Well friends although Ella is doing very well, we have just discovered we may have a new hurdle to jump with her eating. She does well with milk and stage 1 or 2 baby food, but she has a STRONG oral aversion to anything with texture. At first I just thought she didn't like fruit puffs, so after some friends suggested Cheetos and her pediatrician suggested the same we gave that a try still the same reaction gaging/vomiting. Of course being on a ventilator 3 times we knew this may be a problem with her eating, but since she had been doing so well we felt like we may have dodged that bullet. So this seems as though it may be a long road and we may consider speech therapy (they work with helping babies with oral aversion) but in the mean time I ask that you be lifting her up in prayer as she endures such sever anxiety. I also ask that you pray for wisdom for Jon and I as we enter this new journey with our heart baby. We know this life will be full of new hurdles and we can't even express how comforting it is to know so many of you are lifting Ella and us up in prayer! Also on a side note Ella and I have caught a mild stomach bug :( Not sure if it really is mild or if it's about to hit hard, we are praying for the first! This is Ella's first time to be "sick" and although so far it isn't hardly bad enough to mention, it is scary. Mostly because we see the results of us starting to let the outside world in or rather us venturing out into the outside world, and well quite frankly it's hard!!! On another side note, Ella has gotten so much more mobile lately, meaning she is rolling all over the place, she also is starting to repeat the sign language for "all done", and she waves bye bye!... and... SHE SAYS "MOMMA"!!! I had to wait 8 months, but it was worth it :) Anyway that's it for tonight, thank you all so much for praying... these requests may seem small to some, but they are so important to us!
P.S.
As I'm typing this I can hear our little sunshine over the monitor, she is in her crib making the sweetest sounds! Just thought you'd like to know! :)
Oh, poor baby! ;(
ReplyDeleteOur son, Jacob, had that. We consulted a speech therapist, and she told us to get a soft toothbrush and go all over his mouth with it. She told us to go over his gums, tongue, and the inside of his cheeks to "wake up" his mouth. We did that a couple times a day. It is a little bit of a slow process but it does work.
ReplyDeleteYou can email me if you have any questions
colearmy@yahoo.com
Hope this helps! Hope you and Ella get better soon!
Cindy
Bless her heart. Praying for all good things for your precious girl.
ReplyDeletePoor baby girl. I really hope therapy can help her work through this.
ReplyDeleteAlways praying-always glad to know how to pray better. Love to all of you from, Aunt Jen
ReplyDeletePraying
ReplyDeleteMy daughter, who was born full-term, no problems, no vent, etc...was 10 months old before she took a bite of ANYTHING without gagging (even pureed baby food).
ReplyDeleteMany doctors encourage waiting until the end of the first year to begin feeding infants anything and almost all will say that if she is having that gagging reflex, she's not ready to move on.
So, I just wanted to say that LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of babies aren't eating anything at Ella's age. She will most likely have no problems with solid foods as she gets older.