[tri-med] Re: [tri-family] feeding with breastmilk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <MaBeccaCWS
> I have been wondering if any of you feed your children breastmilk and how
> long you have done that without any other supplementation...

I breast fed Alex from birth to 14 months. He started solids a little ahead
of schedule (about 4 months) because he wasn't gaining enough weight.

He couldn't latch or co-ordinate a suck/swallow/breathe initially and he
tired so easily, but I had very little help. So I fed him for the first
three months by pumping the breast milk, bottling the expressed milk for as
much as he could suck and swallow and then I would finish the amount he was
supposed to take with an eye dropper just dripping it into the corner of his
mouth one drop at a time.

By three months he was able to latch and could take most by breast but I
still expressed after he had finished and would "top" up with expressed
milk. He still wasn't gaining weight so I started solids, this was before
the days of human breast milk fortifier. These days I would probably go with
that rather than starting solds early.

By the time he was 14 months we were still barely managing with feeding. He
was still grossly underweight (we didnt know he had T-18 and that he was
supposed to be small) and I had to stop breast feeding (it was thought I had
cancer and the tests couldnt be done whilst I was breast feeding). He was
taking solids - but it was so painful. The food had to be exactly the right
texture, consistency and temperature. The slightest hiccup in a meal and it
would all come up again and we would start all over again. Life revolved
around Alex's eating!!!

So we opted for a g-tube and fundo at 14 months. He grew!!!!!!! and life was
so much more relaxed and far less obsessive.

Alex was totally g-tube fed until he was about 5 years old. We had worked
with him from the time the g-tube went in until he was 5 to take food orally
(he was no dummy - he knew tube feeds were easier and safer himself). By the
time he started school I had him eating soft foods (eg bread no crusts,
purees etc).

He is now 10 - he still has his g-tube but we dont use it very often. In
fact not at all for eating, only for meds. So to answer the second part of
your question - yes kids can go back to oral eating after a g-tube.
Depending on the reason for the g-tube it can be hard work and take a fair
amount of time to happen - but if thats what you want it can be done.

That said though I do miss the g-tube. Alex is such a fussy and slow eater
we have gone back to obsessing about diet at times. The g-tube however was
quick, so much easier and made meals far more relaxing for all concerned. I
actually miss the g-tube feeding days!!

Love many, hate few, learn to paddle your own canoe.
  -- American Proverb

Keep Looking For Rainbows!!
   _--_|\
 /Karen \
 \ _.--._ /
          v Karen, Mum to Alex (9 years, T-18 Mosaic)
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens


> Also, do kids with g-tubes ever eat "real" food, or do they only ever eat
> formula, etc.?
>
> Rebecca, mom to Kashi and Ruth (t-13)
>
>
>                   Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
>                        www.trisomyonline.org
>                   Families Helping Families On-line

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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