So adventure continues...
For the past few days we have tried the bottle with a mixture of rice cereal and breastmilk to create a thicker combination. For some reason, Kalista has been very resistant to taking the bottle. She pushes it away with her hands and she stretches out her feet in hopes to jump off your lap. We couldn't figure out why since she did so well during her swallow study last week with the thicker liquid consistency.
Ha ha...science never fails us. Evidently, breastmilk has enzymes and those enzymes break down rice cereal within minutes leading to a thin consistency that Kalista didn't do so well with in the study. That would explain why she held a protest to the bottle. Smart baby!!! (FYI: Rice cereal can make formula super thick..so it does work, just not in our case)
The remedy is....add in the same stuff the OT used during the study to her breastmilk. "Simply Thick" is this gel substance that acts as thickener. It looks like clear hair gel and by golly that stuff works. The breastmilk becomes smoothie like and within minutes now of taking the bottle, Kalista is chugging away. She seems more confident and willing. Now our job is make this activity more enjoyable for her and prevent oral aversion from the previous "bad" experiences.
This whole event tired some folks out....
....especially DAD.
For the past few days we have tried the bottle with a mixture of rice cereal and breastmilk to create a thicker combination. For some reason, Kalista has been very resistant to taking the bottle. She pushes it away with her hands and she stretches out her feet in hopes to jump off your lap. We couldn't figure out why since she did so well during her swallow study last week with the thicker liquid consistency.
Ha ha...science never fails us. Evidently, breastmilk has enzymes and those enzymes break down rice cereal within minutes leading to a thin consistency that Kalista didn't do so well with in the study. That would explain why she held a protest to the bottle. Smart baby!!! (FYI: Rice cereal can make formula super thick..so it does work, just not in our case)
The remedy is....add in the same stuff the OT used during the study to her breastmilk. "Simply Thick" is this gel substance that acts as thickener. It looks like clear hair gel and by golly that stuff works. The breastmilk becomes smoothie like and within minutes now of taking the bottle, Kalista is chugging away. She seems more confident and willing. Now our job is make this activity more enjoyable for her and prevent oral aversion from the previous "bad" experiences.
This whole event tired some folks out....
....especially DAD.
lol!!! i love the last pic...kalista is like, dad? :) good job on figuring out what she wanted with the bottle feeding situation! you're a great mommy!
ReplyDeleteNice!! Sleeping on the job Daddy!!
ReplyDelete