Real Food

Giving Noah "real food" is such an important thing for me. There are so many areas that he is weak in and eating happens to be one of his strengths [if you couldn't tell by all of his rolls and chunky cheeks]. He has no GI issues besides a little bit of reflux which was fixed when he got the Nissen Fundoplication surgery when he had his g-tube put in. And I am so thankful for that. This is his most normal thing. I'm not sure if that makes sense. But eating is where I feel like we have and will make the most progress. He is already getting real people food into his system and since I am still so, so hopeful that one day he will be able to eat orally, we already know that he actually tolerates real food.

Since he has started getting real food, I have noticed how much healthier he looks. His hair has grown tremendously. His skin is not dry and rough. He just looks so much better. And I attribute it to the food I've given him.

At first it was a challenge getting his GI team on board. He was only 5 months old when I suggested it and they were playing by the hard and fast no solids till 6 months rule. I didn't really listen and continued to give him small amounts of blenderized foods. Now I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, to go against medical advice. But there was no "medical" reason why he shouldn't have food and his doctor actually tried to put him on reflux medication..... Yeah, let's medicate this kid instead of giving him something healthy and natural. How nuts is that?! But, that's the world we live in. Medicate, medicate, medicate. No thanks!

Stepping off my soapbox now....

Anyway, we were noticing such good results with the small amount of food I was giving him so I kept pushing the doctors. They were worried about giving him "too many calories" by doing my blended foods. Luckily, I had done a little research and found that in 1 serving (2 oz) of my blended squash [which is what I was mostly giving him at that point] I was only giving him an extra 6 calories. 6 calories in a whole meal! I then went on to say that if anything needed to be cut back, it was his formula, which was giving him over 100 calories for one meal. The dietitian definitely backed off and gave a hesitant "OK" for me to supplement his now-reduced formula feeds with some blended food. When Noah started getting closer to a year old he started spitting up a lot more than before. I thought maybe if we switched his milk-based infant formula to something with a non-dairy base that it would help.

Mom was right, again! Go figure...

Noah started on Compleat formula which is made with real meat, fruit, and veggies. He was only able to get 5 feedings a day, instead of 6, of this new formula because it is much more dense in calories. I proposed the idea of giving him 1 big bolus feeding of blended food in the morning and the resuming formula feeds for the rest of the day. Dietitian was on board! Noah tolerated this change in his diet wonderfully. At his last clinic visit I was given the go ahead to feed Noah AS I PLEASE... let me repeat AS I PLEASE! The calories in the blended food is about the same as the formula so basically I can swap blended for formula any time I want. 

Right now Noah is up to 2 blended feeds a day and formula for the other 4 feedings. My goal is to use blended for all of his daytime feeds and only use formula at night. Eventually, I would like for Noah to get all feeds and have all of his caloric needs met during the day and stop feeding him at night. His dietitian seemed to think that was a reasonable goal so I will be trying that within the next few months hopefully.

Feeding Noah is a personal thing for me as well. It is how we bonded. At first, I was pumping my breast milk for him and I was in control. I made the milk. I fed my baby. I pumped for close to 6 months and that's when we started doing blended foods. I made the food. I fed my baby. I am in control. I know I might sound crazy but in a world where I feel so helpless or in the way, feeding Noah has always been something I've done right. I gave him the best start, my milk. And I will continue to give him the best with the blended food. It is a lot more work but the results are so, so worth it.

Noah's shiny, curly hair and bright, chunky face say more to me than any doctor ever can. I know I am giving him the best thing he can have.

Noah loves his blended food!