Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Drinking

Since I was gone over the weekend, there hasn't been a big push to get Natalie to drink at home. Tom and I have both offered a sippy cup, and gotten her to drink a few sips of the Gerber yogurt and juice drink from an open cup, but no real progress. Natalie's occupational therapist, Christina, came today, and I had prepped her that we were clear to try drinking nectar-thick liquids at home. I remembered that she drank Pediasure (sugar is the second ingredient) well when we first introduced it, so I pulled that out again, thickened it a little, and she drank it right down from a sippy cup with no valve. It turns out that she doesn't really like the yogurt juice drink, although she eats 4 ounces of yogurt with wheat germ for breakfast every day.

Right after, Natalie had swallowing therapy, and the thickened Pediasure I brought along was thicker than Sarah wanted it for e-stim, so she added milk to thin it and Natalie drank it down again. When I got home, I made it 1/2 milk and 1/2 thickened Pediasure, and she still drank it readily. So it looks like we need to work to get her used to drinking from a sippy cup, then get her to drink with a valve, and then we can wean her off the sugar.

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