I had preemies that were born at 25 weeks and it was a close call.

This challenge I wasn’t hired for; I was chosen. And it’s the reason I’m a licensed nutritionist today.

My twins were born 15 weeks early and spent several months in the hospital before coming home. My son suffered a stroke during birth and my daughter needed a pacemaker upon arrival.

I kept being told over and over again by the many doctors ‘to wait and see.’ If you knew me personally, you’d know I wasn’t about to wait for anything. I knew there had to be something I could do.

I’ll focus on my son for the rest of this story since his stroke was the biggest unknown and challenge before us. When he came home from the NICU, he could hardly eat. Nursing was out of the question! And he disliked the bottle so much that we had to try and get what ounces in we could. He wasn’t gaining weight and his GI doctor had told us that the next step would be a feeding tube. I will never forget that feeling of not being able to feed my own son—I couldn’t give him his most basic need. 

At this point, I was pumping throughout the day to make sure both babies had enough to eat. The hospital had advised thickening the breast milk, but everything I read about thickeners sounded terrifying. We tried simple rice cereal, but it just added clumps to the milk. Our pediatrician (who I will be grateful for forever!) recommended we blend avocado into the breastmilk. It was a miracle. He stopped refusing the bottle, and actually wanted to eat! His weight started increasing and he never needed the feeding tube. 

I now knew what could make a difference in their lives. I dove in and learned everything I possibly could about feeding babies. They had cod liver oil daily, drank sauerkraut juice, and sucked down homemade formula once my supply couldn’t keep up. It was truly amazing to watch the effect real food had on these two, two-pound babies.