[blparent] Declan and his feeding issue

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Jess,

First, let me announce that after six long weeks, Declan is finally
home, yeah! We brought him home Wednesday. We've all been adjusting to
this, and Declan has been having a rough time with his reflux, but we
are home, sigh...

Second, the OT and PT teams assessed Declan and gave him a very glowing
report. He's actually pretty advanced mentally and physically for his
stage of development. Muscle tone is definitely not a problem for him.
At seven weeks, he's already rolling on his side, reaching for objects
with intention, lifting his head and neck, responding to sound and
visual stimuli and tracking things visually.

His feeding issues are due to the coordination of swallowing and
breathing. He's ability to suck is just fine. Because he wasn't fed
orally after birth, he had to play catch up once nippling was
introduced. Because he also had problems with his lungs at first,
feeding has been a difficult process for Declan. He's still developing
the skill, so while we are nippling, what he can't take orally, which
isn't much right now, he takes through a G-button in his stomach.

He's growing and healthy beyond the severe reflux he's experiencing
right now. We have to keep him upright most of the time because of the
reflux. He spits up a lot and has a lot of pain associated with the
reflux including a raw throat. The poor guy is frequently arching his
back and turning his head because of discomfort from the reflux and
crying. It's difficult to watch him go through this and not be able to
do much.

Will keep everyone updated on his progress. Everything so crazy right
now as we all adjust to things.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 8
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2012 21:09:56 -0400
From: Jess <ashleejessandmark2012 at samobile.net>
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [blparent] Declan and his feeding issue
Message-ID: ccf9bad0-3cdf-46f8-a6ee-d1c65929e870 at samobile.net
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed"

Hi Bridget,
Is his muscle tone ok?   Because I did finally ask the physical 
therapost that we are working with for our daughter if her low muscle 
tone could have contributed to the problems that I was having with 
breast feeding her and the therapist said that yes it was one of the 
major reasons.  Now we are concern about other feeding issues now that 
she's moving on to solid foods.