Does anyone's child have a gtube?

NAJ

my daughter has had hers since she was born and now 4yrs old and now starting to eat only yogurt. What does your child eat advice pleaaaaaase

trying to get her to eat even though I know it's a difficult process. She's in feeding therapy

HElizabethDU

Hi, 

I do not have a preemie, but I just saw this post and felt like I should respond. 

While I myself was a preemie that is not why I had a gtube.  I have a rare glycogen storage disease, and my parents had to feed me cornstarch every 2 to 3 hours or my blood sugar would drop. Anyway I had a Gtube until I was 13.  When I started eating solid food (and it took a while) it was very slow steps.  I ate things like cereal, pancakes, noodles. Things that were pretty bland. I also had to have things cut up very small. To encourage eating my mom would cut things in fun shapes, made faces, etc.  Anything to make eating a fun and positive experience. 

I have been removed from this for a while so I am sure others have some better tips, but just wanted to say hang in there!

TriciaJoy

My son has a Gtube, but he's younger than your LO. Robbie is 20 months and right now will eat stage 2 purees (up to 2 containers a day) and a few stage 3s. Just the last few weeks, he's started self feeding some cheerios & goldfish crackers.

 

A lot of kids with feeding issues actually like strong flavors vs bland. Particularly if they've had reflux issues (my son's reflux was extremely severe) it can deaden their taste buds. A lot of kids like stuff dipped in ranch. Robbie likes the ranch goldfish (I think they're horrible, but whatever pleases him.) 

He likes chocolate grahams as well.. 

lemen99

I'm sorry you ladies are going through this It must be so hard and so frustrating for both you and the LOs.

preemieparent

My daughter is three and has had a gtube since she was 4 months old. 

Strangely enough the only eating "success" that we have had recently is with yogurt. She will tak about 5-7 bites, let it sit in her mouth and as it mixed with saliva she swallows it.  Since she normally will push food directly out of her mouth we consider it a huge step for her.

My daughter will happily put all sorts of food in her mouth. Heck, she can be quite demanding about getting some.  She'll let it sit there for a bit and then say all done.  We get her a napkin and she spits it out.

We have started and stopped feeding therapy several times (currently waiting to start once they find one with an opening) because she is on continous feeds and they felt that she won't progress until they could cut her feeds (so she felt hunger). I don't think that's the issue but once we get her weight gain going in the right direction I guess they'll try it.

What things have you tried so far?  I'm more than happy to trade notes with you

BTW - I have a question for you.  Since your daughter is a year older than mine - are you able to reason with her more or help her understand why she needs to eat/swallow food? Do you feel like she grasps the concept at all?  People kept saying that will be the case but I'm not entirely convinced it will.

lstaylor73

My twins (born approx. 11wks early at 28wks 6days) are on G tubes, previously GJ tubes since they were about 10mos old due to FTT caused by severe reflux/GERD.  They are now 22mos old.  Since having the feeding tubes placed they will not put food in their mouths.  They will drink a bit of milk from a cup or straw, never more than a couple of ounces at a time, usually less.  They will also on rare occasions take my fork that has ranch or blue cheese or some other teeny tiny bit of sauce on it and suck that, or take a teeny tiny bite of a Baby MumMum cracker and then gag and spit it out or vomit.  We are slated to start a feeding therapy clinic on April 27th and are pinning all our hopes on this being the thing that gets them to eat even one single food for more than a tiny taste. 

I too am very interested in your response to PreemieParent's question about reasoning and cognitive understanding of why they need to eat, etc.  The director of the clinic refused to take the boys before their 2nd birthday because it was the start of RSV season but more because he wanted them to be older so that they were more cognitively developed to understand concepts involving eating. 

 

NAJ

my daughter was a 24weeker (preemie) so everything was and is a challenge. My daughter is in feeding therapy and is now eating yogurt and some baby foods. She can't drink from a cup yet, she sticks her tongue out to take when you bring the cup to her mouth she can drink from a straw but mostly she drinks pediasure from a bottle to keep the weight up. I haven't yet even though I would like to try to let her get hungry to see if she would try more things. Anything with texture like oatmeal she will vomit if it gets in her mouth. She is now concepting some or all things I say to her at the table about eating. I think she's scared about not knowing what to to do and all very sensitive. She's just starting to talk because of speech so she can communicate more.

Any notes you want to share of ask please post me