On My Own

Friday, November 24, 2006
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Ben's feeding therapist worked with me to teach me the feeding protocol. I had to learn this so that I could keep feeding Ben over the long weekend, and so that he would not lose his new skills. I learned about the verbal cues I needed to give, as well as the cues to get him to open his mouth correctly. I learned about some ways to keep control of the feeding so that I could avoid a power struggle. (We had a few of those while I was learning.) I can now manage a DVD, his toy, and his food with skill. The movie and toy are used as positive reinforcement. He may watch the movie and have the toy when he takes his bites of food appropriately. He is responding well to this now. The first time I came into the room to try to feed him, he was very upset. That first feeding did not go quite as well because he tried some of his old tricks. Once he saw that I could handle that, and that I was on-board with the feeding therapist, he did not try that again. Yesterday, I actually got 7 oz. into him in one feeding, and in another feeding, he got 6 oz. I was proud of that. He ate yogurt, pureed peaches, and Eo-28 mixed with milk. This morning I gave him some pureed bananas, but they were too thick and he did a lot of gagging. I learned a good lesson from that. He only ate about 5 oz. this morning. One exciting thing he did yesterday was that he ate a few tiny pieces of turkey. WTG Ben! He did not know how to chew it, but the fact that he kept the pieces in his mouth at all was great! He seemed to have a good Thanksgiving. The only thing better would have been to be home with the family.