How This Tube Fed Baby Also Safely Started Solid Foods with @walkietalkieeats Brooke Tibbett

0 (0s):

What are the best foods for your baby when you're starting Baby-Led Weaning now, there are no right or wrong foods for starting solid foods safely, but if you are looking for inspiration and ideas on foods your baby can eat. I have a free feeding guide called 10 Easy Starter Foods for Baby-Led Weaning. That will give you a bit of a roadmap. I packed this feeding guide full with two weeks full of new solid foods that your baby can eat. And I also include tips on how to make them safer in order to lower the choking risk. So you can download this free feeding guide again, it's called 10 Easy Starter Foods for Baby-Led Weaning It has prep descriptions in there as well.

0 (42s):

Go to babyledweaning.co/resources. Again, that's babyledweaning.co/resources to download the 10 Easy Starter Foods for Baby-Led Weaning Free Feeding guide. How is the mental load of motherhood going for you? This baby stuff is a lot, right? Well my goal is to give you one less thing to worry about and that's, hmm, what am I gonna feed the baby. If you are looking for a one stop solution that literally teaches you exactly how to safely help your baby learn how to eat real food. I wanna invite you to join my signature online program called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. This is the most comprehensive Baby-Led Weaning Program out there.

0 (1m 23s):

I give you 20 weeks of meal plans for Baby-Led Weaning to help your baby safely eat five new foods a week, which means they're going to finish their a hundred first foods before turning one. As one mom who recently joined the program said quote, our lifestyle does not give us any mental capacity to think more about what to do with this baby. This program caters to our needs inside of the program. I have my hundred first foods content library to show you exactly how to safely prepare all of the hundred first foods for your baby's current age and stage. My 100 First Foods daily meal plan is also included in there. It's all in one place. And a mom in our program, she said she joined because "I'm too tired of trying to figure out so many different things at once.

0 (2m 3s):

I want someone to tell me what to do to catch up my nine month so we can stop using the same familiar foods we've been feeding her". If, you are a type A organized per person or like let's say you wanna be that kind of person, you wanna be more organized in what you feed your baby. Then I created the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program for you. You can sign up at babyledweaning.co/program. I have one program with all the stuff you need inside of it to get this thing done and get on with your life. Again, that's babyledweaning.co/program. Check it out and I hope to see you there.

1 (2m 37s):

We tried throttling her when she would eat. We tried different bottles, we tried different flows. Is it too fast? Is it too slow? We tried feeding her on her side. We tried feeding her in different environments, like something more quiet away from the toddler, which was very difficult. We tried all these different things and nothing was helping and her SLP mentioned reflux, right? And so we put her on reflux meds, which she did have, but that was not the issue. And our SLP was like, okay, I think she needs a swallow study done to actually see is she aspirating what's going on? Because the swallow study could also see like if she was pooling. So pooling is where they kind of store it in their mouth somewhere and then all of a sudden they swallow it later and they're like, whoa, what was that?

0 (3m 12s):

Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered Dietician, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning. Here on the Baby-Led Weaning made easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using Baby-Led Weaning. I know everybody trash talks Instagram and that it's a terrible place, but I would like to share that I happen to love certain aspects of Instagram, namely the parents that I get to meet and the stories that I hear about helping their babies transition to solid foods. And, one mom that I met online, her name is Brooke, she has an Instagram account called Walkie-Talkie Eats.

0 (3m 57s):

So her first baby was born in 2021 and he did Baby-Led Weaning. They followed my hundred first foods approach. He was posting all about his fppds and I remember celebrating his hundred first foods. Then you know, people kind of disappear from your online life, you don't think anything about it. And I'm like, oh, walkie-talkie eats pops back up in my feed. I'm like, who's this baby? It's not Walker. Second baby, baby Salem. Her baby is on a G-tube, a tube thing to help her get her nutrition. So I start DMing with the mom like, what's going on? How are you guys doing? The tube feeding and the solid foods, amazing story about this baby's introduction into the world. Lots of challenges, learning how to drink milk, silent aspiration, struggles for six months of age and then it comes time for the baby to start solid foods and the baby's on a tube feed at this point.

0 (4m 40s):

So I wanted to invite mom, Brooke, on to talk about her experience the second time around with her baby Salem, how they navigated having a tube feed, which they eventually, I don't wanna ruin the story for you, but she just weaned off of the tube feed and now this baby just a few days before one year of age is eating independently, getting most of her nutrition from food, despite the fact that like she was failure to thrive, she was growth faltering, they were struggling all over the board just a few months ago. And so not all tube feeding stories and very, very happy like this one. And I actually didn't know how this one was going to end until we did the interview, but I'm really excited for you guys to hear Brooke's story because I think there's a lot of takeaway messages for here about perseverance and dealing with feeding challenges and when things don't look like you expected them to.

0 (5m 24s):

And you'll hear mom constantly referring to, I felt so disorganized when we got home. Or you know, we didn't have foods or I didn't know what order we were gonna go in. Or she couldn't eat these certain foods and yet they still persevered by introducing a great variety of foods. And I think really, really helped their child by blending both the knowledge that Brooke and her family were getting from the credentialed feeding experts, the GI doctor, the speech language pathologist, the registered dietician that they were working with. But combining that with their own expertise and knowing that they know their baby best and really helping to develop a plan that worked for her that for a while involved the tube feeding and solid foods. And she's gonna tell us how, how she eventually got to wean the baby off of the tube feeding and onto solid foods just before her first birthday.

0 (6m 4s):

She's almost at a hundred foods. So with no further ado, I want to introduce you to the mom behind Walkie Talkie Eats. This is Brooke Tibbett and her story about how her tube-fed baby, also, safely started solid foods.

1 (6m 24s):

Hi, thank you. I'm so excited to be here and talking to you.

0 (6m 27s):

Oh, well in our intro I explained to the audience a little bit of your backstory, how you did Baby-Led Weaning you did the a hundred first foods approach with your first baby, your son Walker, who's two and a half now. I was excited to see you back on Instagram with Salem, your daughter, but this is a much different foray into solid foods for your family. So I know when Salem was just starting that transition, you had mentioned she has a G-tube 'cause she, you said she severely aspirates on even thickened liquids. So I'm sure that this world of tube feeding was new to you too. But can you explain what a g-tube is and how it was helping Salem get her nutrition earlier on in infancy?

1 (7m 2s):

Yeah, so her G-tube is, it's in her stomach and it's basically like a little, almost like a little port that you can attach a tube to so that you could do her feeding through it. And it kind of just circumvents her whole mouth and swallowing system because that was the problem is that she aspirates, which means her liquid goes down her like windpipe instead of her esophagus where it needs to be.

0 (7m 22s):

How did you first know that she was having issues with aspiration? Like obviously you'd had a child previously, but every child is different at, at what age or what point did you start noticing that she was having some swallowing challenges?

1 (7m 33s):

It sounds really weird. I knew there was just something weird, even like when I was pregnant with her, which sounds really weird, I just had this mom intuition that I, there was something wrong and then when she was super little like newborn couple weeks old, she would choke on her food. It would be like a, you know, and it was like this little thing that would happen and it wasn't super frequent but it was enough to note and she became over time, like the next couple months that developed it became more and more frequent and then she just became really difficult to feed. She would turn her head away and she would be squirmy the whole time. You think, oh she's full. But she wasn't, we were struggling to even get like 22 ounces in her a day. It was, it was a struggle.

0 (8m 11s):

So you were bottle feeding her at that point?

1 (8m 13s):

Yeah. So she couldn't breastfeed. She had a really hard time. She was getting really tiny and sick so we didn't breastfeed so we switched over to formula and that was when we saw, okay, so this is happening. And we brought it up to her pediatrician. Pediatrician was like, she looks like maybe she sucks funny. So she sent her to the SLP and the SLP was like, she definitely sucks fine, there's something else going on here and we need to figure out what it is.

0 (8m 34s):

How did you get that referral from your pediatrician to the speech language pathologist? Because I think right there for a lot of parents, like I know in certainly a lot of cases if you're a first time parent, sometimes the doctors kind of blow you off like oh no, no, no, no, every baby's different or your baby just does weird stuff with their mouth. Like I'm sure you had to be an advocate for your own child along the way. What enticed you or what encouraged you to like really push for that referral with a speech language pathologist?

1 (8m 57s):

This the whole journey was me trying to advocate. To advocate severely for her because yes, that happens constantly to parents. And yeah, with her ped it wasn't as big of an issue. Her ped was more like, I brought it up, I said it was happening and she was like, okay, well let me see. And so she put her like finger in her mouth to try and test her suck and she felt like something felt weird, which it didn't, I don't know, maybe she, she was just off that day, I don't know, like Salem was maybe off that day. But yeah, so she was like, well maybe let's just go ahead and send her to an SLP. And so that part was really easy. The more of the advocating came once we were, you know, further down our, in our journey, especially near the hospital and all of that stuff going on.

0 (9m 36s):

So what happened next? After your doctor says, okay, something's going on, you are concerned that she's choking on milk, essentially not getting full nutrition from the milk, you know something's wrong. You get this referral to a speech language pathologist, what happens next?

1 (9m 49s):

So Salem was like three-ish months old by the time referrals go through and you can actually get an appointment 'cause outpatient stuff takes forever. So she was about three months old and she started seeing our SLP, Cara and we love her, she's fantastic. But she just started trying on every possible thing that could make sale more comfortable. We tried swaddling her when she would eat, we tried different bottles, we tried different flows. Is it too fast? Is it too slow? We tried sweeping her on her side. We tried feeding her in different environments, like something more quiet away from the toddler, which was very difficult. We tried all these different things and nothing was helping. And her SLP mentioned reflux, right? And so we put her on reflux meds, which she did have, but that was not the issue. And our SLP was like, okay, I think she needs a swallow study done to actually see is she aspirating what's going on?

1 (10m 32s):

Because the swallow study could also see like if she was pooling. So pooling is where they kind of store it in their mouth somewhere and then all of a sudden they swallow it later and they're like, whoa, what was that?

0 (10m 41s):

Can I ask how long after you had started meeting with the SLP? Like it sounded that you're working on a lot of management versus like trying to understand what the underlying condition was. Like how long after you started working was it until the SLP recommended the swallow study?

1 (10m 56s):

I think it was about a month I think it was about a month of working with her before she recommended the swallow study. And then the problem with that is the swallow study wants to, recommendation goes through and once you finally can get an appointment, Salem was almost six months old.

0 (11m 8s):

Oh my gosh. And you're like, oh my gosh, my baby's not getting enough nutrition the whole time.

1 (11m 12s):

Yeah, it was insane. And by the time that she got to the swallow study, she was absolutely a nightmare to feed. She would, she was constantly wiggling and fighting against the bottle and like she was hungry. It was not that she wasn't, she was very hungry. We were struggling to get like 22 ounces in her a day. She was tiny at six months old she was wearing zero to three month clothes. So she was very.. I

0 (11m 31s):

can't believe you guys were dealing with this for six months of age.

1 (11m 34s):

Yeah, and it's..

0 (11m 35s):

Oh my gosh.

1 (11m 36s):

It's just how like we couldn't get an appointment. You know, I took, I literally took the first available appointment they gave us for the swallow study and it, I even went on the wrong day. I went on the wrong day because I thought, I assumed it was the same month that we, that we scheduled it in. So I went all the way to the office and they were like, your appointment's next month. And we're like, oh awesome.

0 (11m 52s):

Wow. Okay. So what does a swallow study entail? What happened?

1 (11m 56s):

So basically they give her a barium solution that, you know, it's not formula, it's like some sort of barium solution that they can actually watch on an X-ray. They can see all the, the liquid go into her mouth. Where does it go? Does it go up her nose? Does it go down her esophagus, down her windpipe? Where does it going? Is she pulling it? And it actually did go up her nose once but, but she swallows it on the X-ray through different levels. They test her on like very thin, so it's like a level one. And then they do level two, level three and level four is moderately thick or a honey thick. They changed the terminology sometime ago. So it's moderately thick. And, it was described to me that like basically like If you held water in your hands, it would slip through your fingers but If you held like oh oatmeal or like apples auce, it might not slip through your fingers.

1 (12m 39s):

And so aspiration is similar where you might have a child who aspirates on thin liquid but not moderately thick. So you just have to thicken it for a while and then you slowly work your way down back to a thin.

0 (12m 49s):

So, do they figure out is there a stricture? Was there, what was going on? Why was she aspirating? Did you find out the underlying reason? I know you started working with the GI doctor at that point as well.

1 (12m 59s):

Yeah. So after that swallow study they confirmed, yeah, she's severely aspirating. Not just when the times that we were seeing her choking, but it was silent too, which is even more so dangerous. And it was happening really frequently. And they sent us home, they basically, at the appointment they said you have two options. You can go to the hospital now or you can go home on a moderately thick and try it for a bit and see and if she aspirates it then you need to go to the hospital because oatmeal isn't sterile like formula. So she aspirates oatmeal, her pneumonia risk goes up. So we went home with it and she made it about two days and then she aspirated visibly.

0 (13m 32s):

Wait, aspirated on formula or you had, you like went for it to start solid foods.

1 (13m 35s):

So, this was, we hadn't started solid foods yet 'cause we were still trying to figure out the formula and she was, she turned six months old but it was just barely six months. And we were doing the thickened, the moderately thickened formula and she aspirated that.

0 (13m 48s):

So you were thickening it at home yourself or did it come pre-thickened?

1 (13m 51s):

We had to thicken it. We thickened it with oatmeal. The options are rice, cereal and oatmeal. And I'm not a big fan of rice cereal. So oatmeal, it's oatmeal powder, it's for babies in the like the box. So, that's what we were using to thicken it.

0 (14m 2s):

So, but when you were working the SLP prior to doing the test, like didn't the SLP trial different levels of thickness of formula as part of her therapy?

1 (14m 11s):

We didn't. So, I think that at the time we were really trying to, we had to do one thing a week.

0 (14m 15s):

Yeah, it's so you were mentioning baby steps like that is, that's brutal. One thing a week. Oh my gosh.

1 (14m 21s):

Right? So we could only make one change a week. So we started with like the basics and then once she realized the basics changes weren't helping, that was when she had said, okay, let's do the s, let's do the swallow study. But it took, so to get the swallow study we're still seeing her and we were still trying different things and it was again one new thing a week. So, all those things I listed earlier were just each week.

0 (14m 41s):

Hey we're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp thinking about my 2024 goals and how it's just kind of human nature to focus on the stuff that we do wrong. Instead of celebrating what's going well, right. Well this year, I wanna ride the wave of things that are already headed in the right direction. Like personally being more productive in the limited number of hours that I have to work while my kids are at school. And therapy helps you find your strengths so you can ditch extreme resolutions and make changes that really stick. I'm a relatively new convert to therapy. Last year was the first year that I worked with a better help therapist and I learned some very positive coping skills as well as some useful tactics for setting boundaries that I hope to carry into the new year.

0 (15m 31s):

If, you are thinking of starting therapy give BetterHelp a try. BetterHelp offers convenient, flexible, affordable therapy totally online. You fill out a brief questionnaire and get matched with a licensed therapist and you can switch therapists with better help at any time for no additional charge. Celebrate the progress you've already made, visit betterhelp.com/weaning today to get 10% off your first month.

0 (16m 12s):

That's betterhelp.com/weaning to get started with BetterHelp.

1 (16m 14s):

Okay, so when did the recommendation come to start a tube feeding. So that was in the hospital. So in the hospital. So after she aspirated we went to our ped was like, yeah you need to go to the hospital, I can't do anything for you. So she was in the hospital for like eight days and they did some tests. They tried to see if there's any physical abnormalities. And, there wasn't, there was no physical abnormalities. And the GI doctor comes in the room and this was, it was a shock to me deeply because they told us GI was gonna fix it, like GI was gonna stick out what's wrong, they're gonna fix it. And then he walks in, he starts talking about G-tube and I was, I was very overwhelmed. I was like, what are you saying to me right now? You're gonna put a hole in my child that I'm gonna feed her through. Are you joking? Like and..

0 (16m 54s):

You don't know what's wrong..

1 (16m 55s):

And we don't know what's wrong. And that was really frustrating 'cause it was like, you're the doctors, you're, you're supposed to figure this out. Like you're telling me you have no idea. And this just happened like they, they told me, they were like, this just happens sometimes, like some kids just do this. And I was like, that seems really undetermined. I don't understand, I don't understand that one.

0 (17m 14s):

But also I need to feed my baby.

1 (17m 15s):

Yeah, but also she needs nutrition and she had it NG Tube as soon as she went to the hospital because they were like, you're not feeding her. They, she went like 14 hours without eating because that's how long it takes you to get to the hospital and then you know, admitted and then an NG Tube. So..

0 (17m 29s):

So an NG Tube for people who don't know, it's just a nasal gastric tube. So they put it in, it's for temporary nutrition. They usually do it in inpatient setting. So it's gonna go in through the nose and then up and then down into the stomach and then you do low level slow feeds through that. But that's not long term. Like long term they're like okay we're gonna put a little port in her belly to feed her. At any point does a registered dietician get involved?

1 (17m 50s):

Yes. So we had a dietician, we had a lot of different teams in the hospital, but we had ENT, GI, peds, dieticians, SOPs, the dietician, she was in the hospital. She was, they were doing the math that Salem needed a lot of formula because she was so small and that was difficult. And that was one of those things where I'm talking about advocating for your, for your kids because Salem was literally throwing the formula back up. Like she was..

0 (18m 14s):

Yeah.

1 (18m 14s):

She was getting sick because, and she was uncomfortable and I was like, she can't do this much.

0 (18m 19s):

No, that's refeeding syndrome. If you baby is malnourished. You can't just go ramp it up to a hundred percent. You have to, I, I mean the dietician obviously knows that, but you have to learn with each baby what rate and you, you're such an advocate, you know your baby best. Like that's too much, that's too fast. Like if she's vomiting it up, she's, she can't tolerate that level yet.

1 (18m 35s):

We were barely getting 22 ounces in her a day and they bumped her up, they wanted her at 34 and we were like, this is, this is insane. Like this is too much.

0 (18m 43s):

But were they doing concentrated formulas so they could give her more nutrition and less volume?

1 (18m 47s):

No, they decided not to do that for her. They decided to do the regular formula mixture. And I don't remember exactly the reasoning but I know that that's, they specifically talked about that and they said they were gonna do this instead.

0 (18m 58s):

I feel like you could pass both the registered dietician exam and the SLP exam right now. Like you're so knowledgeable about this stuff. And I mean I didn't realize that all, I just assumed she was on an NG tube or a tube feeding prior to starting solid foods. But now you're getting to the six month mark where you're like, I mean you know, you, you had Walker like, oh my gosh, they normally start eating food at this point and you're like taking a step back which is like, whoa, we have to teach her how to get formula. So at what point did you feel comfortable, and I don't even know how you would've done this, but starting solid foods.

1 (19m 29s):

It was definitely like I, because I was so excited to do Baby-Led Weaning, I love Baby-Led Weaning. I we did, we did it. Walker loved it and I was so excited to do it. But it was one of the things where it was very back of my mind at this time because we were in the hospital and we were just really trying to figure out what's wrong and you know, make sure she's good. And then in the hospital the SLPs came and talked to us and said they, we were gonna have another solid study and we were gonna test her on purees and I was like hey, so I really like Baby-Led Weaning and that's what I'm gonna do at home. So could we test her on solid foods too? And they were like, yeah sure we could totally test her on solid foods. We don't have any to give her so you're gonna have to go find some. So we would like scrounge around of the cafeteria trying to find like a banana or something to go give her.

0 (5s):

But how cool that the SLPs were pro Baby-Led Weaning because it's a crapshoot sometimes and we've covered that a lot on the podcast.

0 (20m 13s):

You know why some SLPs with traditional training may not be pro Baby-Led Weaning. A lot of times they don't understand it. Have it done it, have it ever seen it done successfully or perhaps don't know the research that supports the baby's ability to do it. But in, you know, in a precarious situation like your own, obviously the child safety always comes first and they do have the progressions that they work on. So did they start with purees then after the thickened liquids?

1 (20m 38s):

They, so in the hospital they had determined to cut off all her liquids by mouth. They didn't want her eating liquids by mouth at all at that time. They wanted to give her a system a break. 'cause the more you aspirate, the more your body gets used to aspirating and the more it happens without, because adults aspirate all the time, like adults, you know, it goes down the wrong pipe so to speak. Right. And we cough we're like, ha ha and it comes back up. Salem was doing it silently. So her body was getting more and more and more used to this as she does it more so they told her to, they just told us to stop liquids in general for a while, like couple weeks a month.

0 (21m 6s):

Because they would be providing it all by tube, right?

1 (21m 10s):

Yeah. So it was all by tube. And then with the solids, the SOPs came in and said, hey let's watch her eat. They gave me a little sort of seat to put her in. It was kind of a janky setup up. But we did it, we, they gave us this sort little seat and we put her on the bed and she ate a banana in front of them and they were like, she looks good, let's test it on the swallow study tomorrow or whatever day it was. And we tested it on the swallow study with apple sauce and then we tested her with banana and I think maybe a strawberry. But yeah, so we tested it and they were like, she looks really good on these things so you are good to do this at home. So when we got home from the hospital is when I was like, okay we're doing this. And I was, I felt really disorganized because I was so used to how I started with Walker where it's, you know, banana, sweet potato, avocado, you start with like the very basic stuff and and I got home and I was like, I was not ready, I was not prepared.

1 (21m 59s):

I hadn't gone grocery shopping or we hadn't been home for eight days so our kitchen wasn't ready. And I was like okay I want her to eat solid foods I that I just gotta start with something. I just gotta do this, I gotta start. Because they were also like If, you wait too long with a G-tube. Especially because they're not eating by mouth. You can run into that oral aversion risk.

0 (22m 18s):

Okay. What was the first food that you offered her at home?

1 (22m 22s):

I believe it was pasta because somebody I think it was pasta because somebody had dropped us off, a family member had dropped us off food and we were like, and I saw it and I was like, look, this is pasta, it's got Alfredo sauce on it. I don't know and this is not..

0 (22m 34s):

Dude, you're such a second time mom. I love it. Like what do I already have that's soft that this baby can probably eat? I forgot to ask you, was she sitting up relatively on her own around the six month mark? Like if she, you know, taking all of these feeding issues away, which I know you can't, but like did you think she was ready to start at that point or did she need a couple more weeks?

1 (22m 53s):

Yeah, so, so when she got the swallow study she wasn't quite there. And then once we got to the hospital, which even just a few days later she was there, she was full there, we, she was sitting up in her crib, she actually learned to crawl in the hospital crib and she was ready. She wanted solid foods, she was reaching for it, she wanted it and we were like, okay, well.

0 (23m 12s):

That's amazing just because she'd had such negative experiences through no fault of your own obviously, but you're, but it's great that you got that recommendation too. And I love that the SLPs were supporting appropriate timing of the introduction of solid foods because it is true the longer we wait in some of these babies that the food aversions the food refusal and you never know when it's gonna come. But when you told me that she was so eager to eat food, that made me so happy. 'cause I know how much you had struggled with the milk side of things for the first six months.

1 (23m 33s):

Yeah. And I think that for her it was just easier. Like she didn't have a problem swallowing solids. So when she started doing it, she was like, this is something I can eat and it's not, I'm not struggling, I'm not uncomfortable, I'm good. So I think she was really into it. And then one tip from our SLP was with a G-tube to you can feed her in a G-tube at the same time she eats solid and it's a really nice interaction because like her stomach is getting full and she's eating solid. So she's kind of putting those two together as opposed to like constantly doing the G-tube where she's not eating and she's just happens to be getting full. It's kind of a difficult, it, it, it's a difficult association for some of some babies, some kids, you know?

0 (24m 11s):

Yeah.

1 (24m 12s):

And so doing that was really nice.

0 (24m 14s):

And that's nice that you acknowledge that from six months of age babies are not eating to alleviate feelings of hunger. Like she was interested in food but she did not yet know how to eat. I mean babies need this long runway to learn how to eat in order to help the feelings of hunger go away. And you're right, we never wanna bring a starving or crying or hungry baby to the table because they don't know how to use food yet to let that feeling of hunger go away. Now was there ever a concern though with a belly full of milk coming from the G-tube? Talk a little bit about gagging on the solid foods and did she ever have gags that were involved to the point where she would vomit because her stomach was of course full of milk from the G-tube?

1 (24m 47s):

Funny enough, she did not gag that much as much as I expected her to. She did probably more than I think my son did. But she really didn't do it as much as I expected given her other feeding issues. And she never vomited from, from eating the solid foods. With the eating the G-tube at the same time we kind of, it, her G-tube was a very slow drip. It was like at the start it was like a 40 minute feed for, I don't remember, it's like three or four ounces. So it was really slow. So it was a, it was, it gave her time to like eat the food and kind of feel both at the same time.

0 (25m 21s):

And were you guys doing like bolus feeds where it would be like X number of ounces and then wait a few hours? Or was it continuous feeding or feeding overnight?

1 (25m 29s):

It was both, yeah. So at the hospital Memoriz, I said she was, she's throwing up so they were like, okay, well we'll subtract from the bolus feeds and then we'll do more on the overnight. And so I was like, okay, that's fine with me. She seems comfortable with the overnight. So when we came home we were doing bolus during the day and then she would be hooked up all night and getting more of her nutrition all night.

0 (25m 47s):

And when she was sleeping and they were infusing her overnight, did they have her on an incline? What? How was she positioned?

1 (25m 54s):

No.

0 (25m 55s):

Did that make you nervous?

1 (25m 56s):

Yes. The whole thing made me nervous because it goes against everything that I know, which is like nothing in the crib, only the sleep sac only, you know, fitted crib sheets.

0 (26m 4s):

Yeah.

1 (26m 5s):

Sleep on your that like everything that I know was.

0 (26m 7s):

Especially with silent aspiration, I feel like I'd never be able to sleep 'cause I'd just be watching like constantly.

1 (26m 11s):

Yeah, It was, it was a struggle and I was really worried that she was gonna pull it out. That was my biggest fear was that like, 'cause I mean there's a cord in her crib all night. She's a great sleeper. So that was a very big benefit to us. But I was so worried she was gonna pull it out and she did at some point she would pull on it sometimes and it was mostly okay at night. The one time that it did come out overnight was actually when she wasn't even hooked up. It just fell out.

0 (26m 33s):

Okay. So, but that was in the hospital. She was on an NG tube when she came home. You were feeding her into her stomach and you guys were doing the infusions at home on your own, is that correct?

1 (26m 41s):

Yeah. Yeah.

0 (26m 41s):

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So talk about the taper. How did you get to a point where, I know you guys just passed a major milestone where she no longer on the tube feeding, right?

1 (26m 48s):

Yeah, so she still has the G-tube. She's just not using it. But yeah, so it was, it was really slow. It was once we started, so I got in contact with my SLP. My SLP was kind of like, I'm good with her trying very thickened, like very thickened liquid in an open cup. cause that's where we wanted to start was an open cup. Because the big thing with her was that they were really concerned about bottles and it, it wasn't, it was more of a guesswork, right? We didn't know a hundred percent but we knew that with the bottles it didn't work. So we were like, no bottles, absolutely none. So we did open cup at start and the SLP, we would go to see her, we would do it in my office. And she was a little bit concerned because she was very disorganized with it.

1 (27m 28s):

And I mean..

0 (27m 29s):

Because she's six months old.

1 (27m 30s):

Yes. So she's six months old, she's gonna be disorganized with it. But with Salem already having an aspiration risk, it was a little bit like, well like I wanna keep doing this open cup, but I, we switched her over to a spoon feed. So we would do a like a easy-peasy spoon actually was what we were using. We were using the easy-peasy spoons and we were just putting a little bit on it just to give her a little bit of time because that was the, now we know I think one of Salem's biggest problems was pacing. She had a really hard time with figuring out how to suck, swallow, breathe, suck, swallow, breathe with the bottle. And even later when she would get on the cup, she still had a problem with pacing. Everything was just a pacing issue, right? So when we did the spoon feed, we were pacing her very slowly and then we switched her over to a straw cup when we could.

1 (28m 14s):

I did the easy peasy straw cup for a little bit and now she's on a different straw cup, which worked out better for her only because it paces her even more.

0 (28m 25s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back. My phone is bursting at the seams with photos of our kids and over the years I've tried all sorts of different ways to store and share them with family members. So, for a while I would just text out pictures to the grandparents and then we tried a shared photo album. But some people were using Google photos and others preferred Facebook messenger for pictures. And the more kids we had, the messier it got. Then I stumbled across the Family Album app. The Family Album app was created to give parents a secure and easy way to share photos and videos with loved ones. It's a totally secure personal haven for your family's memories. I love that there's no third party ads, no unwanted eyes and it's totally free.

0 (29m 5s):

No more scrolling through endless feeds or searching folders to find the picture of the kid that you need right now. Another cool feature about the Family Album app is you can order eight free photo prints every month to be delivered to your home, which If you think about how quickly your baby is changing, it's really nice to have some tangible pictures to hold onto or share to document the last month of your baby's life. If you are looking to level up your photo sharing and organization game with a secure one-stop, easy to use photo organization app, head over to the app store, search family album, download the Family Album app and start creating a legacy of love one photo at a time.

0 (29m 48s):

And I think it's important to acknowledge that there are different tools out there that are developed by therapists and that are helpful in therapeutic sessions. And I think it's wonderful that you have this ongoing support from a speech language pathologist who specializes in infant feeding who can help you try out some of these new tools. But at the end of the day, you're the one at home really directing this care, running her meals. And I mean you, it looks like, I mean I'm a huge fan of your Instagram and we're, we'll share it in the Shownotes and I think everyone should see it because it's, you stuck with the progression of new foods despite some of these challenges. So let's talk about the new foods that you did. Did you get into like back into the routine of doing five new foods a week like you had done with Walker or did you have to slow that down because of her feeding challenges?

1 (30m 29s):

Yeah, so it was at the start I, I had a really hard time because, because it was so disorganized, I, my brain, I knew basically winning one way and me wrapping my head around a separate way was really difficult at the start. And so I actually wasn't gonna post her at all. I, I was recording it but I'm actually behind on my Instagram, my Instagram's like a month or so behind I think because I recorded about a month of stuff and I was like, I dunno if I wanna do this because..

0 (30m 53s):

You didn't know how it was gonna go, different.

1 (30m 54s):

Yeah, it was so different and I didn't know how it was gonna go and I didn't know how it was gonna look and it didn't look the way I expected it to. So that was, and then someone told me that okay, what if somebody else has a G-tube baby and they wanna see this? And I was like..

0 (31m 6s):

You don't know how many parents I've already referred to your Instagram account and also parents of typically developing children. Like I can't do this. And I was like, I know this is hard. It's hard for all parents and not like, oh look at this mom, her baby as a, but like look there are ways that babies concede it doesn't always look the same. And that's what I think is so important to highlight in stories like this. Like the timeline might not be the same. And I know it's so hard. I'm sure the whole time you're just comparing yourself like at this age Walker was doing this or you can go back in your phone and be like, when Walker was this age, look what Walker was doing and and yet when I look at your Instagram and I see Salem and you're not just posting the highlights like you are posting the days that are challenging or days where she didn't eat that much. But that also happens for families that don't have a G-tube. Like this is not a straight and narrow path. And the goal is to help her become an independent eater on a timeframe that works for her.

0 (31m 49s):

And I'm just, I mean I'm blown away at how well she's doing given the fact that like just a few months ago a hundred percent of her nutrition was coming from nutrition support.

1 (31m 57s):

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so we did eventually get to the one new food a day. It was like when we first started being came home, it was so crazy 'cause we had just got home from the hospital, I couldn't plan anything so..

0 (32m 6s):

And you have a two and a half year old.

1 (32m 8s):

Like yeah at the time, you know, having a toddler at the, I was just like, I am just surviving. I'm in survival mode. I'm just gonna do what I can when I know already already from Walker, I know how to feed because that's the thing is I know how to give a baby food at this point. I know what's safe and I know what's not safe. So I was like, I'm just gonna do this as best I can and I'll get into my groove eventually. And I did, I got into my groove eventually where I was planning out her foods and I'm a little behind from where I'd like to be because you know, I wanted to do the 100 New Foods before one and I'm like three days off I'm literally like..

0 (32m 39s):

You know, you could give more than one new food a day. I know you know this.

1 (32m 41s):

Like I know,I thought, thought about that.

0 (32m 42s):

Let's double up on the weekends.

1 (32m 44s):

I, I was like, I was like why didn't I think I, I didn't think about that until just recently, which is why I'm like wait, I can do more today.

0 (32m 51s):

Yeah, definitely. Okay. One thing you told me early on, I thought it was interesting is that you had to be vigilant about staying away from what you called hidden liquids in foods. So I know we don't have a diagnosis and that's like, what's the answer? What's wrong with her? You're probably as frustrated as as I'm like, oh my gosh, I wanna know what's wrong. But the point is you've, at the end of the day, she needs to continue getting nutrition and you guys are figuring out how to work with it. But what is it about liquids that's problematic for Salem that you see now? Or is that totally resolved itself with the hidden liquid stuff?

1 (33m 18s):

No, we definitely still have to be careful for it. For some, for some things I still haven't given her like oranges because those are very juicy and that's what hidden likes are. It's just like a food that you see as a solid and then when you actually eat it, it turns into a liquid And so you have to be careful with for those things. And, there are certain things at the start that I did not realize was hidden liquids that I gave her anyways because I did not know.

0 (33m 38s):

Like what, can you give us some examples?

1 (33m 39s):

Yogurt. I didn't know that that was a hidden liquid. I thought it was more of a pureed like texture. But I, I got all the way I think it was one of her GI one of her GI checkups that she was there and I talked to the nutritionist and she was like, so you know about hidden liquid? And I was like, yes, got it down. I know. And she said yogurt is a hidden liquid And I went, what? I'm sorry.

0 (33m 57s):

But did Salem do fine with yogurt?

1 (33m 59s):

She did. She did fine with it And it, I don't know if maybe, I mean I don't know if it, I dunno what happened.

0 (34m 5s):

Well there's varying degrees of thickness and preparation of yogurts. I mean we, I could show you 10 different consistencies and viscosity so I like that you were like thank you for the information. The baby happened to do fine on this. I mean what other foods had hidden liquids in them that you were surprised by?

1 (34m 19s):

Most of it was just like really thinking about it before I gave it to her. It wasn't like I didn't really have a list, no one gave me a list. Right. No one, you get a surprisingly small amount of information about G-tube.

0 (34m 29s):

It's better than getting a list of like usually they leave you with like here's a list of all the foods your child can't eat. And then parents get so scared that they go home and like I can't do anything. I can't just buy like medical foods. And you, I'm looking at all these foods on your Instagram that she's eaten and it and you really kind of ran the gamut. Have you guys, I mean I'm curious about watermelon because that's a food that's really challenging for babies even if they don't have swallow difficulty. So are you gonna hold off on like watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, the ones that have the real thin liquids coming out of them for a While?

1 (34m 57s):

Yeah, so I believe we did do, we did do honeydew. Our honeydew was not specifically very juicy. It was like a, because it was off season anyways, it was not a very juicy one.

0 (35m 6s):

Yeah.

1 (35m 7s):

But we are avoiding like oranges and watermelon still anything that's like that had juicy, she has grapes and grapes can be sometimes, but she, I waited a little bit later for grapes. But yeah, watermelon's warmer avoiding. And the thing is, so her, she's drinking liquids right now out of straw cup but they're still thicken if she's gone down. So she started at a level four high, very high level four, so very high, moderately thick. And we've worked our way very slowly down this sliding scale of thickness and she's in the middle of level three, which is like mildly thick. So she's not really ready for like a thin like a watermelon. But she has had like soup now and it's been a either a thick soup or a thickened, it is one of the two, like I've given her like thickened soup that I've thickened with oatmeal or I'll give her, oh or I'll just modify it a little bit like where I'll give her soup but I'll give her, I'll kind of strain those two liquid out and give her the insides of it.

0 (35m 57s):

How much formula a day is she drinking now and how old is she?

1 (36m 3s):

She is now a couple days. She's six days from 1-year-old and she is drinking somewhere around like 18 to 22 depending on the day.

0 (36m 10s):

Awesome. Out of, I think in liquid too. That's impressive.

1 (36m 12s):

Yes. Yeah.

0 (36m 13s):

And have you had any advice to start water? Are you guys really focusing on the formula and like every bite needs to have nutrition and every sip needs to have nutrition in it?

1 (36m 21s):

So I have asked about the water because that was my concern is she turns a year old, we probably won't be doing formula and I can thicken milk but I was like she's gonna have water needs, what does that look like? And I asked the nutritionist and actually we have a follow-up soon that I'm gonna re start this conversation, but they pointed me towards simply thick. Okay. Which is like a thickener added to water and it kind of turns it into this, it's kind gross.

0 (36m 45s):

Slime

1 (36m 46s):

A little bit like jelly.

0 (36m 46s):

The cool thing is is she's used to drinking it. Like it's so hard to get a toddler to start on that stuff if they've been used to having thick, thin liquids. How's her growth doing Brooke?

1 (36m 58s):

She's actually, she exceeded her weight goals the last time we went to her checkup. She is very, she's on par with her clothing now. So I said when she was six months old she was in zero to three month close somewhere around one month of her G-tube. She really shot up very like a lot and they were, we, we went to her follow up. She, they were like, she is exceeded, she's doing great. And the funny, the one funny thing about it is, you know, they had those really high expectations for her to eat formula and I had moved it down.

0 (37m 21s):

Yeah 'cause you don't want her to be full of formula. No, but I, I mean I love that like you're, you're using what you know about normal health and nutrition and then you're applying it to your own child's condition, which you don't have like a cut and dried diagnosis and what happens a lot of times in situations like yours, like this is like a success story because what we normally hear from parents is they went on the tube and they never got off and then it's parents contacting me like Katie what G-tube Weaning program should I be on my baby is one year oldest had never had anything in their mouth. We, and they're so scared to try anything, which again, every child's condition is different. But I really admire you like weighing both, you know, your mom got stuff with what you've learned about her swallowing situation. Also what you know about nutrition based on your experience from Walker and just kind of blending that together to choose the path that's best for your child to help her become an independent eater.

1 (38m 10s):

Yeah, it the start, it was a very big concern of mine. Like in the hospital I was looking at, I was actually looking at case studies of G-tube babies and how do they, how do they fare with solid foods and stuff because I was like, I'm reading this and it's saying two babies have a hard time with solid foods and I'm really freaked out by this because they don't want this to be a lifelong thing for her. And so I'm just, I was, I was having a, a mini freak out and then I calibrated the SLP at the hospital. She was great too and she very much made me confident that Salem would be okay to start and I immediately got home and I was like, okay, I'm not ready but we're gonna do this.

0 (38m 44s):

Yeah. And I think also knowing that nutrition support is in some cases it is a lifelong, we have situations with babies that have to be on total parental nutrition and we understand that if they have, you know, very large gut involvement and they can't utilize their own gut, but for most of the children that are on nutrition support, it's a temporary stop gap. This is going to help keep your baby alive until we can figure out what's going on or get them to a point like in your case it's so wonderful that the second six months was almost like your lifeline. Like wait as soon as she can start eating real food and she's demonstrated that she can doing this. Like obviously you need to be concerned about thin liquids for the time being, but at least there's something else we can add into the mix for her nutrition, which is solid food or giving her the time to practice. Like getting to the point where she can get most of her nutrition from solid food.

1 (39m 24s):

Yeah, it honestly released us a lot because we were like, because we were so anxious about getting nutrition in her before and then once we, she was on the G-tube, I was like, I, we feel much at ease like once we got home and we got in our groove with the G-tube 'cause it's a learning curve, right. Once we got home and got in the room with it, we were like, we are so at ease now we can do this. Like this is good. We, she now food really is fun before one, you know, the the..

0 (39m 44s):

Yeah.

1 (39m 45s):

It really is fun now because we can just give it to her and she has a great time with it.

0 (39m 48s):

Okay. Tell me about the day where you did her last two feed. Like how'd you make that call and like what did it feel like when you no longer had to supplement her oral diet with the tube Feeding?

1 (39m 59s):

The funny thing is it wasn't a really a super intentional thing. What had happened was we had switched her to these different straw cups. The, it was actually the munchkin ones because they're, they take more effort to suck out of and so it paced her a lot and she was doing ade on it. She was really eating all of her formula and we had moved down to one feed and in the evening that she would have however much she didn't get by mouth that day, we had moved over to a place where tubes were supplemental. So whatever she doesn't eat by mouth that day, she's gonna finish in the tube when she goes to sleep at night. And, there was like two days or three days where we just didn't, we just didn't do it because like she ate a decent amount of food that day she had and she had three solid meals.

1 (40m 40s):

'cause that's the other thing to take into account. She was actually eating three solid meals and the nutritionist when I first was like, okay, she, she's only eating I, think it was like 24 ounces of formula and they wondered her at like 28. I was like, she's only 24 But If, she's eating three solid meals. And they were like, okay, well that's fine. And we just kind of, we didn't do it for a couple days, we didn't really talk about it, we just didn't. And then she was great. She slept through the night and she was doing great and so I was like, I think we're good. I think we can continue on.

0 (41m 5s):

Are you gonna get the G-tube taken out or are you gonna just keep it for security just in case you needed it?

1 (41m 12s):

It is recommended that you keep it for like three to four months or so after you stop using it just in case anything happens or if they get sick and they're not eating or any, anything around that. She does have another swallow study, but it's not for a long time because she had three very close in secession and so you can't have that much exposure. So she's got a swallow city way, way, way, way down the line.

0 (41m 33s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back. Besides Baby-Led Weaning, what other type of podcasts do you like to listen to? Well, if you're into true crime and you also dig traveling, I want to tell you about a new podcast you are going to love. The new podcast is called Slaycation and it's a darkly humorous look at murders and mysterious deaths that all take place on vacation. So the show is hosted by a true crime fanatic and her comedy writer husband and he has a TV producing partner. So Slaycation brings a totally unique perspective to chilling thrilling. What the heck? Stories of vacation's gone horribly wrong from the twisted tail of Harold and Tony Henthorn, whose romantic anniversary in the Rocky Mountains ended with one of them falling off a cliff to Angelica and Vincent.

0 (42m 21s):

Their two recently engaged Lovebirds whose Hudson Valley kayaking adventurer ended up underwater. Every episode of Slaycation will have you asking accident or murder, but it's not just the stories that will intrigue you. I think you're gonna love the discussion between the longtime married couple and the business partners. They also happen to be an Emmy nominated TV producers. Every episode of Slaycation also includes humor and takeaway and travel tips. They're gonna keep your next family vacation from becoming your last.

0 (43m 2s):

So if you're ready to pack your body bags, Slaycation is available on all major podcast platforms. Search for Slaycation on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. What is Salem's typical food and milk and nap schedule like at this age? Just before one If, you don't mind sharing.

1 (43m 16s):

Currently she's very much on my toddler schedule because it's a lot easier to schedule her around the toddler because she's a really easy baby. She has always been an easy baby, so she just kind of goes the..

0 (43m 26s):

Except for the whole point where she couldn't swallow liquids.

1 (43m 29s):

Yeah, that's true. But other than that, she's such an easy baby. She slept through the night since she was like really little and so yeah, so she, for her nap schedule, she takes one nap a day 'cause she takes a nap at the same time the toddler does. She goes down at about one and then she wakes up at like usually like 3:30 or 4. And then she goes to bed at night at eight usually. And she's good. She's really happy with that schedule. And she sleeps the night.

0 (43m 50s):

What time does she wake up in the morning?

1 (43m 51s):

Seven ish.

0 (43m 52s):

Okay.

1 (43m 52s):

She's, she's a sleeping baby. She loves..

0 (43m 53s):

Awesome. You, you need that to recharge too, although I'm sure you're doing a bunch of stuff in there as well. When she wakes up, do you start the day with food or milk out of the open or straw cup?

1 (44m 4s):

So we do, we start her with milk out of the straw cup because usually when she gets up I'm just getting up and I, so I go ahead and get her milk and this drop cup, the formula, the thickened formula. She also gets her reflux med in that too 'cause she still does have reflux. Very pretty severe reflux in fact. But so she, she has that in the morning and then once everybody's all up and ready and we're going and the toddler is up and ready and I'm ready, we go downstairs and I get breakfast ready for the both of them and they eat breakfast together. And then I go drop my toddler off at preschool, come back later, pick him up and we do lunch together. All of us. She usually does like a smaller bottle during lunch, like a, like a small one. And then when she wakes up from a nap, she gets a big bottle.

1 (44m 44s):

I said bottle but a straw cup. Yeah. So she gets a, a larger straw cup when she wakes up from a nap and then she gets a smaller one with dinner. So I try to do smaller ones with the meals because I don't want her filling up, you know, and then that's it. That's what she does for the day.

0 (44m 58s):

And she's doing three meals with you guys?

1 (44m 59s):

Yes.

0 (44m 59s):

Okay. So what is your plan for when she turns one If? you wanna transition off of formula? Are you gonna go to whole cow's milk? Like what are you thinking? Are you stick on the formula for a little bit longer.

1 (45m 11s):

So it's complicated because I do need to like consult with our nutritionist again. We're definitely gonna switch her to cow's milk. I think milk, the problem is, I don't know a hundred percent to do with her water intake yet because given like percentages wise, I think the percentage they gave us was something like 70% can be from milk and like 30% or something needs to be water. So I'm not a hundred percent sure to do with about the water yet. And formula kind of provides that water as well. So I'm, I'm kind of in between. I think we're gonna do, we're definitely gonna do home milk. I don't know a hundred percent if we're gonna need to do some formula to get that water or if we're gonna, if she's gonna be happy drinking the Simply Sick.

0 (45m 43s):

And I'm sure you're the, the dietician will help you with this as well. But you know, in very rare cases is a, is a toddler formula really ever indicated? A lot of times the toddler formulas are kind of, we've covered this on the podcast as well, but they tend to be, they're, they're big just marketing gimmicks. Like it's to scare parents into thinking your baby can't be sustained on milk. But we always say for children that are being followed by a pediatric dietician in some cases there really is a need for a toddler formula. But I think you also are in an unusual situation in the sense that like she's actually tracking from a normal nutrition standpoint, quite like a typical child that she's eating three meals a day. You've got that milk between 18 and 22 ounces a day. Like that's exactly where you would want a one-year-old who wasn't on a tube feet to be. So just just remind the dietician of that.

0 (46m 24s):

So you know, 'cause a lot of times the toddler formulas, they are packed with added sugar, like other ingredients that you wouldn't ideally want to be in your child and and they sometimes they prey on parents' fear of like, oh my child can't get enough from food and milk. But in your case, like again, you know, you have to track her growth and you're working with a dietician. But it sounds for me as a registered dietician, just an outsider looking in like this is a baby that could make a transition to a cow's milk no problem. Because she is so proficient at feeding herself food.

1 (46m 49s):

Yeah, my only, my only thing is the water intake. So we're just trying to play with like what that's gonna look like. But yes, I am toddler, their formula was not a thing that I was looking at. I was hoping to do milk and water if it's,

0 (47m 2s):

And I think it'll be an easy transition for you 'cause she's used to the thickener like just If, you were to introduce the thickener for the first time for 1-year-old. That's really hard. But also when it comes to the water, keep in mind that she's getting a lot of fluid from the foods that she's eating. Even if they're not like the quote unquote watery foods. And then just be aware of the signs and symptoms of dehydration. You know, keep an eye on her urine, take a look at the diapers. Like if it's foul smelling or dark in color, then she's not getting enough hydration. If she's stops having, you know, wet diapers or If, you see like for example in her skin when you pinch the skin, if it stays up then that's a sign of dehydration. Just children won't purposely starve themselves. Children also do not purposely dehydrate themselves. So like she'll be starting to have verbal skills where she can even ask you or sign for her cup if she is thirsty.

0 (47m 44s):

But that that cow's milk is a very high water content food as well. We know children who drink absolutely no water at 1-year-old and they're perfectly fine if they're getting some other fluid. And likewise 1-year-old who don't drink any cow's milk and they're fine if they're getting vitamin D and calcium from other sources and a little bit of fluid from you know, whatever, hopefully water that they're drinking. But really outside of milk and water, there's nothing that she does need to be drinking. So you, you kind of have all your bases covered I feel like.

1 (48m 7s):

Yeah, yeah. So I, yeah, I'm very, I'm pretty hopeful that we'll be able to just switch over to cow's milk and and be fine. And I think for Salem too, at this point the liquid doesn't scare her as much.

0 (48m 17s):

Or you.

1 (48m 18s):

Yeah, there was, there was a small window where like she really just didn't want it because she was like, I, I'd rather have the solid foods She really would rather have the solid foods for a window of time where it was like this is really too hard and now she's in a place where she's happy to, she sees her straw cup coming out and she's like, yes. She gets so excited about it. So..

0 (48m 33s):

Oh my gosh this is wonderful. I was a little bit nervous we were gonna talk. I was like, oh I saw this would be like a disaster and you guys are like, she's had the Tube feed forever. Like this is all really, really wonderful stuff and this is ideally what what we want tube feeding is there to help you hopefully for short term nutrition until you can get her to a point where she can eat. And it sounds like you guys are doing really wonderful. So any advice in closing that you have for other parents who might be struggling either with a child with the tube feeding or just general feeding challenges to give them some hope that their child can become an independent eater much like your daughter Salem has become.

1 (49m 10s):

For G-tube parent specifically find other G-tube parents or find somewhere where you can talk to G-tube parents because you don't get enough information from the doctors in the health system. You just don't, and it's not really their fault. They don't have the time to sit there and tell you everything that could happen or that should happen or whatever. But you really need more information and you can get that from a parent. So that's my one thing with G-tube. G-tube parents specifically, but then also for starting solid foods with sail and walker. Both I think just being, I know it, it's a little trite but like being relaxed about it because when you're really nervous and stressed and anxious about it, I really do think they pick up on that because, because I've seen it happen for me specifically because starting Salem I started her on like a more of the drier side of foods, right.

1 (49m 52s):

And then when I started giving her like the, the stuff that was a little bit, a little bit more wet, I was like really like okay, I'm gonna do this. And we took a long time to start meat too. Meat was a thing 'cause I, we couldn't make it juicy and I was like I don't know how to give her meat now.

0 (50m 4s):

Yeah, exactly. But you guys have figured it out. Tell us about your Instagram again just so everyone can go follow it. Even when you get past a hundred foods. I think it's just this wonderful resource for parents.

1 (50m 14s):

Yeah so the Instagram is Walkie Talkie Eats. It was named that for my son Walker and I didn't wanna change the name when I started posting Salem so.. well.

0 (50m 20s):

I appreciate it because I, because I was like, well I swallowing, I was like wait a minute, this is not Walker. 'cause I obviously remember Walker Walker was a gagger. I was just looking, you know we save all our gagging videos and you sent me a ton of 'em. I think I just used them in a reel the other day and I tagged you. But like he was a gagger and you sent me a ton of videos and then I'm like, this is not Walker but he looks kind of like her but it's Salem. So I love 'cause you have all of his hundred first foods on your account. So for anyone who wants to go back and see that and then the transition to Salem and how she was doing, it's just, it's just a wonderful resource for parents think. I'm so glad that you ended up sharing this and I'm glad I could connect with you and thank you for sharing your story with us. 'cause it's really inspirational and you know, props to you. This is not an easy thing to go through. And I would say that most parents in your, in your situation would be dealing with a 1-year-old who's never had anything in their mouth 'cause they're so scared.

0 (51m 4s):

So I know it's scary and I think it's great you've had assistance from credentialed feeding professionals but that you've also like really taken the lead and advocating for your daughter 'cause she's doing awesome with her foods. Which foods does she have left on the 100 First Foods list that we can like piggyback and like get 'em all done before she turns one?

1 (51m 21s):

I have a couple things that I, I'm, I'm really struggling to find more things. Truthfully I'm struggling a little bit. Okay. Because only because I've got things that I don't wanna, don't wanna do.

0 (51m 31s):

That. Like you don't wanna make us you don't like 'em. Yeah. Which ones?

1 (51m 35s):

There was things like giving Walker shrimp was so hard for me.

0 (51m 38s):

Just Make her shrimp cakes. It's so easy.

1 (51m 40s):

I know. That was so hard for me. I did it with because I find, I find shrimp to be gross.

0 (51m 46s):

I know. Okay. But has she had shellfish yet?

1 (51m 48s):

But she has had, yes. We make round cakes. She's had shellfish.

0 (51m 51s):

Okay. Alright good. So you've done it from an allergenic standpoint. Okay.

1 (51m 54s):

Yeah. Yeah.

0 (51m 55s):

What else is on in the like don't wanna feed list

1 (51m 57s):

Beans because we're not a bean family. So like, you know, black beans and stuff, I'm like oh I dunno, I don't wanna do it. I'm scared.

0 (52m 3s):

Oh but they're so easy and cheap and there's so much iron. Like I got a bunch, I'm gonna send you some more bean recipes. Okay. Just did a brand new like white bean burger so easy with like sun dried tomatoes and oatmeal which, and again like a nice thick texture that she'd be able to pick up and feed to herself. I'm sending you that. Okay. What else?

1 (52m 21s):

We do a lot of Indian food to be fair. We do a lot of Indian food and a lot of things like that but, but we're not just the beans we struggle with. But yeah so I'm, I'm thinking, I've been thinking of different foods for her. I go to Costco every week and I look through the produce section. I'm like what can she try? And I go.

0 (52m 39s):

Have you guys done artichokes yet?

1 (52m 41s):

Yes we did artichokes. Okay. I make spinach artichokes, lasagna and the kids love them. So Awesome.

0 (52m 44s):

Oh see she's already having like combination foods too. She's amazing. Okay, well I mean I'm here watching every day to see her new foods and you were talking about being behind on your Instagram. It's like the story of my life. So I totally feel you. But I'll be here when you guys get to a hundred and thank you again for sharing your story with us. It was wonderful connecting with you.

1 (53m 2s):

Yeah, thank you so much.

0 (53m 3s):

Well I hope you guys enjoyed that interview with Brooke Tibbett. Again her Instagram account is Walkie Talkie Eats fabulous resource for parents either with a child with a g-tube or you can go all the way back and see Walker who was a typically developing child. Both of these children succeeded with learning how to become independent eaters. And I wanna say thank you again to Brooke for sharing her story 'cause her family has definitely been through a lot. But I just loved how she married what she was learning in the clinical side of her baby being hospitalized and going through therapy and treatment. And then also how she combined that with just kind of her mom gut stuff. Like no, I know this is what my baby can do and what's best for her. I will link up Brooke's Instagram as well as a few other resources that she mentioned in the Shownotes for this episode, which you can find at BLWpodcast.com/402.

0 (53m 49s):

And I wanna say a special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If, you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out the podcast from AirWave Media. We're online at BLWpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time. Like a lot of moms out there, I will totally admit I am quite Type A. I am a total task master and one of my weekly work tasks is to review the feedback forms that are new students in my program, which is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro that they leave for us. So basically this form asks a lot of questions about you and your baby and your baby's feeding and medical history and concerns that you might have or fears about starting solid foods.

0 (54m 35s):

And all of this data helps me when I'm answering parent questions inside of our weekly live office hours so that I can then tailor my response to your particular baby and situation, right? Because it's not a one size fits all approach when it comes to what your baby's eating, right? Because maybe your baby has an egg allergy or another mom in the program. She might really be struggling with how to make meat safe 'cause she doesn't like to cook. So this week on the form, there's a new mom named Janine and she wrote, and this is her "I researched a lot on the internet and I have a lot of books. I saw a lot of other Baby-Led Weaning programs. But in the end, this is the one that I realized is what I'm really looking for as a new mom. I love that Katie's program has a community and that there are videos for everything you need to know and how to make the foods and what I love the most is that there's already a meal plan ready".

0 (55m 24s):

And this just like stopped my heart because this is exactly why I created the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program. I wanted to literally put everything that you need to know about starting solid foods safely in one place with a super easy to follow 20 full weeks meal plan. Okay, there's 20 weeks 'cause it's five foods a week. I want your baby to get to those a hundred new foods before they turn one. 'Cause I also know you have a lot going on as a new mom and hunting and pecking all over the internet to try to figure out what am I gonna feed this baby that is not the solution. So If, you want to check out the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program. I would be honored to work with you and your baby. You can head to babyledweaning.co to get started and hopefully I'll be reading your feedback soon too.