At Scarlette’s last GI appointment, Dr. M thought she had made enough progress to try rice cereal for the first time! And to skip putting it in her bottle and go right to a spoon. They set us up with a feeding therapist because she has a very high risk of choking. Scarlette, not the therapist.
The last picture is of her very first bite! After some discussion it was decided that I would watch her first feeding. Because she had so many tubes in her throat for so long, she has grooves in the roof of her mouth. And because she was tube fed for so long, she tends to gag and choke. Oftentimes a baby will refuse food after experiencing that while eating so there are special techniques for feeding those babies. It was important for me to learn them before feeding her and inadvertently causing her to have bad associations with food.
It’s one of those bittersweet moments about parenting a preemie. All of your firsts are different. I know how to feed a baby. But I didn’t know how to feed my baby. And the best thing for her was to let the therapist give her her first bite. I admit, I felt a bit sad about it. Until I SAW her take her first bite and then I cried not because I was sad, but because the digestive issues have been so hard for her and now MY BABY CAN EAT!
I am still getting comfortable with the feedings but she is a big fan, as evidenced in the above photos. We put her in the high chair and realized that it wasn’t going to be very easy to feed her in it because she is so small. She is almost nine months old but she weighs eleven pounds and is about the size of a one month old so she isn’t a great fit. She looks so tiny in it!
The current feeding plan is to continue with rice cereal until she is one, when we will attempt to introduce pureed fruits and vegetables. Which I plan on making myself so hit me up with tips on that, y’all!
(p.s. the Yoshi blanket was sent to her from our friends at Nintendo. It’s so cute! I don’t know if you can order them but I will find out for those that asked!)
