Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Eating update

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY don't want to jinx how well Maryam has been doing with her eating, so I'm a little afraid to say this.......I THINK she gets it! Maryam has eaten well over 1200 calories a day for almost a week now. She asks for food every couple of hours. And when she gets grumpy and I say, "are you hungry?" she almost always answers yes! I THINK she's starting to understand! Even when we're out and about she asks for food. She has been eating all 3 meals a day like a champ and having snacks in between. She has even taken to eating a bed time snack. Its the weirdest thing in the world for me to be able to ask her what she wants to eat for lunch and have her answer me and then actually eat what she requested.
Our next step is getting her to take all of her meds orally. We need to get this button out because its bugging her rib very much. She is still complaining that her button hurts. It breaks my heart when she's in pain. So, I think if I can get her to take her meds orally and prove that she can maintain and gain weight we can take that sucker out.
Maryam has an occupational therapy assessment tomorrow through Kaiser to prove that she still needs therapy. Hopefully once that goes through we can work on chunkier textures and getting her to drink juices and take her meds. I'm fairly confident she's going to have her button out before her 3rd birthday. The real test is going to be when she gets sick. Keeping her hydrated through pneumonia, bronchitis or asthma flare ups is a difficult task to accomplish even with the button. The next time she gets sick I'm going to try to test her by NOT using her button to hydrate her. We'll see how it goes.
I'm going to shoot off an email to her CHOC feeding team for tips and techniques for getting her to take her meds. Hopefully they'll have some clever ideas.
After that, on to normal toddler learning! Potty training! Yay! One thing at a time though. First she will learn how to eat, chew and swallow. Next she will learn to pee and poop in the potty! Priorities! Ha!

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