More textures

Monday, Natalie's swallowing therapist (Sarah) brought this box of baby pasta to the session and used it to give texture to babyfood purees. It's basically couscous, so I came home and made some couscous (with extra water to soften it more) to put in some of her food each meal. She definitely notices it and protests a little, but she's getting used to it. She's actually doing pretty well with textures. Today she started on a stage 3 babyfood for the first time and did well.

Sarah also wants her to start drinking "nectars" at home...basically liquids thickened to a consistency of nectar, or something that comes as a nectar, like the Gerber yogurt and fruit juice bottles. Natalie still isn't taking a sippy cup regularly, but I hope that with more time put in on it, she will come to accept it. She will drink from an open cup, so I'll work with her on that after offering a sippy cup. Sarah also wants to schedule another swallow study to confirm that she is not aspirating on nectars, and to see if Natalie is actually safe to take straight liquids (not thickened). A swallow study is where the child is fed food of different thicknesses while having an x-ray video taken, and the food has barium in it, so it shows up on the video and we can see where the food goes...hopefully only down the esophagus. Natalie's only other swallow study in March 2006 showed that some of her food was going down her windpipe.

Anyway, this week Natalie has been eating by mouth like she's going to grow another 3 inches! I think she is also learning that eating makes her stomach full, and she should stop when she's full. She's not completely competent in this area yet, but I think she's starting to understand the relationship. Go Natalie!