Dear Trish:

Earlier I posted some general thoughts and questions as I didn't feel that
I know your son well enough to feel confident about any specific thing I
might suggest. However, I was thinking in the middle of the night about two
things that I do know about him: he likes pretzels and he drinks from a
cup. So here are a few specific thoughts based on just this:

1. I have seen a pacifier shaped device that has a small mesh bag into
which foods can be placed so that a little one can just kind of gum away at
the mesh bag and ingest tiny amounts of a new food. If pretzels--or any
other favorite food of his--were put inside, maybe the mechanics of getting
at the food would lead to the beginnings of sucking.
2. Ordinarily, I don't go out of my way to encourage the use of sippy cups
in nursing children (I've seen many nurslings learn to bite the breast with
the introduction of the sippy cup!), but...if your son isn't drinking from
a sippy cup, perhaps doing so would accustom him to something extending
into his mouth while drinking. I understand that some of them have a softer
spout.
3. Perhaps a drinking container with a built in spout connected to an
internal straw would make an interesting toy for him to get familiar with
something in his mouth while drinking--and to gradually learn to suck on.
4. If you model for him drinking and eating from such things, he might
catch on to how it's done--particularly the sucking.
5. Ordinarily, I don't go out of my way to encourage the use of bottles in
nursing children, but...perhaps a bottle would make an interesting toy for
him to get familiar with something in his mouth while drinking. The tip
could be entirely cut off at first, so that he could just pour the contents
into his mouth as he would with a cup. Then a new nipple could be cut--with
less removed--for his use for a while. Then a new nipple with even less cut
off, then even less, etc. Until just an uncut nipple is being used. Perhaps
along the way he would make the transition to sucking. Then perhaps he
could be transitioned to finger feeding, then to an SNS, then to just the
breast.

Just some wild ideas. : )

Take care,

Cynthia

Cynthia Good Mojab
Ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask]; Web site: http://home.attbi.com/~ammawell

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