We (finally) have SOME answers with K’s feeding issues! Turns out that what we’ve been told for months is WRONG!! Everyone kept saying her tongue lateralization (chew) was fine…and that something was happening with the swallow. It was how it looked to us all. Well, that was totally wrong. The reason why it looks like things were going down so rough is because…they ARE! K isn’t chewing! She’s sucking on the food, then swallowing. Apparently, her suck looks like a good round chew because she struggles with the suck as well. So, everything she’s been eating, she’s been swallowing whole! So we have to re-focus and re-double our efforts in a totally different way.

1. Don’t feed her a bottle first at actual mealtimes. Have her eat the solids first and finish off with a bottle.
2. Try high calorie yogurts and cottage cheese (with fruit for sweetness), etc.
3. Run our dinner foods through the food processor
4. Back off baby food as much as we can.
5. Work on using “stick” foods (cheeto’s) to try to get her to bite with her back ‘teeth’ (she doesn’t have teeth yet, but using that area).
6. Do NOT let her eat unsupervised (obviously)
7. Be aware that a “safe” bite size for her is the same size as the tip of her pinky…which, with K, is less than a centimeter, more like a millimeter.
8. Make sure that she’s getting at least one pediasure a day (she gave us a TON free…YAY)…but otherwise focus on solid foods so that she learns how to chew/use her oral motor muscles.

So. Those are a light dose of the tips she gave us. I’m SOOO glad we went. We go back in a month for a follow up visit. We’re supposed to have her weight before then (works out that she has her nutritionist visit right before).

It’s nice to have some answers!!!