Suck, Swallow, Breathe

For most babies eating is a piece of cake, for some preemies including Andrew....the task can be very difficult. This past month or so I have come to realize that it takes a lot of energy and effort to coordinate how to suck, swallow and breathe while taking a bottle. Andrew has really been struggling with eating lately. Especially the last 2 or 3 weeks. It has really gone down hill and gotten worse. For a while he'd only have a bad feeding every once in a while. But lately it's most every time he eats. It's so hard when it takes an hour to get one bottle of 2.5 oz down. After talking with his doctor, he told us to just try for 30 min and let him eat what he can.  Although it's not as time consuming, after 30 minutes of trying we had a unhappy little guy (who I knew was still hungry) but would simply shut down because it was too hard to eat. It's draining... especially when that's pretty much my life with him. Eat & Sleep.  This was a downward spiral of then not sleeping very good and then eating even worse after that.

We decided we needed some help and went to a speech therapist a few weeks ago. Yes. A speech therapist. At this age work with the suck/swallow/breath coordination and the shape of his mouth/tongue formation and the strength of his suck. Who knew that eating could be so complicated? Well I didn't think much of it either, until I had a little one who struggles with it.

The speech therapist was a great help. It was comforting to know that it wasn't just me. She explained that up until 3 months old (adjusted age) everything is automatic or a basic reflex when it comes to eating. Well, at 3 months of age it becomes more of a conscious choice of something a baby must coordinate on their own. This is why we've seen the regression.  After her assessment, she gave us some hope, taught us a bunch of things and sent us on our way with a number of things to try, watch for and consider.

I feel like I've been a mad scientist, experimenting, documenting and trying new things from the way to hold him, different head positions, different ways to support his mouth while he's sucking, different nipples, adding thickening agents to milk, different types of formula....the list goes on. Until we find a perfect combination. We're not there yet, which is why this little kiddo has his NG tube back in.

Putting the rest of his bottle through the gavauge

But we're getting closer. We've learned that formula is thicker than breast milk and he is able to control the suck/swallow/breathe pattern better with this. Who knew? So much for the thousands of hours I spent pumping for this little guy and the entire freezer full of milk.

You thought I was kidding right? The only freezer food we have is in the door.

I think this will be an ongoing quest of ours... so wish us luck. Stephen and I were talking last night and he reminded me (amidst my frustration) that with everything we've gone through with him, this is just minor bump in the road and we'll soon get it figured out. I'm so grateful for his perspective and for helping me see it. In the meantime we're enjoying this happy boy who is full of smiles!