Day 2: The Groove

I'm still so excited to be here! This feeding program is awesome! It's a ton of work though.  We are getting in the groove of our new schedule and the routines here at camp CHOC.  Trying to get a child to eat food who has rarely eaten in her whole four years of life is way harder than you think. I know it's difficult to understand but this is my reality and Whitneys too. I'm learning some new ideas of how to help her take bigger bites and stay focused on the mealtime. 

Today for breakfast with the therapist Whitney ate an inch of toast, licked bacon, and 1 1/2 ounces of strawberry boost kids essential. 

For snack with me she ate a 1/4 of the cheddar cheese slice, few bites of apple, 2 teddy Graham's, and a little grape juice. 

For lunch and afternoon snack she ate with the therapist. She gets a new teacher for each meal of the day. So far I think I like all of them and Whitney seems to be responding well to them too.  The meals are lasting about 45-60mins each. That means half of our day is spent around food and trying to help Whitney eat! Like I said, it's a lot of work! She did well for her meals but got upset one time when the therapist cut off the tip of the banana to try to put it on a spoon or cut it up small. Apparently Whitney thinks that's the wrong way to do it and it was unedible  then ;) but the therapist did a great job of bringing her back to try another food and not focus on the banana or tears. 

Whitney gets her own wagon! So cute! 

Afterwards we got to go to turtle talk with Crush! It was so fun! Whitney really loves it and got to talk to Crush! 

 

Then we walked outside for a bit for some fresh air. We ran around and played together too. I love making my girl smile. And she of course always makes me smile. 

We went to the family resource center for some books, coloring, and watched part of Planes. 

Whitney likes to "write" in her journal while I do too. 

Whitney and I had spaghetti, sauce, and meatballs for dinner. She licked the sauce from her fingers 20-30 times and ate about a quarter of a small meatball by taking tiny nibbles at a time. 

Then we went to the play room for about 30 minutes to make some crafts!  Whitney and I love making crafts and they have everything there!!

We had snack late because we showered first. She had a berry banana smoothie  and animal crackers but she didn't eat the animal crackers. Instead she saw baby carrots in the fridge and wanted those. So I put 4 carrots on her plate. She drink about 20 sips of her smoothie!  She ate one baby carrot but on the last bite she put a big chunk in her mouth, I tried to get her to spit it out but she wouldn't and tried to keep chewing it. But soon enough she gagged and threw up everything. Oh sad!  Then she ate a half carrot more and few sips of smoothie.  So the meal ended well. 

Then we brushed our teeth, said our prayers, sang a song, and got in bed.  The nurse came in with her meds and formula. Still getting the periactin and zantac. Tube feeding of 480mls of compleate pediatric from 9 pm to 1am. It's so nice that the nurses set it up and even come in to turn it off so I can sleep!! 

Weight: 15.4 kg