Little man is doing much better- thanks for all your prayers, email, calls, etc. He continues to have a little throat pain (to be expected after throat surgery) but it is manageable with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. He is still aspirating. Some bottles more than others. We are thickening his formula with rice cereal and trying to figure out the perfect combination--not so thick it won't come out, not so thin it goes down his airway. We're still working out kinks! We have not found a great nipple for rice cereal to flow through - if anyone has done this- let me know what you used.
The breathing noise has been GREATLY reduced. Last night I didn't think we had the monitor in our room because it was so quiet! It is amazing. There is still a little squeak to his breathing but it is much less than it was. He does seem to be refluxing quite a bit. Not sure if this will get better with time or not.
Again, thanks for your prayers! We are doing well!
6 comments:
So glad to hear that! What a ride you guys have been on-I hope life settles down a bit now (at least as far as doctor stuff) and you can relax and have fun! Love you guys!
So glad to hear that he is doing well and adjusting after his surgery! Hugs to you all!!
So glad E is doing better. Walmart has a nipple with a big X cut in the top and it's as free-flowing as I've ever seen.
Sorry I haven't gotten in touch with you yet, Shadley, I have been thinking of you guys a ton! I wish I had tips on the rice cereal- they wouldn't let us do that so we're still thickening with gel packets specifically with a certain ratio (and we have been using the gel packets all along at different ratios- super thick at certain times). They didn't want us using the rice cereal I think b/c it was more inconsistent plus we knew Jack would probably be on the thickener for a long time. Do you thicken all liquids with rice cereal? Children's Mercy gave us a specific cross cut nipple and there were times I would slice it with a knife so that it was an even wider cut so Jack would have less difficulty getting it out- but that was a guessing game, too, b/c then it came too fast for him sometimes. But if it was too much work for him, they told us that he used up more calories than he gained with drinking the milk, so at times I did slice it when he seemed to tolerate it well. With sippy cups we had to try numerous ones at different points, let me know when you're at that point and I can show ya which ones worked best at different consistencies. But you can slice any nipples to create your own cross-cut- we used the ones from the hospital and the dr. browns' actual bottle (minus the insert stuff, b/c the thickener wouldn't come through that).
I found your blog through the TenHakens and Beth Postema. Avent makes a nipple that comes out at three different speeds depending on how you have it turned. We used to thicken our kids bottles with cereal and if I remember (5 years ago) this one worked the best.
I am glad to hear that he is doing better. You will figure out the formula soon I am sure. Prayers that he continues to do better!
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