Posted by Angela
on 2/22/2009, 2:29 pm, in reply to "GI vs speech therapy"
173.54.57.225
Katie, I know where you are coming from. Kate had a tube in her nose before I even held her as a newborn. Initially they told us if she could eat from a bottle, she could come home. She was working towards it, and I feel like she would have done it but her airway got in the way big time. She was trached at 7 weeks old, came home at 11 weeks and still had an n/g tube. I was adamant at the beginning that she wouldn't be tube fed for long. I knew, somehow I just FELT it, that the longer it went on, the harder it would be to wean her. We always fed her orally, always made her try even if she didnt want to. I feel like longterm, it helped her even though it was a constant struggle. She never took more than a few oz from a bottle. (The most was 4-4.5oz but that was later at about 14 mos old). I have strong opinions on this, and in hindsight, I feel like we could have weaned her much sooner if not for 16hrs a day nursing being forced to follow doc's orders. The thing I learned was that the doctors couldn't care less how she ate, s long as she gained and that's because she wasn't their child. They have no clue how defeating it is to not be able to orally feed your baby. They just see numbers on a chart. I fought and fought to get her weaned and it didn't happen successfully until she was almost 2.
If I were you, I'd get your son's pediatrician on your side. That's a lot of food he's getting and you could easily keep him on the higher calorie concentration and wean his night feedings. If he loses weight, bump up his calorie concentration to 27cal/oz or 30cal/oz. That's what we did. Before weaning she was on regular 22cal Enfamil. During the process we bumped her to 30cal and eventually moved to Pediasure and other supplements to add calories, not volume. There's a lot you can do and I'd be happy to chat offline about it with you. You can email me at: faywrayy@yahoo.com
--Previous Message--
: Hey everyone!
: Wanted to see if any of you had the same
: issues dealing with speech and GI clinic
: with tube feedings. My son is 6 mos and
: still almost strictly g tube fed. i know
: complete transition to oral feeds takes some
: time but im getting kind of nervous, bc
: since birth its actually gotten worse. He
: used to take 1-2 ounces via haberman and the
: rest tube but now hes only getting
: "tastes" of baby food and just
: plays with the bottle. Speech thinks he is
: not sensing hunger bc he eats every 3, but
: the pump runs about 45 min so really hes
: getting food every 2.25 hr. So i guess that
: means he doesnt associate food with filling
: up?
:
: So then comes the problem with GI and the
: dietician. He gets 24 cal 3.5 oz every 3 and
: they dont want him to wait til 4-5hrs. Plus
: he still eating (gtube only) twice in the
: night! I begged to cut out the third about 6
: weeks ago and they did give in. They said
: they will do a weight check soon and then
: decide whats best. I believe hes at a
: healthy weight (17, almost too healthy),
: although he did lose for a while in his
: early weeks. I want whats best for him
: nutrionally but i think oral motor skills
: are very important and hes just not getting
: it!!! any suggestions/experiences/advice
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
Message Thread:
« Back to thread