Thursday, August 28, 2008

Allergies and feeding

It seems poor Jack is allergic to something that is blowing around out there right now. It makes him sneeze, and last night he had a tiny bit of a stuffy nose. Being a very smart young man, he figured out that he could breathe better if he slept on his side rather than his back so he would roll over, but that meant that his binki kept falling out which is very serious. The result - mom and Jack slept most of the night in the lazy boy so Jack could sleep on his side and keep the oxygen flowing and mom didn't have to keep getting up to put his binki back in. We are both very tired today.

The speech therapist came by this morning to see how Jack is progressing with his feeds. She said he's still a bit gulpy, but he's doing great and she gave me some techniques to slow him down. He is taking almost all of his feeds orally now. He can't quite do it all at the same time as that is still too much work, but he gets really hungry before it's time to eat, so if I give him a snack when he's hungry then feed him the rest when it's time to eat he can usually do it all by himself without the help of a tube. The therapist thought we would probably be done with the tube by next week or so. Hooray!

4 comments:

mom said...

You mean they aren't supposed to gulp their food? Someone forgot to tell Breydon that. ;) He attacks his food and used to forget to breathe while eating so then he'd choke and spray milk all over us. He's always been harder to feed than his sister. Breydon also had a stuffy nose for the first couple of months. That didn't help with the no-breathing habit. Glad we're beyond that.

Anonymous said...

Getting rid of that tube would be huge - way to go Jack! Zachary had his for over 10 months, but now he eats everything by mouth. Keep up the good work.

Jana Piotter
CP: ZacharyPiotter

Erin said...

The benefit of Alex being 2 months older than Jack is I just went through this stage with him. Alex also had a stuffy nose and one morning sneezed all kinds of yucky stuff. I thought he must be getting sick but he had no other symptoms (fever or crankiness). I mentioned it to my dr while I was there and he said that 90% of newborns get reflux and it causes the stuffy nose, sneezing etc. The food is irritating his airway and causes them to produce more mucus. We used Mylanta (1 tsp)and it really helped. Of course with all his meds ask your dr first but this seemed to help. Also do you have him sleeping in his carseat or a carrier? Alex still sleeps in his carseat and having them elevated and snuggled can lead to a good nights rest.

Nicole said...

I hope you don't mind my blog stalking. I just found your blog by chance but am so glad I did. That video you did for your son was beautiful. The music you put it to was so perfect. What a beautiful little baby you have. I think I may have to go watch it again. Thanks for sharing with a stranger :)