I had a crazy idea this week. And it worked for...two days. I thought we could start feeding her real, pureed food in her tube. It appealed to me to feed her jar food and get away from the formula she's been on so long. So, after talking to multiple doctors, nutritionists and food companies...I had a plan. It equated to about 8 jars of baby food, some rice cereal, some orange juice, a hefty amount of cow's milk and a large amount of rice cereal watered down enough to go through the tiny hole in her tube. Every day. Oh and a ton of water. Lots of water to make all this stuff thin enough to go through.
You know the expression "you can't do it all"? Well, it was either sit at the table and feed Ellie all this stuff sloooooowly or say...school the kids, feed the other five people - you know what I mean. It took so long to feed her that and I didn't even get it all in! At least I might do "some" of the food that way, but then that involves alot of math of how many calories and grams of protein and milligrams of calcium she got from her formula minus which food I decided to substitute that particular day. Of course when the other kids were toddlers we were happy if they ate some cereal, a few grapes, peanut butter toast and chili for dinner. But since Ellie is just still so close to all her health stuff, even after a year - she's too fragile to just "wing it".
It was a real test of "letting go" for me because I really do love seeing our kids eat healthy food. For now the formula she gets is really quite impressive and comprehensive. So be it, that's what she'll get until it's time.
