Parent Training Begins

Jono has writer's block tonight - so I (Shari) am taking over the blog!   We are continuing the process of taking over the feeding from Ben.  Ben fed Josiah all of his solid food today, as he was still experimenting with a few different possibilities to increase volume and ease of feeding, and we fed Josiah all of his liquids.  It is amazing how well he now drinks.  It is often tempting to just forget the solids and just feed him all his calories with his milk, but Ben says that getting the solids into him is the key to him drinking the milk. 

The hardest thing for Josiah is swallowing his solid food.  He is getting the majority of his calories from the milk as he averages about 2 oz of solids each feed.  Ben says he sees this with all of the kids who were on NG tubes - they often need a few months to master swallowing.  Once we get down Ben's feeding technique for Josiah it is simply going to take patience and perseverance to increase the volume of solids he is taking. 

He gained 3 more ounces today - so he now weighs somewhere around 19 Ibs 10 oz.  So even though his solid intake could be better - he is getting all of his nutrition by mouth and it is more than enough to sustain him and help him grow!