Tube Weaning - Day 4

Max may not yet know just what is going on, but he does seem to sense that things aren't quite the same. He must be feeling the inklings of hunger, and I'm not really sure he yet knows what that means. Again, he wasn't fed breakfast, and his lunch was a quarter its normal size.

Once he awoke from his afternoon nap, we sat on the floor to share a snack. He nibbled through some veggie straws, biting off the ends and tossing them back in to the bag (we'll have to work on his food manners later). He wasn't nearly as interested in food during his afternoon tube-meal. He threw most of his food to the floor and stared off into space.

After spending the afternoon playing and taking a walk around the neighbourhood he seemed to be a little more on board with this eating thing. During dinner he was offered some tortilla pieces with peanut butter, which he licked a few times before tossing to the floor, and some veggie cheese shreds which he shoveled into his mouth as skillfully as he could manage considering their size and shape. One fist after the other took turns bringing tiny pieces to his mouth and clumsily pushing them in. He gagged once, and recovered, and continued nibbling. He shortly became disinterested as his tube-meal reached his stomach. He finished off his meal with some sips of water from the grown-up cup.

Later, during bath, Max insisted on bringing a spoon in the tub with him. We played, scooping tiny spoonfuls into cups and stirring it up. Considering Max's fondness for drinking bath water, I thought I'd see if he'd let me practice spoon feeding him (as it stands he refuses to let anyone near his mouth with a spoon). He opened his mouth about a dozen times and drank each tiny spoonful of water. Now, most people aren't too thrilled with their kids trying to drink the bath water, but we'll take just about any bit of progress around here.

Tomorrow we'll be feeding Max his last official tube meal. Monday we'll all wake up and try our best to help Max nibble his way to becoming an eater. We're nervous, but excited to give Max the opportunity to show us what he can do.