Day 16 - 16th November 2009

I wanted to break down to days here as this is where Kezzie starts drinking and eating - she has started drinking 3 mls of juice or water at a time bearing in mind that she has her feeding tube in and is fed through it 24 hours (continuous feed). We have been feeding her with a syringe and we spray it into her mouth - she gets very tired even drinking the 3mls at a time as this is hard work for her to swallow. The speech therapist explained to me that it is more dangerous to drink liquids than it is to eat pureed food as the liquids work easier in the front of the mouth but are more difficult to swallow and the opposite occurs for pureed food...I am very careful feeding her with the syringe as her gag reflex comes and goes at the moment and I dont want her chocking... they are constantly monitoring her tempreture as if her temp picks up the liquid is actually going down the wrong pipe and into her lungs and causing an infection... so far so good... Kezzie only has a bit of front tongue action ... the sides of her tongue are not working at the mo and those you will need for chewing harder food...I am learning so much about your mouth and how important some parts of your mouth are...Kezzie is pushing and wants to get better and she is so brave... she takes what is given to her and she works with it...Kezzie looks at the syringe with the 3mls in and we give her 0.5mls at a time and she does not stop till the syringe is empty...she has my determination and it makes me so proud...