Well, this week we reached one of those inchstones.
He'd been getting (since around February) the following as his basic minimum calories for the day:
- 2 8 oz bottles of whole milk with Carnation Brekfast Essentials (2 x 280 calories = 560)
- 1 8 oz bottle of milk with 1/8 cup baby cereal (190 calories)
- 1 10 oz smoothie (approx 350-400 calories)
total: 1100-1200 calories.
Now, since we started this, Acorn has improved his eating. The most he's ever eaten is a whole 4 oz container of yogurt, but he's gotten more consistent about eating 2-3 ounces of food of various sorts in the morning and at lunch. It's not quite enough for me to really start counting all the calories, but I'm guessing it's around 50-100 most days, so we're getting there.
He's also been requesting more milk - at least one full bottle, sometimes two. That milk alone is 150-300 calories a day.
So. since he's getting consdierably more calories than he really needs, we're going to cut the volume on his midnight feeding. If we split that into 4 feedings instead of three, we'll lose about 100 calories there, and it'll be 7.5 oz instead of 10, which should be easier to digest, allowing more hunger during the morning...which hopefully will result in more eating.
This is the first time we've reduced g-tube feedings in a good 10 months or more. One step at a time towards getting rid of the g-tube...and that's without any help from the feeding therapist!
Hooray and congrats on meeting those inchstones! I love this way of looking at things. Sometimes it's so easy to forget about the little achievements! My guy hit an inchstone (or maybe a milestone, actually!) this week too, and I'm also hoping we're one step closer to getting rid of his NG tube. Hope you continue to make progress!!
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