Faith's Blended Diet and Other Things that Help with Her Digestion

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This page contains affiliate links and Faith's Mom may earn a commission if you use them. As an Amazon Associate, Faith's Mom earns from qualifying purchases.  Learn more.   Ever since Faith was born, she has struggled with her digestion. When she was in the NICU, she would spit up after eating even the tiniest amount of formula. Her dad and I were convinced her tummy was too small to handle large volumes of food. Sometimes when she ate, her heart rate would drop really low, which is why she needed to be in the NICU for longer. She just could not get the hang of eating and breathing at the same time!  Faith receiving food through an NG tube in the NICU.  Grandma giving Faith a bottle when she was 2 months old.  After finally bringing her home, eating continued to be an issue as she struggled with severe reflux and constipation. We tried various formulas, but she was never able to drink enough formula to gain a lot of weight. She also had trouble burping, and she...
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Concerns for Faith

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This week has definitely been interesting for our family. I started my new work schedule on Monday, and it was so wonderful crawling into bed with Faith in the morning and gently waking her up. When she realized I was in bed with her, she said, "Mommy, are you getting me ready for school today?" 

I pretended not to know how to get her ready for school, so she proceeded telling me what to do and in what order. When I gave her a kiss goodbye she had the sweetest smile on her face.

Me and my sweet little girl

Rob was able to drive me to work since he needed the van that day. It all worked out perfectly and I was so happy to have spent the first part of the morning with Faith. Now fast forward to Thursday. Faith woke up saying she didn't want me to get her ready for school and when I tried to start the routine she became quite upset and demanded me to call the school to cancel. Where oh where was my sweet little girl?

Her fit escalated to screaming and yelling for over an hour. It was impossible to bend her into her chair as all of the high tone in her body was operating at full force. I felt really bad when I left Rob to deal with her on his own but there wasn't much more I could do.

Friday morning went better, and she only went to school for half the day. In the afternoon she had an appointment with her pediatrician and then after that she was fitted for new foot orthotics. At her doctor's appointment, Rob discussed our concerns about her fatigue from a full week of school, her extreme gassiness, and some feeding issues. He gave us a prescription to deal with her overly gassy tummy and suggested giving Faith a few afternoons off from school during the week.

Because she is constantly fighting her tone all day long trying to do things like drive her chair, work on her computer and keeping her head up, she uses much more energy than her classmates. She burns her calories faster than they are given to her. No wonder she runs out of steam at the end of the week!
 
I am really concerned about her fatigue and I'm worried about her weight as well. The sensible solution would be to try and get more calories into her, but this usually results in negative digestive consequences. Her body can so easily get thrown off and out of balance. Soon, we're going to be starting another kind of pediasure with added protein and I really hope that helps.

After her doctor's appointment, Rob took her to get new foot orthotics. She may not be getting bigger around the waistline, but she is getting bigger feet! It is sort of a long process that involves cold, gooey paste-like stuff getting wrapped around her feet and just above her ankles. 

She was very patient and was glad to see everyone at pediatric rehab again. Since starting her therapies at school, she doesn't go over there as much anymore. Afterwards, she had to go home for a quick feeding, then they came to get me after work. We made it home just in time to watch Wheel of Fortune.

I'm thankful it is the weekend so Faith can get some rest. For me, I'm going to be spending a lot of time praying for wisdom on how we can best help our daughter during this stage of her life.

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