Gimme those peas!

On December 19th, Will had his first taste of solid food. I have been nervous about this day since I found out he had a cleft palate. Even though I have done this before with Max and Cate, this time it would be different.

For those of you who don't know what a cleft palate is, it means that his soft palate in the roof of his mouth is non-existent. Therefore, feeding has been an issue from the beginning. He has no suction power since it is all open into his nasal cavity and sinuses. When he drinks his bottle, he doesn't actually suck the formula out of the bottle. Rather, his bottle nipples have been manipulated to have a very large hole so the formula actually pours into his mouth and he manipulates a swallow. As the months have gone by, he has learned to pace himself as not to flood himself and choke. In the beginning, we had to do the pacing for him by tipping his bottle every 4-5 swallows. When he burps, it often comes out of his nose, too. We have come to get used to this, but it was a bit terrifying in the beginning.

So, feeding solids and how he may eat differently than the other two has been somewhat of a daunting thought in my mind for months. The doctors and therapists have been very up front about explaining that he will eat like a normal child, it will just take a little practice and a few more steps along the way.

First, we are starting him on vegetables first instead of cereal. The reason for this is the cereal can tend to be thicker and get trapped in his nasal cavity and drying up there. As many of you moms know, dried cereal can turn into a thick paste that is hard to clean off a feeding bowl...imagine that happening up in his sinuses! Vegetables tend to be smoother and more liquidy.

Next, we have to "flush" his mouth and nasal cavities with swigs of water after 5-10 spoonfuls. This sounds worse than it really is. Basically, we just give him some water in a sippy cup and after a few swallows, he tend to breathe out of his nose and it "flushes" out the food in a very messy but effective manner. Again, as I mentioned before, he cannot suck, so spill proof sippy cups are not an option, since he can't suck the liquid through that valve. We simply take the valve out and give it to him. The only catch is that it can come out pretty fast, so we have to tip it for him until he gets used to it.

Lastly, we are to "hold off" on some fruits, such as peaches, apples, plums, as they can be more acidic. Imagine having orange juice come out your nose. Yeah, not a pleasant thought! We were told by his surgeon and therapists that these tend to burn up in their sinuses and nasal cavity. So, until he gets down the rhythm of eating and getting less food up in the roof and nose, we will hold of those. However, we might try bananas soon.

So, far, he loves eating!!! Despite the messiness and occasional uncomfortableness (is that a word?), he devours these solids. He has tried peas and green beans and the next is carrots and squash!