Feeding Specialist

Today was a beautiful day in San Francisco. We (me, Hana, Poppy and my friend Rose who is here from Oregon to help for the week) were able to get some time outside. I really felt strongly that Hana needed time outside. It was a rough start to the day – she vomited a little around 4:30 am and then again (alot) mid-morning. The second time she vomited all over me. I decided to put her in the bath after the second vomit and she was in there less than a minute when she had an explosive poop in the bath tub! On top of that, the dog is sick and has been vomiting too.
Today we took Hana to a feeding specialist who is a Speech Pathologist. It was amazing! She took some warmed breastmilk that I had brought and put it in a bottle we brought as well. Then she took a toy and the bottle and essentially, “played” with Hana, getting the bottle closer and closer to her face and then lips. Finally, Hana took the bottle and had 40 good sucks. It was the best I’ve seen her do since we left the hospital! We kept doing this and the speech pathologist explained the cues Hana was trying to give me, like batting away the bottle. Hana did start to cry and fuss after several minutes and she explained that it could be her acid reflux bothering her. To combat this we will continue the Zantac, since it takes several weeks to begin working and we will try adding rice cereal which will “weigh down” the milk and keep it from coming up out of her stomach, causing pain.
We left feeling very encouraged and enlightened. We have some new tools and tricks to try. I feel like there is some real hope that she might take the bottle (and maybe even get the NG tube out too, maybe…). We are going back on Friday to try again and also to work on giving Hana some purées. Today we gave her more avocado and she did really well with it.