A Straw

Yes, this is what it's come to - we are now feeding Martha her bottle by using a straw. Never in a million years would I have imagined resorting to this method but desperate times call for desperate measures. 

Our last home visit from the Health Visitor left me feeling quite disheartened as Martha Grace had lost 200g between January and February. She'd had two lots of antibiotics for a chest infection and hadn't been drinking her milk properly while on them; I was also still feeding her Cow&Gate baby jars (I know, I know...but bigger picture-please!)

The Health Visitor suggested I put Martha Grace on a diet with a high Fat content; I wasn't keen on this at all because I know that if Martha starts putting too much weight on too quickly it's going to put a massive strain on her Heart. So after crisis talks between myself, Mark and my Mam we decided that we were doing away with the baby jars and I've been making home made meals for her instead, so far it's been going well and she gobbles it all up. 

One lunchtime when Martha refused to let a teat anywhere near her mouth out of desperation I put a straw in the bottle to see if that would "trick" her in to drinking it and hey presto! It worked. I think it must be the novelty of a straw but where she used to only take 25ml from a bottle she now takes between 75 - 100ml.

We'd been asked to take Martha to the clinic to be weighed last Thursday so we could monitor her weight and make sure she didn't lose anymore; we must be doing something right because she's put back on the 200g that she'd lost between January and February.

This is of course a massive relief because our appointment from London is only a few days away now, but when we get there they'll be able to see how much weight she's gained over 6 months and will be able to tell us if she's doing well or not. Along with the Cardiac issues, another fear I have is that they insist that she needs a PEG inserted...I'd do anything that we have to do for her but she's doing so well with her eating and she's really enjoying feeding herself at mealtimes, it's just something that I don't want for her and would do anything to avoid.

GM

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