A Baby and her Bottle

{Or lack thereof, I suppose...}  Most of you know that Riley hasn't successfully taken a bottle for us on a regular basis since birth.  There are days that after a looong struggle we can get her to take it, but it's more likely that she will not take it than she will.  So, of course...trying to get her to eat while I'm at a party has been a struggle.  We've tried four different bottles, different nipples, different temperatures of the milk, holding her in different positions, walking while feeding her, rocking while feeding her, sound machine on, in complete silence...  Nothing is a foolproof way to get her to take a bottle.  

So, my super sweet and resourceful friend, Amy, stepped in.  As a pediatric nurse practitioner, she offered to come over and try some tricks with Riley.  The one I was most hopeful about was 'finger feeding' her, using a feeding tube that she'd suck on while sucking on our finger.  But, what Amy found (and Amy, I know you're reading this, so feel free to correct me if I explain this wrong...) is that Riley doesn't have some of the typical reflexes that babies have.  She doesn't have that strong sucking reflex anymore, and instead of meeting whatever is touching her lip with her tongue like most babies, she retracts her tongue.  So, when something does enter her mouth, be it a pacifier, a finger, a nipple from a bottle, she doesn't like it and cries and sometimes gags.  It seems that she's taught herself how to nurse like this (rather effectively considering how she's gaining weight).  

So, what do we do?  Well, we have one more type of bottle we're going to try.  It's called an Adiri bottle, and it's meant to mimic the breast more.  Because of the shape of it, the actual nipple part is much shorter than most of the bottles, so we're hoping that might mean she's more likely to drink from it.  If that doesn't work, Amy showed us how we can cup feed Riley using a medicine cup or shot glass.  It's a tedious process, but she did drink some milk that way, so at least Jarrod would be able to get some milk in her belly if she's absolutely starving.  

I'm hoping to have some good updates over the next couple of weeks.  Fingers crossed for us, please! :)