Day Thirteen:

First Feeding Session : First thing this morning ZZ ate during the entire feeding session. He didn't finish his bowl of pureed fruit cup, but that was because I was going too slowly. He was playing with the dinosaurs, the Caribou game and watching Diego at the end. He happily took his bites. Yeah!

Second Feeding Session: He started out playing on a toy laptop which he enjoyed for a while and took his bites of potato soup fine while he was absorbed in that. He did gag a few times but I ignored that and he kept it all down. Partway through he became bored with the laptop and we tried everything to interest him, including the craft bunnies again, but even though he wanted to play more he wouldn't take his bite in order to do so. It's interesting to watch him think about it. He definitely weighs his decision of whether to eat or not especially after he has gagged a few times. His refusal including saying no and hitting my hand and crying. It was hard to hold the bite there, deflect his blows, try different toys, be engaging to catch his interest and remember to be monotone on my prompt. It looks easier looking in than being the feeder.

Therapies: Both OT and ST went well. In OT he played with shaving cream without help, no problem. There was a little tussle at the end of OT because SpongeBob was missing his pants in one of the puzzles ZZ saw. It was a puzzle left by one of the inpatients to finish so he wasn't supposed to touch it. That triggered a bit of a tantrum. Missing pieces tend to do that. He wants the world in order! He tried pureed carrots and one other food I can't remember in ST which he accepted!

Third Session: We had an observer from the Baylor clinic at Grapevine for our 2 feedings in the afternoon. Let's just say she got to see both sides of ZZ. ZZ had just gotten up from his nap, so he was a little groggy and not really excited to be eating again. He wanted his cars he had brought from home but he can't have them in the feeding session so we found a monster truck on the shelf for him to play with. He refused even the first dry spoon and never stopped for the full 25 minutes. It was very tiring for me. I would watch the Diego video, play with the hidden animal puzzle, and play with Caribou to no avail. The psychologist asked me what I thought went wrong and I told her that he wasn't engaged yet before we started bites and I think that might have helped. She agreed.

Fourth Session: ZZ started out not wanting to come in to the session and wouldn't pick a toy or video. I was worried that we would have a repeat of last time, but I pulled out some musical instruments and started hitting it "wrong." ZZ couldn't resist showing me the right way and the psychologist said he had played with them before watching a musical Blue's Clues. So we put that on and he started getting into it. This kept him going for the whole session and he took every bite I offered. We didn't get through all the food so I thought my pace was too slow, but the psychologist said it was good and that we were still working up to bigger bites and that his volume would increase as he is able to take them.