T21 feeding question

PipSqueak0313 · February 2014

@Kitchencolors maybe you know?

Ds2 is approaching his first birthday and I've been reading that by around a year babies should be off the bottle and feeding themselves......ds drinks from a NUK bottle with the learner spout but drinks from it the same as he did with the bottle nipples. He can't drink from a straw cup or a hard spout sippy cup. He is just starting to pick up finger foods but rarely gets it into his mouth. He eats mainly purees and is spoon fed. When I give him table/finger foods it has to be something that breaks up quickly or that is safe for him to swallow whole since to me he isn't chewing. The OT from the school district watched him eat last week but she mainly concentrated on his ability to pick up the food bits.

So do I throw out all the recommendations regarding feeding one year olds as milestones he's not ready to reach and continue feeding him the way we have been until he shows signs of being ready for sippy cups and self feeding or what?

ToastieSimons · February 2014

My boys don't have T21, but another genetic issue that causes significant global delays. DS1 used a bottle till past 3 years old. He's now on hard sippys and can eat almost everything but like plain grilled meat and chicken. He eats ground beef and ground turkey though. He cannot use utensils but will put all food in his mouth.

It took him till 18 months to even hold a bottle on his own and only in a reclined position. He couldn't hold it up. By 25 months he was sitting on the floor and holding his bottle high enough to drink from.

It took him till 12 month to even really start getting purees and took till about 18-20 month to even start getting macaroni.

I would say through out the 12 month worry about food and just take it at your child's rate. We started slow. Kraft Mac N cheese is super soft and swallowable even if unchewed. I started with a jar of puree and giving him 1/2 of a piece of noodle in between a few bites. He would only eat like 10 noodles at first. It wasn't about the chewing to me in the beginning, more about getting him used to different textures in his mouth. I would say after 3-4 month he was a pro at mac n cheese but took him a while to get further. Took him till about 2 to get mcdonald's cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets.

The other thing we did often was dipping. I would dip puffs in purees. We first had to start with walmart puffs, the little A shape was smaller than the Gerber puffs start shape. Then we switched to broken up yogurt melts. It took a long time to get DS1 to start finger feeding. But it came long before he was ready for a sippy. So I say keep offering and when you feel comfortable just start offering more and more quantity and types.

PipSqueak0313 · February 2014

@kitchencolors

Ds was diagnosed as failure to thrive at 6 months when he dropped from around 20-25% to around 10% on the ds growth chart for weight. At 10.5 months, his last weight check appointment, he weighed 15 pounds.

Ds can hold his bottles by himself, except when tired, as long as he is reclined in the high chair or our lap..

I think based on this that I will just not worry about trying to do more than offer cereal pieces and oyster crackers for practice before and after meals, and keep him on the purees and bottle feeding routine that he has been on for the past couple months.

Thanks

lemen99 · February 2014

I'm not familiar with T21, but is your little one in feeding therapy and/or OT? Sounds like he could use a little assistance with fine motor and/or the transition. Andrew had OT PT ST and feeding was difficult. We got to the point where he didn't want baby food, but he couldn't figure out/handle people food and it was difficult because there was nothing to feed him. The cup transition was very difficult at 15 months. Feeding therapy and OT for fine motor (he had both 1 hour a week) helped a lot

ToastieSimons · February 2014

PipSqueak0313 said:

@kitchencolors

Ds was diagnosed as failure to thrive at 6 months when he dropped from around 20-25% to around 10% on the ds growth chart for weight. At 10.5 months, his last weight check appointment, he weighed 15 pounds.

Ds can hold his bottles by himself, except when tired, as long as he is reclined in the high chair or our lap..

I think based on this that I will just not worry about trying to do more than offer cereal pieces and oyster crackers for practice before and after meals, and keep him on the purees and bottle feeding routine that he has been on for the past couple months.

Thanks

If he's starting to get more active and needs more calories you can always add formula and cereal to the purees. We would use some of the gerber stage 3 (banana, fruit medley, strawberry guava, and strawberry banana are all smooth, they're just thick) add formula and oatmeal until it was a consistency he would eat.

Have you tried pureeing what you're eating? I find the food we're eating is more calorie dense than a jar of fruit and water so I started offering that. I still do it for DS1 and DS2 (3.5 and 1.5). DS1 is tiny, 27 lbs at 3.5 and needs a ton of calories. So we do broccoli cheese soup, alfredo sauce and other high calorie foods and puree if needed.

We also give DS1 a bottle of pediasure a day. I add about 1/4 of a bottle to each of his drinks a day. It's just a nice 240 cal boost and now that he's on milk it adds a ton of vitamins.

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