Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Help needed with getting Liquids in my boys...

Ok this is a LONG overdue post. I have been trying different things and asking several people for advice, but to no avail. My boys both have issues with drinking. I don't know if its a sensory thing, if its a flavor thing, or if its just them being stubborn (I don't think its stubbornness).

Ever since they were about 8 months old we have been thickening their liquids due to the fact that they both aspirate thin liquids. We continue to do this still today and they are 4 1/2 years old.

My problem is that today we were at the doctors office, Caleb is close to being dehydrated. We were given another day to push more liquids into him and we were to stay away from milk products. He has a stomach virus going on and its causing him severe diarrhea and occasional vomiting.

This is the conversation between me and doc today:

Doc: Go ahead and give him Pedilyte
Me: he won't drink it.
Doc: Ok then Gatorade will work
Me: he won't drink it
Doc: Ok, well then water down some soda
Me: he won't drink that either
Doc: Humm, well then jello or Popsicle
Me: He won't do either of them either..

So I have no other choice but to continue with the rice milk, but this is not the first time this has happened to us. Does anyone have any advice on how to get them to drink other things? We have tried putting juice in their milk, just to flavor it and see what they would do.. Throw their cup is what they did.

We've tried a small amounts of soda on a spoon before and NO! I don't think they like the coldness of the Popsicle and jello they they spit it right out...

I'm outta things to try. We've only really worked with the speech therapist about two years ago and nothing worked then. Who do we ask about this?? I'm at a loss????

5 comments:

Andrea Baer said...

OK....You have probably already thought of everything. LOL William has really bad sensory issues and eating is a huge issue. I'm just going to throw things out that come to my mind (Which isn't always there) and you can think on them...
have you tried different temps of liquids? How about from a straw...or dropper...make it a game. So it's a tiny amount and not overwhelming at first. What about mixing some rice cereal with juice to make it thicker for their senses. Have you tried warm jello? Straight from the cups you can buy. Maybe it's the temp. not the thickness. I have a really great friend who is a specialist with Autistic kids...I'll run it by her and see what she says. She laways has the answers for me. HaHa

Anonymous said...

I've never tried warm jello before, thats worth a try! They can't drink from a straw yet, only their sippy cups. Anything coming from a medicine dropper they automatically think can't be good and they put up a huge struggle with that. I do thicken their juice with Thick It when I "try" to give it to them. I only try new things a couple times a month, but they have never liked anything yet but some iced tea once. I think it was a mix or something, we were at a picnic or something, we offered it to them and they both drank it. Tried it again a few days later and it was a no go again???

Sara Powers said...

Stacy, to repost what i said on facebook... I see that you tried giving them a splash of juice in their milk... instead of letting them taste a little bit, try completely disquising the taste. only put (seriously) 1 drop in for a few days. They should not be able to taste it at all. Then 2 drops for a couple days. increase by 1 drop every day or couple of days...if they seem to notice and throw the cup go back to the previous days amount. Its a very long and seemingly endless task. But it has been proven to work with many special needs children and adults some autist and some not. It won't help you stay out of the hospital this time, but hopefully the next time. And again Good Luck. Give Caleb kisses from Ravie and we pray he gets to stay out of the hospital!!!

Andrea Baer said...

I'm late back at this but even if they can't drink from a straw you can plug the top end and suck it up and then let it drop into their mouths...They would only be getting a few drops at a time. You could always add more and more as it goes ok. But at least if he would take it that way it could be a few more drops of liquid down him. HUGS. Hope you figure something out.

nathansmomsherry said...

The honey Bear or Juice bear cup with the flexible tubing straw works wonders! I take control and have Nate in his chair strapped in (I think it stabalizes him and helps him with eating and drinking). I do the squeezing of the honey bear and use counting, singing the ABC's and keep pusing and making him drink as fast as I can.

I suggest flavored waters as they can taste the flavor and this helps with swallowing. Also making it cold helps too!

I hope this helps! My goal is 20 ounces of whole milk a day with Carnation instant breakfast and 12 ounces of water.