Now it's a saga

So my daughter. And the eating. Oy vey. I wrote a while back that she'd started eating. And she had. She'd started sticking things in her mouth -- toys, food, and her own fingers! -- and stopped gagging. So much. I bought baby food. She ate it. Ay me! It's all fixed!

Not so much though. Because she's one and purees are IT. That's all she can get down. The other day I managed to get her to eat a bit of very over cooked rice and overcooked carrot. They were ALMOST puree but not quite. And that was a major victory. A whole new accomplishment.

She's ONE. Most babies, by this age, apparently, can eat dry cheerios. I wouldn't know, I never had a baby who could do that at one. (I don't breed gifted eaters, it seems.) But still. My last baby wouldn't have gagged on mushy rice. He might not have liked it, but I wasn't forever hauling him out of the high chair to whack him on the back to prevent choking, is what I'm saying.

The infant development people think that she's "delayed" and would probably figure it out, but why not help her out with a little therapy -- OT, speech therapy, what have you. But not now. Not in May, when she's started daycare, let's start in June so she's not stressed out by too much at once. Which frustrates me because I should probably have started in April, but I put it off. I was just so relieved she was eating that I just kinda figured it was all fixed and would go away on it's own.

The pediatrician, who I saw today, thinks it's possible she's got a little esophageal stenosis (narrowing. Just narrowing. To save you looking it up.) going on and so we should get an upper GI xray with barium and ... stuff. And then insert a balloon to blow up her esophagus. Because maybe that's why she can't swallow anything thicker than puree.

Uh. Yeah.

It's so strange how something that's just a non-issue at 6 months turns into a personal idiosyncrasy at nine months turns into an annoyance and a worry at 10 months and into full on hospital time at 12. What's even more strange is that her growth is great, 50th percentile for weight and 75th (!!) for height, so ... well, clearly she ain't starving. Oh, yeah, I know, she can't survive solely on breastmilk for too many years but it's also not like she's losing weight and not thriving. She's thriving, baby. She's thriving.

Sigh.

Anyway. The referral for the upper GI takes a month or so, so I have a month to get her to eat a Cheerio so I can cancel the whole procedure. Wish me luck.