Feeding the triplets was an adventure! The first day we showed up with grapes – fruit in an attempt to meet their nutrition needs. The triplets were still a little unsure of me – this mzungu taking pictures and bringing strange food! Well I was feeling on top of the world showing up with grapes but it turned out not to be as simple as I thought.
The triplets had never had grapes before and so were scared of them! Despite their older siblings, Charles, me, and their mother eating the grapes, they refused to try them. Instead, they threw them on the ground. I was so discouraged – here I thought I was helping and instead the food was going to waste because I didn’t think about the fact that they are babies and picky eaters and I couldn’t make them try it!
So instead Charles and I sat with the triplets and fed them their dinner – ugali and peas. The smaller one, Kevin, must have been sick because he was in my lap eating one minute, and then threw up all of the food he had just eaten. This worried me because he is already the smallest of the remaining triplets (and like I mentioned in a previous post, the 4th baby died from malaria and diarrhea). The mother cleaned him up but we were still concerned.
The next day we returned with bananas – food that the babies have tried and like – to try again with the nutrition and also to check on baby Kevin. The babies were finally warming up to me – Kennedy let me feed him and David played peek-a-boo with me. Kevin was wrapped up on his mom’s back – she had taken him to the hospital and he tested negative for malaria so they put him on amoxicillin to fight whatever bacteria was making him sick.
Lesson learned: even good intentions need to be thought out! Thankfully the babies loved the bananas and we were able to make the second time around a success!
Picture: Me playing peek-a-boo with Kennedy
The triplets had never had grapes before and so were scared of them! Despite their older siblings, Charles, me, and their mother eating the grapes, they refused to try them. Instead, they threw them on the ground. I was so discouraged – here I thought I was helping and instead the food was going to waste because I didn’t think about the fact that they are babies and picky eaters and I couldn’t make them try it!
So instead Charles and I sat with the triplets and fed them their dinner – ugali and peas. The smaller one, Kevin, must have been sick because he was in my lap eating one minute, and then threw up all of the food he had just eaten. This worried me because he is already the smallest of the remaining triplets (and like I mentioned in a previous post, the 4th baby died from malaria and diarrhea). The mother cleaned him up but we were still concerned.
The next day we returned with bananas – food that the babies have tried and like – to try again with the nutrition and also to check on baby Kevin. The babies were finally warming up to me – Kennedy let me feed him and David played peek-a-boo with me. Kevin was wrapped up on his mom’s back – she had taken him to the hospital and he tested negative for malaria so they put him on amoxicillin to fight whatever bacteria was making him sick.
Lesson learned: even good intentions need to be thought out! Thankfully the babies loved the bananas and we were able to make the second time around a success!
Picture: Me playing peek-a-boo with Kennedy
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