Jordan was sick again about 2 weeks ago. This time it started with her just not digesting her food quickly. Instead of being ready to eat after 3 hours, it took her 5-6 hours to empty her stomach. That turned into cold-like symptoms, diarrhea, and lots of gagging and spitting up. The nurse had me drop the Boost 1.5 and dilute the Pediasure with Pedialite giving her less quantity at each feeding. We also started her on a feeding pump to deliver the food at a slower rate making it less likely to cause her stomach to get upset. We were also able to use the pump to deliver food throughout the night without me having to get up for night feedings. This illness eventually ended up with a pneumonia diagnosis based on an x-ray.
This worked it's way through our family as Conner, then Derrick, then I all got sick. We are now all feeling better and glad to have that behind us!
I was at first unsure what to think about the feeding pump. It seemed like we were going backwards with things. I have since come to see what a wonderful tool this is! In the past, it always took us quite a while to work Jordan back to normal feedings when she was sick. This meant a severe drop in nutrition and hydration for a long time (usually at least 1 1/2 -2 weeks) and often weight loss. With the pump we had Jordan taking much more food during the illness and back to non-diluted food within a week and few days later, back to the full quantity. We are still using it to deliver the food over a 1/2 hr but I will work on returning to bolus feedings this week. It will be nice to have on hand in case she gets sick again.
We had Jordan weighed just this past Wednesday and she was 19 lbs 13 oz! That's almost 20 pounds!! We are looking at moving her into a forward facing car seat probably within the next month. Since she will be 2 in June, that's a HUGE accomplishment for her!!
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