Hallie Bulkin explains that a child's cough during feeding plus behavioral refusal signals a physiological problem, not a readiness issue. The cough is the child's body saying feeding is unsafe. Possible causes include reflux, flow rate problems, fatigue, or airway issues.
Now you see behavioral refusal and there's an acute cough with feeds and sucks while at breathe. This says, this is like, I don't love this word, red flag, and I was telling the team this morning, don't use that word, I hate that term. But this is kind of like a red flag for something physiological or like a motor breakdown happening, not just like a readiness thing, right? I know GI, it sounds like GI is involved, so I'm guessing there may be some others involved too. Something got harder for this child or became unsafe. Was it a flow rate issue? Were they extra fatigued? Did they have reflux? Is there an airway breakdown happening? Because she's protecting herself, right? That's not behavioral, that's communication. She doesn't feel like— this is not safe for me.
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