Feeding clinic update

Today we had our first appointment with the feeding clinic at St Thomas's hospital and it was great. I just wish we'd been referred there months ago. The speech and language therapist was lovely. She didn't tell me anything I don't already know but reinforced everything I have been doing so great to get a professional tell me I'm doing it right. So I thought it might be helpful if I posted what she said as its the opposite of what some health visitors have been telling us! Those of you who have reflux babies and are struggling to wean, here's some useful tips!

1. Don't trick! Don't try hiding other foods in their "safe" foods. Emily will only eat baby rice. She refuses it when I mix in other purees. She told me not to mix as baby rice is something Emily feels is "safe". Also don't trick them to open their mouth or force the spoon in as it creates a negative association with food.

2. Give lots of finger foods. The lady told me to stick to baby rice for breakfast and lunch and to do finger foods at dinner. Ones that melt in the mouth are best if they don't like swallowing lumps.

3. Forget lumpy foods. Babies with reflux tend to hate lumpy foods as the sensation isn't pleasant at the back of their throats so skip lumps as go straight from purée to BLW. Also ignore the health visitors who say if you don't progress to lumps it affects their speech. She said its a myth and utter rubbish! No surprise there!

4. Reflux babies like strong tastes. Anything that masks the reflux. Probably why Emily yammed down taramasalata the other day!

5. Don't drop milk feeds to make them hungry! She said it takes around 3 weeks for the body's hunger instinct to kick in and by then they've lost too much weight. Dropping milk feeds to get them to eat more solids doesn't work for reflux babies. Better to get the milk and calories in.

Basically she said you're waiting for them to show an interest in food and feed themselves. She said if they want some of what you're eating, give it to them. They need to be in control and think eating is their idea. 

Hope that's helpful! I'm going to be making a ton of fruit and veg sticks in the oven now! She said purée lentils and pipe into sticks and bake in the oven til hard as finger food! Guess what I'm doing tomorrow then! Looks like there's no quick fix and it's still a long hard slog til she's eating normally, but at least I know what I'm doing is right... still no end in sight with the dream feeding though :(