Day Two

We survived another day of feeding school as we call it. It was an early start for us since we needed to be there at 8 and give Olive half of her breakfast before that. That sounds easy, but it's tricky with a tube fed kid like Olive. At home our normal routine is to put in 60 ml of water when she wakes up to wake up her digestion and then we follow that with her breakfast blend thirty minutes later, which takes about twenty minutes. It's not a quick process. This morning I put her water in while she was still sleeping. She rustled a little bit but seemed to be open to it. Then she woke up when I tried to put in some of her tummy food.

She wasn't exactly happy to be awake. We were in a hurry, and in our rush to get out the door I look over to see Olive with her bag looking very nervous. Then she threw up. Again. Totally out of nervousness. So that makes it hard for a quick exit. Luckily we made it in time despite the setback. O spent the car ride over yelling out "Good morning Polly!" That's our Olive. Excited and nervous all rolled into one.

We started our day with breakfast with Polly. Olive did a good job licking thin yogurt off of a spoon. Then she worked on spitting food out again with fruit loops. She wasn't interested at all in chocolate milk, but she wanted to try the Nutella again remembering it from yesterday. She took a big lick. Too big. And she gagged and threw up. It's amazing there was anything left in her tummy, but she always surprises us in how long she keeps food in her tummy. Polly explained that anxiety can slow down digestion.

Tasting chocolate pudding.

Unfortunately after breakfast we weren't able to go to preschool as the teacher called in sick. So we went back to the play zone with Ms. Patty. Olive didn't mind at all. In fact we had to pull her away in order to walk down the block for coffee. Olive decorated a construction paper bat and colored a few times at the art table today, and she had a lot of fun with the train table and lego table.

After that break we had another snack with Ms. Polly. Olive is a hesitant participant at times, and during breakfast Polly asked us if there were any characters or pictures that could be motivating. Easy question. We described Olive's love of bicycles and really all vehicles. By snack time, Polly had new pictures printed out that Olive could take out one by one and velcro on the board when she took a taste of something. It worked great for snack, and Olive did a good job licking goat cheese and chocolate pudding. She also worked on chewing on a straw to practice biting down.

The reward system for taking tastes.

After snack we met Ms. Jen, the occupational therapist. She knocked Olive's socks off with her toy selection, giving Olive a big car and people and animal figurines to put inside. Olive played with it for an hour. In fact, it was hard to tear her away to do other things that Ms. Jen wanted to do, like puzzles and stacking blocks. Jen will work with us daily to help Olive desensitize her face in a fun way without food being involved. I don't know what this will look like, but she is going to play games and work on motor skills. She even mentioned having a room with swings so I think Olive and Jen will be good friends.

Next came lunch. Polly pushed Olive pretty hard with taking licks of food and keeping it all in her mouth and swallowing. Olive did a great job with cheese sauce. They also worked on more bites, but with Olive's first cheeto puff, she took three bites in a row and panicked when she had too much food in her mouth. After that she kind of shut down out of fear. Polly had to pull out the big guns and told her that if she didn't listen then mommy and daddy would have to leave. It doesn't sound nice, but it was incredibly effective. Olive very quickly turned and licked the cheeto after refusing for a good five minutes. The best thing we saw is that Olive took two ounces of milk throughout lunch with a straw. Polly would have her taste something and then take a drink, and by the end all of her milk was gone. It was amazing that she drank so much, and she also took a measurable amount of cheese sauce.

Drinking milk from a straw like a big girl.

After lunch we camped out in the day patient suite, where we offered Olive a bottle and then tried to get her to nap. She was not exactly a willing participant. I may have had to rock her to sleep and hold her like a baby the whole time, but it was worth it for her to get in a short nap. All that eating and playing wears a little girl out. We had to wake her up for her next session with Polly.

She was pretty much over it by our snack time. The first thing she said was "all done." But Polly coaxed her into participating with the bike pictures and new pictures of fire trucks and construction vehicles. She took licks of goat cheese and peanut butter. She was clearly tired, and it was a lot of "mommy help" with Olive looking to me to dictate her tastes instead of Polly. We powered through it though and once again, she drank two ounces of milk throughout her snack with a straw. That's an awesome step for her, and Polly instructed us try to get her to take that amount with every meal. We will give it a go at dinner tonight on our own.

Olive was exceptionally amused by the blue gloves today.

Overall it was a good day. Polly mentioned anxiety medication again, and she said she would like to start with an appetite stimulant, Periactin. We haven't decided yet, and plan to discuss it with Olive's regular doctor tomorrow morning before making any decisions. We get that it could help with her digestion, but no parent wants to hear that there are side effects like being grumpy. Because Olive is pretty fun and fabulous as is. We treated her to a park trip after we left the hospital, and she had a time of it. We're hopeful that the progress continues tomorrow despite the fact that Olive has told us about twenty times this evening that she would like to go home. We will girl. We will. Just not today.