Elsie is maintaining her weight. That means she hasn't gained any weight these last two weeks or so, but more importantly, she hasn't LOST any weight. The weight gain will come, I'm not overly worried about that. Heidi said that most kiddos maintain their weight for a month or two or sometimes three before starting to gain. It's all part of the process of the body learning how much food they need, continuing to improve the swallowing, and branching out to more and more foods and being successful swallowing them.
In the meantime, we are boosting calories wherever we can, adding butter and/or heavy cream to most of her foods, offering whole fat milk and yogurt, and of course she can have all the peanut butter, avocado, and Nutella that she wants.
Elsie continues to improve her eating skills bit by bit (or bite by bite, ha ha) each day. Each day she is more successful than the last. With her favorite foods, I'd say that she successfully swallows 95% of the time. She is also able to tolerate bigger quantities of food in her mouth.
Still, I am constantly reminded that Elsie is indeed a typical, picky 2 year old. Some things that she loved to eat two weeks ago are now refused. Or she'll ask for food and then only eat two bites of it and be "done". Same exact things that Evje did back then and occasionally still does. I try to remind myself how "normal" Elsie is behaving and that she is ok, and not stress out over it.
My last thought that I wanted to share with you all is a good one .... when was the last time that Elsie threw up? I honestly don't even remember. I know that it was at least a week or two before starting her tube wean, so more than one month ago. That means that Elsie is now going on her longest ever no-vomit streak in the two years since she has had her g-tube. How cool is that?? And even better, Elsie has had a cold this week. If you have been following this blog for long, you know that for Elsie, having a cold = mucus and mucus = vomit. So even with her gross booger nose PLUS teething, Elsie hasn't puked a single time. To me, that's nothing short of miraculous!
Here's to more eating and less vomiting for the rest of the year!
Ok, I read the no vomit and started crying. Soooo excited and so proud!
ReplyDeleteYay Elsie! And look at that clean shirt! She is amazing, plain and simple!
ReplyDeleteGlad things are going well for you! I stumbled on to your blog. Heidi came to our house a few days after she left yours for a wean. Unfortunately our 2 year old did not really start to swallow only chew up and spit out like crazy. I hope things continue to go great for you!
ReplyDelete