Tube Wean, Day 1

Today was great! We met Heidi this morning, and she's super nice and fun, and it was so easy for my kids to be right at ease with her. We started out with just getting comfortable with each other, playing outside and blowing bubbles. Then of course, since we had been playing outside in the heat, it was only natural that we go inside and have a drink together.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed; just doing most of the same thing. We ate when we were hungry, and drank when we were thirsty. There was honestly nothing special or significant about what we did; just that it was all about being natural and calm and not making a big deal of things. We worked to help Elsie become more comfortable with food, and not stress about how much she ate, but just that food and drink are good!

Elsie asked for food throughout most of the day, and whatever she wanted, she got. She chewed up about 6 pickles, a ton of veggie straws, crackers, ice cream, and some other random things. She drank a lot of grape juice (thanks, Grandma Linda!) and some milk and some water. At lunch, we had mac & cheese and applesauce. She loves mac & cheese, but is still chewing and spitting most of it out, She wasn't crazy about the applesauce, but tried it. Then after she had "eaten" a whole bowl of mac & cheese, she asked for a banana, and chewed up almost half of a banana. She's never done that before. Usually it's one bite, spit it out, and no more. But she loved the banana this time and was chowing down on it.

After lunch, we played some more, and she snacked on some veggie straws and graham crackers. Get this: she ATE almost half of a graham cracker! ATE IT!!! Those graham crackers are so dissolvable that they melted in her mouth as she chewed it, and she gummed down half of one without spitting out hardly any!

Before dinner, Elsie was getting really hungry and asking (more like demanding, haha!) for food. She was so impatient, it really reminded me of myself being hangry! So funny. She chewed on some shredded cheese and more banana and some veggie straws while I cooked dinner. For dinner, we had some grilled chicken, potato wedges, and broccoli with cheese. She loves chicken, and chewed it up the best she could, but chicken is kinda chewy, so she didn't swallow much, if any. However, we had fry sauce with the potatoes, and she loved that. She drank more than an ounce of grape juice and almost an ounce of milk with dinner, which is HUGE for her! Then I made a peanut butter banana milk shake, and she drank more than an ounce of that!

We are making so much progress with drinking here; she didn't choke or cough on any of the liquids today! She usually coughs or chokes after the first few swallows, but not today. It was fantastic. So we're going to run with the tasty liquids, and tomorrow will make more milk shakes, soup, and other easily swallowed foods.

Heidi is really excited with Elsie's progress. She said that most kids don't get to where she is until day 4 or 5 of their wean. Her oral motor skills are good, and are improving. She is extremely confident that Elsie will be successful. As Elsie increases her confidence in swallowing liquids, she will progress to swallowing solids. Elsie is trying so hard and is doing fantastic! We had to change her shirt three times today because of all the food she had chewed up and spit out all over. This kid loves food, and I know that soon, she will be swallowing it!