everyday life: By whatever means possible

Most of you who keep up with this blog regularly know that Ava has not truly eaten by mouth since she was about 9 months old. She gets her sole nutrition from a G-tube that is in her stomach. It's been a real challenge but I finally feel like we are getting somewhere with this. Ever since her good allergy diagnosis and an extra medication, Ava has been doing really well. There has been no vomiting episodes from over a week and I can already tell she is so much happier! She is tolerating her feeds better and this morning she had a few bites of yogurt & for lunch, a lot of bites of tomato soup. We are understandably thrilled at this prospect.

The funny thing about Ava however, is that she really likes to 'snack'. She will ask for things all day long like a typical toddler. I always oblige as to not set up some further psychological issues with food. I do set limits but the things she asks for are always good healthy snacks. She will suck what she wants and then throw it away or leave it on the floor. Yes, my food budget will be very happy when she actually starts to consume the food! Anyway, sometimes she will ask for some pretty off the wall stuff but I will let her try it and see what happens. Our whole goal is to get her food in, weight up & tasting pattern active. This morning I was out in the fridge that we keep outside (extra fresh food & drinks) putting a few things away and Ava was tagging along. She asked for a cube of butter?! I thought about it for 2 seconds then just let her have it. Before you judge, please realize that we are trying to get her to gain weight by whatever means possible and she has NEVER had a McDonald's happy meal, so there! ;) What I didn't expect was the following....

I had taken half of the wrapper off, thinking she would just stick her finger in it. She took it upon herself to unwrap the entire cube so her hands were oh so messy! Luckily she still had her pj shirt on!

She is quite the little ham when the camera is out! And here is one more just for fun...

I know Ken is going to die when he sees her eating butter like this. I think I'm the liberal one when it comes to her food choices right now!!! It's not going to matter much as she starts to eat because having a allergy to corn is pretty limiting. No more otter-pops, suckers or candy. I will be making bread again & chips are out the window. You would not believe how much corn products are in the foods we eat!!! Just take a minute and look at the label of the food you eat and I'll bet you can't go a single meal without having some type of corn derivative. Scary!

Have a nice weekend everyone!!!

Comments

OMG! That is so funny! I love her cherry shirt...It is so flipping cute:)

Posted by: katie | June 20, 2008 at 02:33 PM

I love that Ava is not vomiting, and is trying to taste all sorts of things. I especially love the pictures...even though I so look forward to your blogs, I ALWAYS WANT PICTURES, TOO.
xoxox Grandma Margaret

Posted by: Grandma Margaret | June 21, 2008 at 12:43 PM