I was and am a successful breastfeeding mother!

I'm very excited that Zadie and I were included in a kellymom.com article about the different faces of breastfeeding.

When you think of breastfeeding, it's usually a mom with a baby on her breast, but that's not always the case.  Zadie couldn't even drink from a bottle very well, so direct nursing was out of the picture.  Not only did her cleft palate make forming a seal in order to suck a bottle impossible, her small chin and tongue falling on her airway made everything even more difficult.

I did try to nurse her once, but she and I were too stressed out and I decided that it wasn't that important.  What was important to me was that she got what she needed, however she got it. We attempted feeding her orally every day, just about every feeding, using a Haberman, or Special Needs Feeder.  It has a special nipple which allowed us to squeeze the milk into her mouth while she tried to suck.  We only tried for 30 minutes at a time, because after that, we were told that she would be expending too much energy.  She was primarily tube fed for her first year.  Once her palate was repaired when she was 11 months old, she really got much better at drinking.  

I exclusively pumped for her for 18 months, and the majority of her nutrition for those 18 months was breast milk.  She was eating very little in the way of solids, but I was continually reassured (by doctors and nutritionists) that my milk was all she needed at that age.  We did transition to formula, with plans to further transition to a blenderized diet, but luckily for everyone, her solid food intake increased.

Flash forward to today, and I'm successfully nursing Zadie's 8 month old little sister, Beatrix!

The blenderized diet.

Since Zadie is getting close to turning 1 (crazy!), I've been thinking about what she'll be "eating" when breastmilk alone is no longer enough for her. Most people who are tube fed are fed formula, and I'm really not crazy about the idea of switching Zadie to formula after all my hard work pumping for the last 10 1/2 months.  I thought I could just puree up real food and put it through her tube (while still working to get her to eat orally).  Apparently, there is something called the blenderized diet, which is pretty much what I was imagining.  And apparently, it's sort of crazy talk in the medical world.  I brought up the idea to the nurse practitioner at Zadie's feeding clinic, and she was very discouraging.  The biggest thing she kept mentioning was how time consuming it would be.  That seems like a silly reason not to do something, if it's something that's good for her.

So I started looking into it more and I found out that it not a common practice, but every parent who uses it swears by it.  A lot of moms whose children were previously formula fed and then moved to the blenderized diet said it was the best thing to happen to their children.  A lot also said that their children were more interested in EATING real food once they had real food through the tube.

One thing I learned was that I needed a good blender.  It's doable with a standard household blender, but a professional grade blender makes things easier and faster.  I emailed the two big blender makers, Blendtec and Vitamix.  I had heard that they both offered a medical discount (their blenders run about $500-$600!) and also donated blenders regularly to tube fed people.  Within a day of emailing Blendtec's customer service, and telling them Zadie's story, I was informed that Blendtec was donating a blender to us!

I've been very excited about this blender's arrival, and BJ's been making fun of me (will he be making fun of me when I am able to make smoothies and shakes and daiquiris?  I don't think so).  Well, it arrived today and without even reading the book, I pureed up some avocados for Zadie.  I fed some to her by spoon, and she did ok with it.  A bunch came out her nose, which is something I won't miss after she has her palate repaired!  Whatever she didn't eat, I blended up some more and put it in with her milk through her feeding tube.  This is very exciting, and while we have a ways to go, I am less anxious about her moving away from breastmilk.  And I'm getting excited to quit pumping soon!