Adventures in feeding

My daughter has had quite a journey with feeding. At birth she refused to nurse. Her brother latched on 7 hours after he was born and nursed like a champ for two years. I never expected a child who simply wouldn't suck even if she did eventually hold my nipple in her mouth. We suspect although we can't prove it at some point she had some issues with her soft palate that eventually worked themselves out. Aspiration pneumonia, Upper GIs, feeding evaluations, teaching her to use her tongue, different bottles and cups to support safe feeding.

So how far we've come is remarkable. The hours and hours of physical therapy [DD had low muscle tone in her trunk\core and legs] and feeding therapy and hundreds of Momma hours.

This week DD has been eating an entire apple for lunch. Raw. Biting off pieces, chewing them up, swallowing without gagging. It's been amazing. Tonight for dinner she had baked brown rice - another favorite of hers and simply amazing to see her feed herself.

We tried a cup which had an indented lid with little holes. To work her towards coffee style cup. It didn't work out. She had fun but wheezed and coughed during and wheezed for hours afterwards. Pretty good bet she had airway penetration if not outright aspiration. We'll try again in a month and see what happens.