Drinking Water

A little background: When Owen was born, of course, he didn't eat right away. At a couple days old they would wipe his mouth with breastmilk. At three weeks old, when he was transferred to Oakland, he was taken into emergency surgery. As he recovered from surgery, he was not able to eat by mouth or NG tube. They slowly introduced feedings after recovery but it was never by mouth. The first time Owen drank by mouth was after his recovery from his second surgery. He was almost 4 months old. Because he was almost 4 months old, he had to be trained to suck and swallow. Something so simple - he had no idea how to do. He went through many therapies - OT, Speech, PT. By the time he came home, at 8months, he was sucking from a bottle but not much, only 20mls 3 times a day. We had to mix in a liquid thickener into his formula so he wouldn't choke. He had a tendency to inhale the formula if it was too thin. Well, in July 2010 Owen got Whooping Cough. As his cough got worse, his interrest in sucking on a bottle went away. While hospitalized for Whooping Cough, Owen no longer would take a bottle. We stopped trying to force him to take it until he recovered. When we got home we started letting him play with a bottle again but he would not even put the nipple in his mouth. It just got worse and worse. Soon, he could barely swallow.

It has been over a year since Owen stopped sucking a bottle. We have been worried about Owen getting sick lately because he wants to drink water but kept choking when we would give it to him with a cup, spoon, or straw. I have been trying different sippy cups with him lately because he seems to be really interrested in water. Owen really likes straws so a couple days ago I pulled out this old sippy cup we got as a gift on Owen's first birthday. It has a large straw but the straw acts more like a sippy cup. When you suck on the straw, the water comes out very slowly. I handed it to Owen just to see what he would do - he started sucking on it! He loved it and wouldn't put it down for the rest of the day! The following day he drank 7 cups of water - he got sick from drinking so much water! Can you imagine - not having a drink for over a year? I would be excited to drink too! I am so excited for Owen! He sucks and sucks on that straw and doesn't cough or choke at all! I am a very proud mommy! I just had to share this video :)