Leyla is now 6 months old, 29 weeks to be exact. Every parent will know that if you have not started already, 6 months is the time to start babies on solids.
Due to Leyla’s condition, I thought it would be a good idea for me to delay starting her on solids. To justify this, I have had long discussions with all the health professionals involved in her care, namely her surgeon, paediatrician, dietician and health visitor. But at the end of our discussions, in their own words, they all told me that delaying this procedure, may interfere with her development. Her surgeon rightly said for him to assess how she is tolerating food and different textures, she needs to start having solids. So, I must be brave and get on with it.
Regardless of all the books that I had read during my pregnancy, I know as a parent there are a lot of things that I need to learn. Having said that, my journey with Leyla has made me realise the simple things that I take for granted in life, such as being able to swallow food without having the risk of getting it stuck in my food pipe, which the TOF community call ‘sticky’.
In a nutshell, the reason a person with a TOF condition may get a ‘sticky’ is because their reflexes in the area where the top and the bottom part of the food pipe had been connected does not work. This means the food needs to slide down from that area down to the next stage of the food pipe where the reflexes work normally, and the food will be pushed down to the stomach. In the event of a ‘sticky’ I am told that there are drinks that help it come back up, such as coke, or as the child grows they understand and learn certain neck movements to push the food that got stuck down, however if none of the tactics work, the surgeons will go in under general anaesthesia and push it down!
So far, I have started giving Leyla some baby porridge, which I thought she loved initially, but later decided that it was not her cup of tea. She so far seems to like veggies, which I am very happy about, but my big meat fan husband is worried that she may not enjoy meat as much because I could not stand the sight of meat during my pregnancy, but I will start introducing meat and fish into her diet in a few days.
Today’s meal is cauliflower and half avocado. All steamed and pureed with expressed breast milk but formula milk can also be used. I gave Leyla three teaspoons and freezed the rest for a later date.
The Mum World 