Eating with Ian

Hmm, I think I might like this stuff ...

Just let me touch it and see how it feels!

I think I could get used to this!

Ian could not get enough of his cereal once he got used to it! Feeding him was a bittersweet experience. Sweet because it was a special bonding time and he was oh-so-happy with having food in his little belly. But sad because his reactions to food were extreme for a baby his age, obvious evidence of the near-starvation he had experienced in his early months of life. In between bites he would cry and kick for more, quickly! and when he had his bottles he would guzzle, guzzle until there was nothing left and then bawl over the empty bottle. He also held them with a death-grip, all on his own, and we'd have to pry his little fingers off in order to feed him ourselves.

In the video you'll notice how Pedro is holding Ian's hands so he had to rely on Daddy for his food. That was a technique we had read on another Haitian adoptive family's blog, basically about how we need to retrain our children to rely on us as parents to supply these needs and to trust us to take care of them. Of course the part that broke our hearts is that we could do this for them for one week, but after that they were on their own once again.

They cannot come home soon enough!