Posted by Linda on 2/23/2009, 11:01 am, in reply to "GI vs speech therapy"
65.23.55.130
My son had been tube fed until he was a year and half. He had absolutely no interest in oral feeding and became very defensive at anything coming at his mouth so we were getting nowhere fast. I finally decided that I had to play hard ball with him so with a close watchful eye of our nutritionist we cut is intake from 30oz of formula per day to 15oz of formula plus 15oz of water so that he wouldn't be too full and wouldn't get dehydrated. It took about 2 weeks of this until he finally started to pay attention to his hunger and then he began to slowly start accepting food orally. During this time I also realized that we were overfeeding him he simply did not have the capacity to take even a full 6oz at a feeding at over a year of age. It was a slow PAINFUL process but it eventually did the trick. He was off the tube after 3 mos! Don't worry, you'll figure out what works for your son. Good Luck.
--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
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