Day Four

Thursday night I attempted one feeding session following the new protocol, but Friday was really "day one" of implementing the new plan. That first day was R.O.U.G.H. I did 5 sessions with him that day, and during the first 4 he screamed the WHOLE time. He couldn't even calm down enough to drink some milk from his sippy. I did feed him some solids each time because his mouth is wide open while he screams. After the 10 minutes were up, I did hold him and let him drink a little milk.

That afternoon I called Karen. She suggested I call Dr. Williams and said I shouldn't ever let him have any milk in my arms. Dr. Williams didn't call me back until this afternoon. Thankfully the situtation had improved in the meantime. During his 5th feeding on Friday (I'm supposed to do 6 sessions a day but I've not yet managed to accomplish that), he finally calmed down enough to at least drink some milk in his highchair. His milk consumption has gone down drastically. I'd say he's drinking at most 16 ounces of milk a day. He wants nothing to do with drinking water. He just throws the sippy cup down if he discovers there is only water inside. His solid consumption has gone up slightly. Each day the past 4 days he's been eating about 4-6 ounces of yogurt, 3.5 ounces of pudding, at least 3.5 ounces of fruit (baby food), and at most 3.5 ounces of vegetables (baby food). Thus far I've only been working on the orange veggies. I plan on reintroducing the green veggies tomorrow. When I am feeding him something other than veggies, there are moments when he stops screaming, but most of the time I'm restraining his left hand (so he doesn't bat away the spoon) and inserting the spoon in his mouth while he screams.

Sometimes he does calm down and eat several bites without crying, but he cries every time I take away the sippy cup. Because the transitions back and forth are difficult, I try to get in as many bites in a row as possible to minimize the number of transitions between millk and solids during the 10 minute feeding session. When the timer goes off, I promptly take off his bib and put away the solid food, but I let him keep drinking the sippy cup (while he's in his highchair) for as long as he wants. The most he's allowed to have each session is 4 ounces (half of a sippy cup). Many times he wants down before he finishes the milk. I'm hoping that the screaming will decrease as time passes. I was in a panic on Friday since he wasn't even drinking milk. I'm glad we're at least past that stage! Dr. Williams said today that he expected the first two days to be rough. I wish he had warned me on Thursday. He said we're on the right track. Karen will be coming on Thursday. Our next appointment with Dr. Williams hasn't been scheduled yet because all of the slots on May 17th were already taken. I'm actually not disappointed about that because it means we can go to MD on the 16th as planned. The woman I talked to tioday said she'd contact Dr. Williams to see if he'll be coming up to this area in June. I hope he will, but if not we'll be making another trip to Hershey. Nadia asked me today if we could go back to Chocolate World. She enjoyed it very much!

Rocks are fun!