The good thing about this cup is that you can squeeze it to push the liquid up the straw to help the baby get started. We let Colton taste the liquid and then squeeze his cheeks to encourage him to suck on the straw. By squeezing the liquid up the straw, he doesn't have to suck as hard to drink since his liquids are thickened to Stiff Honey. However, Colton does have a really strong suck and at his second feeding session, he was able to drink from the cup without us having to start it for him. Hooray!! Now, we do have to squeeze his cheeks to get him to start drinking from the straw, but he'll get there soon enough. We only need to use this straw cup to help him learn to drink from a straw, but we can transition to another straw cup as soon as he gets the hang of it.
Colton will only take a few sucks and then he stops. He doesn't drink a whole lot yet. We really need him to start drinking more so that we can start weening off of bottles. It may take us longer for that transition than it would for a typical baby. He also needs to start eating more solid foods so that he gets enough nutrition. Right now, he's mainly eating purees with some oatmeal or rice cereal.
Colton uses his tongue to suck like he would a bottle, which is normal for all babies. However, we want to transition him to sucking with his lips. We want his tongue to stay in his mouth, moving side to side. His therapist will put a puff in his cheek to see if he can find it with his tongue. Sometimes he does and sometimes he loses it. She will then reach in and move the puff so that he can feel it in his mouth. Colton still has a pretty sensitive Gag Reflex, but hopefully he'll get over that soon when he starts to get used to more solid food. She recommended using a carrot stick in his mouth because it would be pretty hard for him to get a bite off of it without any teeth (Yes, we still don't have ANY TEETH!!!!!). She let him explore with one today and would brush it along the outside of his gums. This should help with his gag reflex, as well as his tongue movement. We want his tongue to find the carrot stick so he can practice moving his tongue around in his mouth.
A common myth about children with DS is that their tongues are too big for their mouth...hence, the tongue thrusting and tongue hanging out of the mouth. That is not true. Babies are not born with their tongues hanging out of their mouth. It all has to do with low tone in the tongue and face. Aspirating and reflux can also happen because of low tone. We want Colton's tongue and face muscles to stay strong, along with his throat muscles. We're hoping that as his throat muscles strengthen, he'll stop aspirating so we don't have to thicken liquids anymore. We also want his tongue to stay strong for Speech.
At therapy, Colton practices eating different solids like Puffs, Graham crackers, or Mum Mum crackers. He gags pretty often, which makes me nervous, but his therapist is good about resetting his gag reflex by pushing his chin to his chest. He also practices eating from a spoon with different purees...some are cold or just room temperature. By using cold foods, he can feel it more inside of his mouth, enhancing the learning experience.
At the end of each session, she massages his cheeks and lips (she calls it stretching them out). He doesn't seem to mind it.
As we transition from bottles to cups and solids, I find myself anxious. I was comfortable with thickening formula and feeding Colton purees. Change is hard, especially when a learning curve is involved. Most babies just naturally transition, but with Colton, it's more difficult. I can't just give him milk or juice because it has to be thickened. I can't even give him Tylenol without adding it to food or a bottle because he can aspirate on it (which has happened and it scared me to death!). I just have to remind myself to be patient...he'll get there. He will learn to eat and swallow and eventually we won't have to thicken his liquids anymore. I'm thankful that I have a Feeding Therapist to help me.
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