Rhys is one half ounce short of 14 pounds. Oh so close!! He has been eating mostly well the last few days, but Cody and I haven't really been stressing it when he doesn't. Of course I'd prefer he ate like a champ all the time, but that is not our reality.
We are still making his milk recipe, which consists of breast milk/formula (I finally quit pumping woohoo, and we are half way through our 2 month+ of frozen supply), Simply Thick, cereal and a tiny bit of either bananas or pears to make it a little sweet (he hates the cereal). As you can imagine this makes the milk pretty thick, so Rhys requires the Y-cut nipple with the hole "enlarged". As a result he has gotten lazy and does more of a licking action to get the milk instead of actual sucking like he used to. We've been aware of this and have known that is what he was doing, but the alternative was that he wouldn't eat enough so we did what we had to do.
Today I decided to see how he would handle plain milk with no thickener. I used a fresh out of the package Y-cut nipple, knowing that he wasn't going to suck properly so I wasn't concerned about it overwhelming him. He actually did great with the milk itself, and showed no signs of hating it like he did when we first brought him home, except that he is lazy and used to not having to truly suck to get his food so he didn't really eat that much. My concern with keeping his milk thickened and using a nipple with a super large hole if he doesn't need it is that he might have problems using a sippy cup and straw later on since he isn't used to sucking. I am very encouraged that he seems to be able to handle the regular milk though. Now I just need to figure out how to make him practice actually having to suck and at the same time keep him eating enough without confusing him. I am unsure if it would be better to just switch it all over knowing he'll eventually start sucking, or let him "practice" once a day or so and gradually switch him over. I have talked to ST several times about his being lazy, but never brought up the potential transition to sippy cup/straw. I guess in the whole scheme of things it isn't that big of a deal and he'll get it when he gets it.
We have PT again tomorrow. We missed last week because my allergies were giving me fits. He still hasn't rolled completely over from back to tummy, but he gets better by the day. He certainly has mastered rolling to his side when trying to escape having his diaper changed. I think he just likes to be naked. He is getting stronger in his torso as well and is able to better sit support himself when sitting. He still can't sit unassisted, though he would do much better if he'd quit squirming so much. We'll see what his PT has to say!
We are still making his milk recipe, which consists of breast milk/formula (I finally quit pumping woohoo, and we are half way through our 2 month+ of frozen supply), Simply Thick, cereal and a tiny bit of either bananas or pears to make it a little sweet (he hates the cereal). As you can imagine this makes the milk pretty thick, so Rhys requires the Y-cut nipple with the hole "enlarged". As a result he has gotten lazy and does more of a licking action to get the milk instead of actual sucking like he used to. We've been aware of this and have known that is what he was doing, but the alternative was that he wouldn't eat enough so we did what we had to do.
Today I decided to see how he would handle plain milk with no thickener. I used a fresh out of the package Y-cut nipple, knowing that he wasn't going to suck properly so I wasn't concerned about it overwhelming him. He actually did great with the milk itself, and showed no signs of hating it like he did when we first brought him home, except that he is lazy and used to not having to truly suck to get his food so he didn't really eat that much. My concern with keeping his milk thickened and using a nipple with a super large hole if he doesn't need it is that he might have problems using a sippy cup and straw later on since he isn't used to sucking. I am very encouraged that he seems to be able to handle the regular milk though. Now I just need to figure out how to make him practice actually having to suck and at the same time keep him eating enough without confusing him. I am unsure if it would be better to just switch it all over knowing he'll eventually start sucking, or let him "practice" once a day or so and gradually switch him over. I have talked to ST several times about his being lazy, but never brought up the potential transition to sippy cup/straw. I guess in the whole scheme of things it isn't that big of a deal and he'll get it when he gets it.
We have PT again tomorrow. We missed last week because my allergies were giving me fits. He still hasn't rolled completely over from back to tummy, but he gets better by the day. He certainly has mastered rolling to his side when trying to escape having his diaper changed. I think he just likes to be naked. He is getting stronger in his torso as well and is able to better sit support himself when sitting. He still can't sit unassisted, though he would do much better if he'd quit squirming so much. We'll see what his PT has to say!
1 comment:
Just to encourage you not to worry too much about the sucking: my daughter Enya had a horribly weak suck, the NG tube was discharged two days before she was released from the NICU and the only way we got enough milk down her was by squeezing the teat to express the milk. She landed up on thickened formula with the extra big hole in the teat and even then we had to "express" the formula.
I thought she would never learn to suck, you could say I gave up!
Suddenly at 14 months (11 months actual) she started to suck. Now at 20 months she is on normal cows milk which she drinks from a bottle, sucking like a champ (I'm happy for her to stay on a bottle until she is 2 years adjusted so I'm not pushing this). She drinks well from a sippy and is transitioning on to a normal glass for mealtimes.
ps congrats on 14 pounds!
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