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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Phobia??? Uh Ohhh...

Jaycie was fed by two different people to evaluate her today. The Developmental Pediatrician and the therapist. Their evaluation? Jaycie drinks her bottle and then it gets down the wrong pipe and ALMOST goes into the lungs. There is a protective mechanisim and a valve closes so nothing gets into the lungs and she doesnt aspirate. Nothing In...Nothing out. She stops breathing and her heart slows down. She then either coughs or tilts her head back to MOVE the fluid. She moves the fluid and breaths again. In these times she is having high anxiety/ fear.

The day she ate her whole bottle she desated/heart dropped 10-15 times with each bottle. Then that night she refused to eat. They feel if we keep letting her do that and get high anxiety each time she will eventually be afraid to eat. She is associating the bottle with not being able to breath.

So the game plan... At each feed she gets a bottle ... the same bottle/nipple/hold (side lying). Once she has a "PUNKY" episode (her nurse calls them that) She has to stop... Even if she acts like she still wants to suck. They will tube feed the rest. When I am there I will nurse her (since she does the episodes less frequently while nursing) once she has an episode I pump to get the "FAST FLOWING" milk out and nurse her with her tube feed, so she can associate good with the breast and not develop a fear of it. So while this is going to take a while to get her to fully eat without a tube... the doctor said its better than developing a phobia of eating and needing a port placed in her tummy for feeds.

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