July 30, 2007

Monday Milestones:

Michael had his "video swallow" test today. He passed! What that means is that he demonstrated his ability to drink from a bottle without aspirating into his lungs. He tried several bottles, and the therapists will be working with him and with us on selecting a bottle that works the best and training us on how to use it.

Michael will not likely be able to use a regular nipple until after his cleft surgery. Cleft palates contribute to a "weak" suck, due in part to a lack of a good vacuum seal. Michael's tongue falling backwards does not help. The current bottle candidate for Michael is one called a "Haberman" which is a normal looking bottle, but it has a soft nipple with a variable flow and can be compressed by the feeder to help express the liquid from the bottle into the baby's mouth.
Michael took the test rather quickly. There was some pessimism that he would not drink easily because he has only had food by mouth a few times, but he performed like a veteran! (Mom got to watch.) We are proud!

Michael is also pleased with his performance today, and he enjoyed the field trip to the radiology room. He was well behaved, and did not fuss or cry from the moment he left the NICU until he got back. He was wide eyed and looking around. But, it was tiring to be so alert for so long!
Tomorrow is the hearing test. I don't think we can watch that one, but it would be neat if we could. They are hooking up electrodes to his head to read the reaction of his brain stem to auditory stimulae. All kinds of sci fi images come to mind....