Ethan's Eating Evolution

We've gone through a lot of feeding techniques with Ethan. It's been a time consuming and frustrating process, but we are finally seeing some progress and hopefully he will start to put on a little more weight. At his last check up, he had only gained 1 oz. since 9 months of age and only 9 oz. since 6 months of age. He's grown 1 inch in height since 9 months. He definitely stopped following his 95% curve and has dropped to the 20's%. He weighs 21 lbs. 1 oz. and is 29.5 inches tall.

Here's a little history of what we've tried, and what has and hasn't worked. This may be a boring post on here, so feel free to skip. I just needed to record his progress for Ethan's journal, so here it is.

Ethan gagged and threw up when trying:
rice cereal, mixed grain cereal, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, green beans, saltine crackers, graham crackers, cheerios, bread, Nilla wafers, noodles, applesauce, biter biscuits, prunes & apples, bananas, cows milk from a sippy or a bottle, breastmilk from a sippy or a bottle, breastmilk from a spoon, & breastmilk from a medicine dropper.

After doing some touch therapy with a wet washcloth and a toothbrush, we were able to have a little success with some foods with just gagging and no throwing up. These foods were graham crackers and mixed grain cereal. Then he went through a stage of refusing the mixed grain cereal again, but not throwing it up. Then the rest of the process is recorded below.

Mixed Grain Cereal—refused the spoon, showed interest in putting his hands in the bowl, played with the bowl, stuck his hands in the cereal, tried some on his thumb but didn't gag, threw the bowl on the floor, lost interest and didn’t put any more of it in his mouth. Fail!
Mixed Grain Cereal--one week later we've been successful with getting a little mixed grain cereal in him now. We add apple juice concentrate to the cereal with some water, then put a dab of the cereal on his lip for him to explore. Then we touch the spoon to his chin which prompts him to open his mouth. (For you Everybody Loves Raymond fans, yes we have a little Robert on our hands =). As long as the consistency is pretty smooth and not too thick he will eat 10-15 spoonfuls. Pass!
Banana—I cut up pieces for him. He picked each one up and threw it on the floor. I cut up a few more to try again. He smashed them flat then swiped them all to the floor. I cut up some more and took a bite myself, then held it up for his mouth. He tried an ants portion and stuck his tongue out and gagged. He did show interest in 1/2 a banana, so I let him hold it instead of cutting it up. He tried a couple of tastes that way, but still didn't like it. He ended up smearing it all over the table. We'll try this one again in a few weeks. Fail!
Honeycomb—ate 5 pieces of honeycomb cereal. Ate another 4 that had softened up in milk. We've now learned that he loves honeycomb. Yea! The pediatrician recommended we try to get him to eat by giving him Cheetos. Yes, you read that right Cheetos. The pediatrician cringed at the recommendation but said something about having it dissolve easier in his mouth, even if it has zero nutrition. I figured Honeycomb cereal is about the same consistency, with maybe a few more vitamins. It worked. Pass!
Graham Cracker—ate 1/2 graham cracker on his own. =) He now will eat as many graham crackers as we'll feed him. Pass!
Goats Milk—I served him about a ¼ C. in his sippy. He chewed on the sippy, and dripped some into his mouth. He threw it around a bit, chewed on it some more. Probably got a couple teaspoons in his mouth. A few days later I tried giving him goats milk again. This time I added a little vanilla and agave to sweeten it up a bit. He liked the taste of it, but still chewed more than sucked on the sippy. With time he's gotten a little bit better with the sippy and seems to really like the milk. Pass!

Other things that he seems to like are green beans (whole, not pureed), pasta, steamed broccoli, homemade bread, lasagna, butternut squash, saltine crackers, Nilla wafers, and yogurt with a little apples & prunes mixed in. Pass! Pass! Pass!

Now we just have to get his digestive system used to all these foods. It's a little harder to process than mommy's milk. He still nurses a lot, which I'm fine with as long as I know he's getting enough other nutrition and will hopefully start gaining a little weight.

Can you hear the Hallelujah chorus that I'm now singing? This has been a long journey to get this far. We're so excited about his progress.

Shaylin was very proud of these pictures she took of him eating/drinking and asked me to post them when she saw I was doing a post on his eating issues. So here they are: