Thankful Thursday...How to Feed a baby



Before I tell you what I am so Thankful for today I need to give you some background and tell you all why I have been absent for so long. It was not just having a baby, but what ensued shortly after her birth.  When Ainslie was about 6 weeks old she started refusing to nurse.  I mean for long periods of time.  She would scream with hunger pains.. I would attempt to latch her to my breast..she would latch on suck a few times then yank off screaming.  We repeated this process over and over and over again many times per day.  I went to the pediatrician multiple times and the lactation nurse daily.  She was found to have reflux and some food sensitivities.  We started her on reflux medication and I eliminated milk and soy products from my diet and I began pumping my milk and trying to feed her by bottle which did not go much better. She was still spending most of her time crying and refusing to eat and she was not gaining any weight. 

We finally got in to see a GI doctor when she was about 2 1\2 months old. He gave us the same diagnosis but encouraged us to switch Ainslie to a hypoallergenic baby formula called Neocate.  I was so sad.  This was my last child and only daughter.  I so wanted to breastfeed her successfully.  I love nursing.  I just love it.  The next day I started the Neocate.  I still pumped my milk but was feeding her the formula to see if it made a difference. Ainslie would only take her formula in her sleep but all the screaming stopped and she became the happiest baby when not eating.  However the 3 months of pain with eating she endured caused her to have a severe aversion to eating.  Even with reflux medication, and the hypoallergenic formula shes still hated eating. 

WE struggled every  day to get enough in her. We had to increase the calories in her formula and she would only take her bottle while sleeping and still gagged and choked alot due to reflux. At 6 months we tried baby food with no success. We started feeding therapy with Ainslie at 6 months and are still in feeding therapy at 15 months.  Twice a week we have a wonderful occupational and speech therapist working with us to help Ainslie eat. We also took her to a feeding specialist in Colorado in September. She has made progress but it has been so SLOW!  At 14 1\2 months she eats stage 2 baby food purees which we add healthy oils to and some meltable things like Gerber Puffs, veggie straws, Cheetos puffs etc.  However, here comes my big I AM THANKFUL FOR.....In the last two weeks we have made some huge strides!  She is eating some soft foods she has to chew now WITHOUT GAGGING!  She can do all kinds of soft noodles, rice, thin lunch meat, muffins, beans and soft breads and her favorite french fries. They are small bites and she does not eat alot BUT THIS IS HUGE!  She is also using a fork and spoon and  and loving it!


Loving a French Fry ( don't you just love her dimple?)



If you have never experienced having a child with feeding issues you cannot imagine how hard it is. I truly had no idea. It really encompasses every area of your life.  For over a year now we could not go anywhere without thinking about how we were going to feed Ainslie. She would only drink her bottle in her room while I was rocking her to sleep.  No distractions and no eating in public.  If she got sick she would not eat at all so we have had to shelter her from the church nursery etc. It has been very isolating for me and I experienced some depression over the whole situation( this needs a whole post in itself).  But I see the light at the end of the tunnel now and I am soooo thankful! I love my precious girl and she is worth every sacrifice I have made in the past year.  She is a healthy. happy, thriving toddler!  LIFE IS GOOD!