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December 2013 Moms
BootsOrHearts
member
Occupational Therapist FAIL (long, sorry)
BootsOrHearts
member
We were referred to her to see if she could help establish nursing now that his tongue/lip have been revised. I have to use bullets to list all the fails because there are so many:
1. We went to her because of nursing issues, I reiterated this at the beginning but she only she wanted to talk about was how he ate from a bottle
2. After 10 seconds of watching him eat where she held the bottle at full throttle with all the milk in the nipple (we hold it horizontally so he can pace himself) she said that wasn't the right nipple for him
3. She said because he was gasping and choking, he had bad reflux (after eating for 10 seconds) and the prevacid we were giving him wasn't working
4. She gave us an enfamil brand slow-flow nipple and said to use those instead. It was a one-time use disposable nipple. She gave us 5 of them (oh yipppe, that will last us 2 hours!)
5. The nipple she gave us she claimed fit on a 'standard' bottle. Well based on a quick survey of bottles available at BRU later that night, it turns out very few bottlemakers make 'standard' size anymore, they are almost all wide neck. Furthermore, I have only wide neck and really don't want to throw them all away and start over with a new bottle size, thanks.
6. The enfamil nipples are not sold in stores. There is no mention of nipples on their website and a google search reveals - you can buy them in large boxes of several hundred disposables, obviously meant for hospitals. I sent an email to Enfamil and expect they will tell me the same.
7. She said to elevate the head of his bed for the reflux. The doctors at the NICU specifically told us there is no medical evidence to support this practice and not to do it.
8. She said his problem was probably due to the fact that he was born early and is still too small to have coordinated mouth movements (He's over 3 months old and weighs 12 pounds today, poor tiny thing)
9. She said because he can't eat properly, he will probably be delayed in all his motor skills milestones (I guess he didn't get the memo because he's had full head control for 2 weeks and he rolled over this weekend, both earlier than the standard milestones)
10. She scheduled him for a swallowing study which involves taking x-rays while he eats formula laced with some flourescent dye. That's what babies need, x-rays exposure! That will be duly cancelled after verifying with the pediatrician.
11. If the swallowing study shows he's refluxing, we will have to thicken his formula (say rice cereal, pleeeeease say rice cereal so I can mock you later) and oh by the way, it's hard to thicken breastmilk so we should just use formula instead. Oh sure, let's toss out all the hard-earned BM I've pumped all these months, because fuck it.
12. Just for funsies, we used the new nipples last night. Instead of sleeping 5-6 hours at a time after eating 5-6 ounces, he would fall asleep after eating 2 ounces or so, then wake up hungry again in two hours. This morning I feel like Gary Bussey looks
About halfway through the appointment, Isaac let her know exactly how he felt. He looked right at her, scrunched up his face, grunted and shat loudly.
I placed the new nipples in a safe place this morning.
1. We went to her because of nursing issues, I reiterated this at the beginning but she only she wanted to talk about was how he ate from a bottle
2. After 10 seconds of watching him eat where she held the bottle at full throttle with all the milk in the nipple (we hold it horizontally so he can pace himself) she said that wasn't the right nipple for him
3. She said because he was gasping and choking, he had bad reflux (after eating for 10 seconds) and the prevacid we were giving him wasn't working
4. She gave us an enfamil brand slow-flow nipple and said to use those instead. It was a one-time use disposable nipple. She gave us 5 of them (oh yipppe, that will last us 2 hours!)
5. The nipple she gave us she claimed fit on a 'standard' bottle. Well based on a quick survey of bottles available at BRU later that night, it turns out very few bottlemakers make 'standard' size anymore, they are almost all wide neck. Furthermore, I have only wide neck and really don't want to throw them all away and start over with a new bottle size, thanks.
6. The enfamil nipples are not sold in stores. There is no mention of nipples on their website and a google search reveals - you can buy them in large boxes of several hundred disposables, obviously meant for hospitals. I sent an email to Enfamil and expect they will tell me the same.
7. She said to elevate the head of his bed for the reflux. The doctors at the NICU specifically told us there is no medical evidence to support this practice and not to do it.
8. She said his problem was probably due to the fact that he was born early and is still too small to have coordinated mouth movements (He's over 3 months old and weighs 12 pounds today, poor tiny thing)
9. She said because he can't eat properly, he will probably be delayed in all his motor skills milestones (I guess he didn't get the memo because he's had full head control for 2 weeks and he rolled over this weekend, both earlier than the standard milestones)
10. She scheduled him for a swallowing study which involves taking x-rays while he eats formula laced with some flourescent dye. That's what babies need, x-rays exposure! That will be duly cancelled after verifying with the pediatrician.
11. If the swallowing study shows he's refluxing, we will have to thicken his formula (say rice cereal, pleeeeease say rice cereal so I can mock you later) and oh by the way, it's hard to thicken breastmilk so we should just use formula instead. Oh sure, let's toss out all the hard-earned BM I've pumped all these months, because fuck it.
12. Just for funsies, we used the new nipples last night. Instead of sleeping 5-6 hours at a time after eating 5-6 ounces, he would fall asleep after eating 2 ounces or so, then wake up hungry again in two hours. This morning I feel like Gary Bussey looks
About halfway through the appointment, Isaac let her know exactly how he felt. He looked right at her, scrunched up his face, grunted and shat loudly.
I placed the new nipples in a safe place this morning.
**Warning: Losses and living child mentioned**
BFP#1 1/31/12, EDD 10/6/12 Harrison Gray born sleeping @ 18w6d. You changed our lives little guy.
BFP#2 EDD 10/29/13, C/P 2/25/13, Bye little Ish, we barely got to know you.
BFP#3 EDD 12/21/13, Baby Boots born 11/23/13 My rainbow baby!
January PAL Siggy Challenge: Good Advice
BFP#1 1/31/12, EDD 10/6/12 Harrison Gray born sleeping @ 18w6d. You changed our lives little guy.
BFP#2 EDD 10/29/13, C/P 2/25/13, Bye little Ish, we barely got to know you.
BFP#3 EDD 12/21/13, Baby Boots born 11/23/13 My rainbow baby!
January PAL Siggy Challenge: Good Advice
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Occupational Therapist FAIL (long, sorry)
BFP#1 1/31/12, EDD 10/6/12 Harrison Gray born sleeping @ 18w6d. You changed our lives little guy.
BFP#2 EDD 10/29/13, C/P 2/25/13, Bye little Ish, we barely got to know you.
BFP#3 EDD 12/21/13, Baby Boots born 11/23/13 My rainbow baby!
January PAL Siggy Challenge: Good Advice
I'm not an expert and don't know if you tried it already but.... Have you tried a nipple shield? It may help baby to nurse directly from you because it's easier to latch onto and saves you pumping and bottle feeding.
Also DS1 used the disposable nipples while in the NICU and we purchased gerber nipples and they are exactly the same. I'm not sure if they are sold in the wide mouth bottles or not but they may compare to the playtex ventair ones and those are available in wide mouth.
Good luck and I hope it all works out.
We did end up buying some other brands of slow flow nipples to try: tommee tippee, playtex makes one and MAM I think. So we'll see if we like any of those.
BFP#1 1/31/12, EDD 10/6/12 Harrison Gray born sleeping @ 18w6d. You changed our lives little guy.
BFP#2 EDD 10/29/13, C/P 2/25/13, Bye little Ish, we barely got to know you.
BFP#3 EDD 12/21/13, Baby Boots born 11/23/13 My rainbow baby!
January PAL Siggy Challenge: Good Advice
BFP#1 1/31/12, EDD 10/6/12 Harrison Gray born sleeping @ 18w6d. You changed our lives little guy.
BFP#2 EDD 10/29/13, C/P 2/25/13, Bye little Ish, we barely got to know you.
BFP#3 EDD 12/21/13, Baby Boots born 11/23/13 My rainbow baby!
January PAL Siggy Challenge: Good Advice
BFP#1 1/31/12, EDD 10/6/12 Harrison Gray born sleeping @ 18w6d. You changed our lives little guy.
BFP#2 EDD 10/29/13, C/P 2/25/13, Bye little Ish, we barely got to know you.
BFP#3 EDD 12/21/13, Baby Boots born 11/23/13 My rainbow baby!
January PAL Siggy Challenge: Good Advice
And like what someone else said, have you tried a nipple shield?
@AmyG* Yes we are trying a few different ones to see if we can find something better. And good to know about the breastmilk!
BFP#1 1/31/12, EDD 10/6/12 Harrison Gray born sleeping @ 18w6d. You changed our lives little guy.
BFP#2 EDD 10/29/13, C/P 2/25/13, Bye little Ish, we barely got to know you.
BFP#3 EDD 12/21/13, Baby Boots born 11/23/13 My rainbow baby!
January PAL Siggy Challenge: Good Advice