Therapy Day 17: Sweet baby

Today was a day that I had to squelch my need to love on the babies so that the grad students could really practice the therapy skills they have been taught, and I can assess their skills.

But then, little Lushimo had a little set back so I was able to spend some time with him. I wanted to walk through a a snapshot at what evaluating a baby for feeding problems so you could know what I have been doing here when I am not participating in therapy.

Lushimo has been sick the last few days, and has obviously lost some weight. This morning, his breathing appeared slightly disorganized, so I popped open his little onsie and sure enough he had some inconsistent laboured belly breathing. At times it was tachypnic (fast breathing) and at times it was as if he was holding his breath. He was NOT nearly as bad as little Alfred the day we discovered his respiratory distress. I took his heart rate, and it was WAY to fast (in the 200s). I was afraid to feed him, but after he calmed down a little while, he communicated that he was clearly hungry. I fed him, and he sucked down 3 ounces in 8 minutes (which is good timing) and he had no signs or symptoms of aspiration (going into the lungs). However, his little belly was as tight as a drum afterwards. This indicated to me that his breathing pattern caused him to suck in too much air while eating. So I did something they do NOT do over here... I burped him.

hat's right, they don't burp their babies. Therefore we get a lot of spit up and a lot of special little diapers. He did burp and seemed very grateful, and his tummy went down significantly. Then he just relaxed his little body completely against mine, and we just cuddled and rocked and had some loving time. He interacted well with me, which is a good sign, and his little splayed fingers (a sign of distress) eventually relaxed around mine. It's a tough job, but someones got to do it... ;) Please keep our little guy in your prayers. They are just so fragile.