Day 4: A New Way to Journal Foods

Today started like yesterday with a little miss crabby pants but when I started to pick her clothes out for her she jumped up and got going.  We had our morning weigh in and vitals and then barely made it to our breakfast session on time.  Breakfast wasn't half bad even with me leading the session and the therapist chiming in when needed.  We had a bit of a challenge with banana that she was willing to bite and chew up but kept trying to spit out rather than swallow.  Thankfully the therapist jumped in and held her hand that she'd spit the banana onto and calmly told her she needed to eat it.  She stared the therapist down for a bit but then complied and ate the chewed up banana mush.  After breakfast we talked about how inconsistent Naomi is with foods.  A food she swears up and down is her favorite on one day, she adamantly refuses the next and says it is awful for no rhyme or reason.  So we made Naomi a book where she gets to rate her foods every time she eats them.  We draw pictures of each of the foods and then she uses the faces from the pain scale to rate them.  We also colored each face a different color to help her verbalize how she feels about the foods.  We started this at lunch time.  I don't believe the first page of the book is totally accurate as everything got the highest rating and a shiny silver smiley face (except mashed potatoes with gravy that got black the worst rating).  However as we tried more foods she got more into it and so far today it has motivated her to try things as she loves to draw the mouth and color the face to rate each food.  We've had some unexpected surprises too.  Peaches (a food she normally refuses) got the highest rating and plain avocado got the worst but avocado with salt got mediocre, we can work with that.  After every session, if Naomi finishes in time she gets to pick an activity in the gym.  Every time today she has chosen a swing that makes me crazy dizzy watching it.  Here is a link to the video on my Facebook page.

Outside of her sessions today she had made a pile of art in the playroom.  We might run out of wall space, she met a player from the Angels baseball team. I wasn't there but I included a picture of the signed hat so maybe one of you can tell me who he was and we went outside and played ball and hoola hoop.  Her favorite though was getting to talk to her kindergarten class.  I'm not sure all the information that passed hands as I only got to listen to half of half the conversation as the psychologist on the team stopped by to talk with me but Naomi seemed thrilled to here her teacher and classmates voices.

The best news of today was that dinner went fabulously. I must admit I chose all preferred foods after the disaster last night but she ate well and likely met her calorie goal for today.  Most of it was likely from the Oreo cookie shake I ordered her.

Tomorrow is our first team meeting so it will be interesting to hear what everyone has to say.  I am hoping for more of the same that is happening but I am also hoping for a regression in her behavior, sounds crazy, I know but I would love for them to see the way she acts in regards to food at home, when no one else is watching.  How she refuses to eat, claims to be sick and insists she is full after only a few bites.  I am SOOO glad she is eating but I am a little bit fearful about a huge regression when we leave here.  All this eating is so exciting it is almost overwhelming.

Until tomorrow....

Day 4 17.0kg, and 240ml through the tube.

Sipping Chocolate Boost at snack time.

Bravely trying canned pears.

She like it!

Maybe one of you baseball lovers can identify this signature.

Ready for bed with her new Angels hat and monkey.