING after EVERY meal (I wore bath towels to feed), but he gained weight and never lost his appetite. This went on for nearly an entire year (on a side note, we had RSV shots administered and later that winter he went back to the NICU in Gillette, Wyoming for bronchitis as well). The NICU he was born at is Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. Truly a miracle as it was rated as one of the best in the country (one of the top two in the Chicago area). I don't know how much help this is. I fully empathize. If you need more details, let me know.
We had problems with Adam when we born too. As he had a cleft soft pallette. He was born in Australia and after several weeks of desperation we saw a specialist called Robin Barker. She gave us lots of advice but the best was to get hold of the oldest teets you can, the ones our parents used. We did this and Adam instantly started feeding (with the cleft he had no suction, but the fast flow teets just drowned him). Ps I might be able to assist with flights that A merican Ai rlines use ~ Gareth (@shotbyrobins)
ReplyDeleteWe had a 10 week prem and he had real issues with oral aversion due to feeding tubes. He gave up the bottle numerous times and each time I had to find a new way to feed him. We found something called the chu chu teet really good. Basically when he went on one of his no feeds stages I would just keep trying things (from syringing milk into this mouth, straws, cups etc) until I could get some fluid into him. Basically it seemed that it would be just at the point where I was about to give up we would turn a corner and he would be off feeding again.
ReplyDeleteSolids was the same battle, he would choke with texture and it was pretty difficult. Up until 16 months I could only get him to eat purred apple and youghurt. He has just turned two, he eats and drinks enough to get by but I dont think he will ever be a huge eater. It is not an easy road. I remember to talking to the plunket nurse and she told me "I just needed to try harder" Ahh, bless her.
Charlotte thinks her bottle is a chew toy. And then she gags. And turns purple. It's awesome. And by awesome, I mean, drives me crazy. Good luck! And if I had 30,000 I would totally send Harlow. For real.
ReplyDeleteMy little man didn't stay around long enough for feeding - wish I could help some how with yours
ReplyDelete