Food Trials Begin!!!

We had our ENT post-op today and Ellie is SO excited because she gets to start reintroducing thick (but soft) pureed foods (no liquids yet). We are instructed to take the food introduction slowly and make sure we have her only eat a couple bites at a time and only one food at time to make sure she is not reacting to the food. Each new food is to be the pure food or stage 1 baby food for now.

Because Ellie has been on slow drip continuous feeds for over the last 3 months, her tummy is no longer used to having food or substantial volume amounts. In fact she is to the point of not really feeling hunger. She only says she is "hungry" because her pump alarms due to the feeding bag being empty.

Ellie is so excited to have the chance to trial foods and be able to simply taste foods even in small amounts. At this point, we do not know how or if this will work. We also do not know how badly her body will react to the reintroduction of foods back in her body. We will have to take this slowly, carefully, and monitor her carefully for any reaction with all foods as they are introduced.

As long there are no reactions we will be able to introduce a new food every couple of weeks. So now this adventure begins :)

If after 3 months she is not having increased lung infections then we can consider introducing thickened liquids before trying or considering thinner liquids.

The ENT wants to take the liquids slower due to size the cleft that was repaired and the history of aspiration related lung damage and disease.