My Glass Slipper

There is a common misnomer that we only use 10% of our potential brain power. That has been debunked a few times, but i would say in general, we probably, on a day to day basis, don't use as much of our brains as we probably should/could.

Yesterday was NOT one of those days. I felt like freakin' Einstein when i got done making the following discovery. Those of you in my boat will exclaim, "GENIUS!" (well... might, i should say. I don't wanna let my head get too big). I have not seen the following 'invention/discovery' on any of the blended diet sites, especially those concerning syringe feedings.

Lil set-up: As noted a few times around the internets, these feeding syringes (most commonly sized 60 cc (or 60 mls, it's the same)) often come without caps. And especially the o-ring syringes i just ordered (ican'twaitican'twaitican'twaitican'twait). No caps. I didn't see anywhere caps for these things. Or if i did, they only came with other syringes.

Now, if you are feeding from home, in general, i suppose most people might not even need caps. They probably only need 4 or so syringes TOTAL, too, and so that is that.

But i am sending Hank to daycare, and it is not a special needs' daycare - it's a regular ol' daycare. With regular ol' kids in the same room. And i have been in constant communication with them about HOW STREAMLINED can we make this syringe feeding. The concensus, prompted by me, was to syringe an entire day's worth, which means 10-12 syringes, requiring caps.

One Blenderized Food for Tubies FB participant mentioned using the wire caps you screw on the tip of spliced/twisted wires. I thougth THAT was brilliant. I'm not exactly sure which caps she bought and/or the kind of syringe she had, but while it worked miracles for her, at a super low price (a bag of 100 at Home Depot are only ~$4), nothing about that scheme worked on my end. The sizing was weird and wrong, and the fact that there was an internal metal screw area inside the cap didn't work attaching to the catheter tip of a plastic syringe. Oh well. I kept my receipts.

So i sat in bed with my husband yesterday, while he was putzing around, and i cranked my brain cogs at a healthy speed. There had to be SOMETHING! I was thinking "rubbery." Something that could stretch over the tip, but wouldn't stretch OUT. I kept thinking that plasticy material that... that... what the hell is that stuff CALLED?! You know - - that plasticy stuff that makes up the ... cap... you know... that come with those closet organizer things!

HOLY SHIT!!! THE ONES WE HAVE IN OUR CLOSETS!!!

So i sprang to life (i don't usually "spring" anymore, which is kinda sad. I need to do more stretching) and moved clothes aside to pull off on of those caps. I quickly ran to the nearest syringe and popped it on and...

Too big. Too loose.

I was feeling a little defeated. But i went on Google anyway. Put in "closet organizer cap" and came up with this scene.

It's only AFTER the Google search that it occurred to me that there are TWO SIZES, and i had merely plucked the larger of the two.

More springing off my butt (!) to get the smaller size and .......

VOILA!!!!!!!!!!! Fit like Cinderella's glass slipper!!!!

I ordered a bag of them on Amazon (mixed sizes: 60 small (what i needed) and 24 large (garbage)) for $6.52 free shipping!

I had just conquered the world. (ha!)

<-- Cuz here's what i've been doing as an alternative, which has been wasteful and taxing on my fingers: Using cheap fold-over sandwich bags (not ziplock - think OLD SCHOOL baggie) and those little plastic hair bands for little girls. Fold bag over tip, wrap with hair band. Tedious. Annoying. But kept the food from leaking outta the syringe, so necessary/helpful.

I cannot WAIT for my non-sticky birdy syringes to come in which will go nicely with my closet caps.

Serenity now!