Thanks to grad mom Stefanie for sharing this story with us!
In March of 2008 my daughter Elsa was born at 24 weeks gestation. Apart from the typical preemie woes (ventilated for 7 weeks, PDA ligation, ROP requiring surgery), she also struggled with feeding. You families know the drill – creep up slowly to full feeds, then setbacks put the babes back to TPN, creep back up, start breast feeding, setbacks mean re-intubation…
After 4 months in the NICU, our only issue holding Elsa back from coming home was oral feeding.
Elsa was an expert fake breast-feeder. She SEEMED to be breastfeeding, but when we did our post feeding weigh-in we would discover that she was FAKING! Sometimes she would actually ‘lose’ weight after nursing. We persevered with nipple shields and eventually stopped doing pre and post weights – not because things improved, but because it was causing unneeded extra stress.
We introduced bottles, but Elsa continued to struggle with strength and stamina. We tried every trick in the book – stripping her down, different positions, special chin holds – you name it, but she still either fell asleep or vomited. Elsa was diagnosed and treated for reflux and eventually, about 1.5 months after her due date, she was eating and gaining enough weight to come home!
Things didn’t improve all that much once we were home. We continued to alternate between breast feeding and bottles of my pumped milk fortified with formula for extra calories. Rob and I discovered that singing while feeding Elsa helped. It seemed to keep her calm, focused and awake and helped us relax as we hoped for more millilitres to go (and stay) down her hatch.
Because then there was the vomiting… There seemed to be nothing worse than when after all that effort to get a bottle in, she proceeded to expel her entire feed. All our hard work literally down the drain.
Fortunately solid foods were much easier. She continued to slowly gain weight and stay on her curve, but it felt as though we worked for every measly ounce gained. Everything Elsa ate was slathered in butter. We dipped almost everything in something – hummus, avocado, sour cream … Her feeding and weight gain was all consuming.
Elsa just turned 4 years old and although she is still small, she eats really well now. She likes a wide variety of foods and will try anything. Salmon sushi is one of her favourite foods!
I’m glad those days of recording every ml she consumed are long gone. I still stress about what she eats, but now I know she’s eating well, she’s healthy and happy.
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Elsa enjoying her first bbq corn on the cob! (About 1 year corrected)
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I took this video recently at our home preschool. I asked her to spell out ANY word she wanted and this is what she chose.
(That’s ‘salami’ for those of you who aren’t fluent in preschool!)
I hope that she provides a little bit of hope for those of who judge it a good or bad day based on how much your baby ate and how little of it you had to clean up.
