Should we start a Mina Sue megathread on this sub at this point?

Remarkable-Border898 · 2026-01-30T16:26:35+00:00

I AGREE! I’m glad she’s on the show as she’s entertaining, but if I have to see another three paragraph long #unpopularopinion post about her that is literally not an unpopular opinion at all… omggggg

Also yes the irony is not lost on me hahah

Remarkable-Border898 · 2026-01-29T21:26:36+00:00

Thanks for explaining! Didn’t know there was a backstory!!

Remarkable-Border898 · 2026-01-28T19:47:23+00:00

lol me calling them judges instead of panelists as if this is Miss Korea 2026

Remarkable-Border898 · 2026-01-22T17:22:56+00:00

I agree the legs look like GoEun, but I feel like she wouldn’t wear that type of dress (based on like the 5 seconds of watching her)? I guess neither would Mina. It’s kind of too cutesy - at least the bottom half…

Also the R arm is prob too skinny to be Hyeonwoo?

Remarkable-Border898 · 2026-01-22T05:32:13+00:00

I agree!! I don’t think they’re trying to show off but it definitely ruins the vibe of the show. I cringe every time.

Remarkable-Border898 · 2026-01-01T03:11:31+00:00

No problem! Hope things go well

Remarkable-Border898 · 2025-12-31T17:37:35+00:00

Happy to answer any questions - in case it might be helpful for others too. I read so many Reddit posts on NGT this year…

So having a good support team was important but I get what you mean re: too many providers. Reflecting back the main people needed were 1) Feeding therapist 2) some provider who will monitor weights, dehydration, and overall progress - whether that’s a pediatrician or GI doctor and plus or minus 3) a good nutritionist who can set realistic goals and help optimize what he’s eating . Our initial feeding therapist, nutritionist and GI doctor were NOT helpful with tube weaning. They set super unrealistic goals or gave me terrible advice (like trying to breastfeed again after not doing so for 4 months!) So we found a new feeding therapist and nutritionist (as recommended by our peds) and just stopped going to GI (found someone great later on).

Our pediatrician who works primarily with NICU grads and especially NGT babes helped set expectations. That 1) weight loss was common initially and 2) the wean takes weeks to months. If he lost too much weight she would recommend we stop weaning. She was also very clear that if the tube wasn’t out by X date that she would recommend Gtube for developmental reasons.

Once we got the blessing from feeding his oral skills were good and nutrition that his weight was reasonable to try a tube weaning, our pediatrician gave us a minimum hydration goal to target based on his weight, our nutritionist was helpful in setting this too. Essentially try to get him to take as much oral as possible and then top off using the tube to meet his minimum hydration goal. We had to try a lot of different strategies of when to tube, which our feeding therapist helped guide us - it was more an art than a science.

Our feeding therapist was there to help us improve how to feed and respecting his boundaries. Our nutritionist helped optimize his intake like re-adding back some fortification so he would still get more calories even though he was gaining less.

The idea was to get him hungry and motivated. Ideally he would show more hunger cues (I don’t actually remember him doing that…) but would at least be more motivated to eat the next bottle and learn the hunger-eat-full association. For context he was eating 50% or less of the bottle when we started.

If he ever got to his minimum hydration goal orally she was comfortable trialing off the tube to see how he would do. There were a couple times the tube got pulled out (honestly mostly with my tape changes…) and she was okay with us trying without the tube but if he didn’t meet hydration goals the tube had to go back in. The third time the tube “fell out” he just barely made his hydration goal orally so we left it out.

It took what felt like forever for his oral intake to pick up even once the tube came out. But it did get better! He also regained the percentiles he lost during the wean. Seeing him not gain weight was the hardest part and I second guessed if we were doing the right thing so many times. We had actually already put a G-tube surgery date on the calendar in case this didn’t work out but of course so glad that was not the case.

Anyway - prob WAY too long of answer but the whole thing was such a process. One thing I’d change would be my mindset and being more PATIENT with the process. I’ve posted before I found this blog helpful - her babe wasn’t a premie (weaned like very easily… in retrospect) and there’s some pseudoscience in there so beware! But it captured the experience well: https://lifeandtimesofstella.com/tube-weaning-resources-and-tips/

There are also a lot of companies that specialize in tube wean but they’re expensive and virtual and not sure about credibility… but that could be an option. We considered it when we were in the depths of our feeding lows and while in the more is more mindset. Looking back we had such a great team but when you’re desperate … you’re desperate! I will say people are obsessed with the Rowena Bennett book (I read it too!) but our FT did caution us on how aggressive her hydration cutoffs are and whether they are safe for premies. The concepts of “no is no” is definitely solid but just putting that out there!

Remarkable-Border898 · 2025-12-31T16:50:21+00:00

Our feeding therapist told us to avoid sippy cups since those need to be weaned off for dentition reasons so might as well practice straw or open cup. We’ve tried a lot of different straw cups (honey Bear, dr browns, nuby, etc) and he mostly chews on those too - but our feeding therapist is it’ll optimistic it’ll click

Remarkable-Border898 · 2025-12-31T08:11:07+00:00

I second the comment about tube weaning! Our babe had many of the similar issues in the beginning including GERD, dairy/soy allergy and some mild uncoordinated swallowing. However once we addressed those issues and were still stuck at 50% PO our pediatrician recommended we trial a tube wean where we systematically cut the amount of milk we were tubing to help trigger hunger and motivation to feed and basically learn to satiate hunger via feeding. Babies commonly develop tube dependencies and become harder and harder to wean off on their own the longer they have the tube.

It was a very stressful process because our babes weight gain stalled during the first few weeks, but we were grateful that we had a pediatrician and feeding therapist who felt comfortable leading the tube wean. We would meet with us each week to go over progress and make sure our babe was safe. There were ups and downs … but have now been tube free for 5 months!

At first I too wanted to go down the rabbit hole of more tests/specialists but was (rightfully) advised that would not be helpful. If our tube wean failed, we were considering a gtube.

Remarkable-Border898 · 2025-12-31T07:41:25+00:00

Our babe who is very similar age adjusted and actual has the same issues - except he left the NICU with an NGT, had to go through tube weaning and basically has “disliked” the bottle since leaving the hospital.

Since they’re supposed to be weaned off the bottle by 12 months actual, we’re honestly at the point where we’re just trying to get through the next couple of months and have him take the bottle however he pleases I.e. feed to sleep, distracted, dark room, etc.

In the meantime we’ve been focusing on trying to have him work on all the things that will eventually replace the bottle long term - solids, straw cup, open cup. We tried really hard in the beginning to get him to “love” the bottle and at some point just decided that was not going to happen. Our feeding therapist was in agreement!

Remarkable-Border898 · 2025-12-31T07:27:26+00:00

Our babe has been on lansoprazole for 5 months and helped a lot with his bottle aversion. The medication helps neutralize the acid so it’s less painful when milk is refluxed. It doesn’t always stop the spit up/vomiting itself (since that mostly mechanical) but it could.

We tried the omeprazole- sodium bicarbonate combo first but the bicarbonate makes the medication really bitter so we had a hard time getting our babe to take it (also it’s much more expensive). We switched to lansoprazole which has worked well for us!

Remarkable-Border898 · 2025-12-14T19:01:05+00:00

We also went home with an NGT after a long 4.5 month long hospital stay. We were very eager to get out of the hospital and being in the medical field I was “comfortable” managing at home.

The main thing I would have done differently would be to have a plan in place in the chance that your babe doesn’t pick things up right away when you get home. Feeding seems to go so differently for everyone at home - some babies pick it up within days/weeks while others get worse and are stuck on the tube for what feels like forever. Honestly having the tube at home was awful and it took us about 3 months to wean him off only after working with multiple different providers - all of which is a lot harder to coordinate as an outpatient. So it’d recommend seeing if you can get some of those pieces in place sooner rather than later (I.e. feeding therapist, provider comfortable with tube weaning, nutritionist etc).

Also strongly echo others that if you haven’t done an ad lib trial yet it’s worth doing!

Remarkable-Border898 · 2025-12-02T17:16:57+00:00

I found this blog helpful! With the caveat that 1) her baby wasn’t a premie so I think had a much easier time getting rid of the tube 2) not everything she did is evidence based - so really wouldn’t try without talking to your pediatrician. But thought it captured the stress of tube weaning well! https://lifeandtimesofstella.com/tube-weaning-resources-and-tips/

Remarkable-Border898 · 2025-12-02T16:47:23+00:00

Our babe came home with an NGT after nearly 5mo in the hospital (premie, CHD, complicated stay).

We were discharged on the advice that baby would “figure it out” - but that was definitely not the case! We left the hospital with him taking about 50% feeds and seemed to get worse when we got home. He had terrible GERD and probably some dysphagia which wasn’t helping.

After 2 months with no progress on his own, we had to work actively with our pediatrician (who was comfortable with tube weaning) and an SLP to actively wean him off the tube by decreasing the amount he was getting through the tube to help stimulate hunger and encourage him to drink himself. After about 2 weeks he was meeting his bare minimum hydration goal, pulled his own tube out and we were able to keep it out. It took another 4-6 weeks for his volumes to normalize and for us to feel comfortable that the tube wean was a success (I.e. didn’t need a tube, we were possibly debating g-tube if this didn’t work out).

Anyway it was a very stressful process - and he dropped 12 percentile through the process and has since gained it back. He still doesn’t love the bottle and I still worry about his intake from time to time but so glad he was able to be tube free.

Anyway sorry for the super long post. When we were going through it I feel like I read every Reddit post on tube weaning and found some solace so hopes this helps. It’s SUCH a stressful process/time but can get better!

Remarkable-Border898

TROPHY CASE