Feeding time

Hopsitals of Hope has brough 4 monitors onto the Pediatric ward! They have attachments for oxygen saturations, blood pressure, and heart rate, and can even print an EKG. The staff was trained on them last week. We have a patient on the ward with bronchiolitis who was having some respiratory distress, so the nurses put him on the monitor. Shortly after, JFK had its first case of monitor-itis, where the family kept calling me over because they were concerned something was wrong with the baby. The reason for their concern was the blood pressure was coming up as "no reading" because the cuff was not attached to the monitor.
We are working hard on the malnutrition cases at JFK. We have done a lot of education with the medical students and the interns to use the WHO handbook and get these kids on feeding schedules. We have one little boy who is severely malnourished, even though he is 11 months old he only weighs 9 pounds, and has trouble tolerating feeds. He pulled out his NG tube this morning and his mother had gone home to get more clothes for him. Since it was Sunday and my schedule was a little lighter, I decided to feed him myself.
I lifted him out of the bed and he was like a bird, so fragile and light in my hands. As I snuggled him, instead of adorable baby chubby arms and legs, he seemed angular, as though every bone was making an impression on my arms. He reached up for the feeding syringe as though it was his favorite bottle, and he happily enjoyed every drop of his feed. Though there is more to do than I have time for in my short stay here, I am grateful for moments like these.