When I took my little man to feeding group this past Tuesday, he declared the day "biting day". We had stopped for lunch at Jason's Deli before and they gave him a lollipop. He asked me if he could eat it, and I told him that I'd he bit something during feeding group, I'd let him have the lollipop after. Deal.
When I dropped him off I told the therapist about the crayon incident and our deal with the lollipop. 45 minutes later he came out gnawing on a Twizzler and the therapist told me that sure enough, he had bitten a Pringle.
Yay!!
Wednesday night for dinner, he asked to play with food, played with the pretzels for a while and finally took a little nibble. He got a concerned look on his face, but didn't freak out, just moved the piece to his teeth like I told him to, chewed it a little and swallowed :)
Today, we were going to have lunch before the in home therapist arrived, and he asked for pretzels and apple straws. I gave them to him, and he played with them until she arrived. I told her that he was in the kitchen since we usually start with warmups in the family room, and she agreed we would keep him in the kitchen and let him lead a bit.
We ended up staying in the kitchen the whole time, and he nibbled apple straws, broke pretzel braids with his teeth and scraped crackers on his teeth. Huge progress all in one day, so he earned his chocolate cookie :)
We also dipped some of the things in hummus as she is trying to now get him away from all the sweet flavored and on to other tastes.
Finally on the way home from picking up his sisters he mentioned that he is getting tired of pureed bananas. I told him that was fine as there are tons of other things in the world to eat, he just needs to start trying, and he agreed.
Thank goodness we're getting there. He turns 3 in about a month and at that point Early Intervention no longer covers all this therapy and it'll go through insurance (and therefore out of pocket expenses for us). At least he'd probably have passed out of the feeding group though so we'd be back to once a week. Also the one-on-ones with the therapist would no longer be at our home, but at the clinic. Not sure why, but that's just how it works.
Showing posts with label Early Intervention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Early Intervention. Show all posts
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Occupational Therapist
She spent about 45 minutes at our house. She did some of the same tests the developmental therapist had done (puzzles, coloring, stacking blocks, threading a necklace, having him copy what she built out of blocks, etc).
Then she wanted to see him eat. Unfortunately he had just eaten before she arrived so wasn't really hungry but finally agreed to have some "wildebeest" :) She could see that he was fine with that too so then asked that I get a plate and some crackers to see him play with the food.
She had him spoon some of the bananas on to the plate and then try to stand the crackers up in it. He very carefully put the crackers in the bananas but didn't want to touch them so didn't really stand them up, just kind of put them close and let go. She tried to get him to scoop up the bananas using the crackers but he didn't really like that since they were mostly coated in bananas.
Bottom line, she didn't think he needs full occupational therapy but recommends that we join the feeding group which will start in a couple of weeks (which she helps lead). She also recommended that since he does so well with eating the things he does like to start putting his food on real plates and then also put some regular finger food (or small bites of whatever we are eating) on it too. The idea being the more he is exposed to it, the quicker he should develop a tolerance. She also recommended that once the meal is over he clean up the bite size items by putting them in one if the throw away cups and clearing the table. Again the more he feels like he is doing what everyone else does the quicker he will progress.
Then she wanted to see him eat. Unfortunately he had just eaten before she arrived so wasn't really hungry but finally agreed to have some "wildebeest" :) She could see that he was fine with that too so then asked that I get a plate and some crackers to see him play with the food.
She had him spoon some of the bananas on to the plate and then try to stand the crackers up in it. He very carefully put the crackers in the bananas but didn't want to touch them so didn't really stand them up, just kind of put them close and let go. She tried to get him to scoop up the bananas using the crackers but he didn't really like that since they were mostly coated in bananas.
Bottom line, she didn't think he needs full occupational therapy but recommends that we join the feeding group which will start in a couple of weeks (which she helps lead). She also recommended that since he does so well with eating the things he does like to start putting his food on real plates and then also put some regular finger food (or small bites of whatever we are eating) on it too. The idea being the more he is exposed to it, the quicker he should develop a tolerance. She also recommended that once the meal is over he clean up the bite size items by putting them in one if the throw away cups and clearing the table. Again the more he feels like he is doing what everyone else does the quicker he will progress.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Feeding Therapy session #2
The high chair has been packed away and replaced by the booster seat. my son has been sitting at the table with the rest of us for the past week. He loves the electric toothbrush I got - Thomas, of course. I started by lightly rubbing it on his hand, then cheeks, and around his face, then lips and finally inside his mouth. First on his teeth but also gums, tongue and inside of cheeks. He had no problem with any of it, and pretty quickly asked to do it himself. In fact, I had to take it away as he was walking all over with it, and I'm always afraid that he'll trip while it's in his mouth and get hurt.
Yesterday, I set him and his sisters up to play with food. I gave each of them a plate with some Cheerios on it. First I had them line them up to make a road, then train tracks. Once I saw he was fine with touching the dry ones, I had them each smush a couple of Cheerios. We pretended it was sand and then I added a little of his left over baby food to be the water at the beach. We took some of the whole Cheerios and used them as people and had them "dive" in to the water by pushing them in. The idea being to start with just touching something dry, then smushing it to change the texture, play with the texture, and then combine the dry with the wet to get comfortable with the wet texture. He did pretty well with all of it and played along. My daughters of course want to speed things along and asked if we could use cheese or bananas instead. I tried to explain that even though those are soft, that's not the direction we are going in yet. Lots of baby steps before we actually get to the real food.
This morning after his drop off class and a quick lunch the therapist came back. She started in our family room, first using the same brush as last time rubbing it all over his body to get him used to different sensations. He giggled through most of it. Then aw did the monster faces and wiggling his lips. Then she does a thing where she rubs her fingers all around the inside of his mouth pretending she's looking for an animal. She never does find it as the sneaky thing goes down his throat to his belly :)
Then she got a kind of hard rubbery toothbrush and dipped it in Pixy Stick powder and rubbed it around his lips, mouth and his tongue, and had him bite on it. She does everything 5 times, and he was fine with it the first couple of times and seemed to like the flavor, but by the 3rd time he was getting tired of it. But again she did a total of 5 times. Then she let him play with a puzzle - he chose one of the fishing puzzles with the little fishing pole. Then it was time to get in the kitchen and play.
He climbed up in his chair and we got out Ritz crackers, Cheerios, apple sauce, and vanilla yogurt. We started with the Ritz, first rolling it around on the plate, then smushing them with our fingers and then crushing them with a palm or fist. She had him take one of the whole ones and put it on his cheeks, head, nose to get used to the feel. Then she had him balance it on his nose and then pretend to sneeze and look down real fast to try and get it to land on the plate. He did fine with that.
Then she had him try and hold the Ritz in his mouth. It took a little encouragement to get him to do it, but he finally did and then spit it out. The second time he tried, he used his teeth instead of his lips and accidentally but off a small piece. He started to get scared and cry and she told him it was ok to spit it out, which he did. After calming down a little she had him do it again and he was fine. Then we held the Ritz in our mouths and then balanced some Cheerios on it, before dropping them down on the plate the next time again he bit off s little and got more scared and stared to cry. She had him look up and that got him to spit it out. While he did rub off what was on his face, he never picked out the piece of cracker that had gotten in his mouth, so he must have swallowed it. She had him do it one more time, so that his final memory of the exercise wasn't a negative one. She also explained to me that if he starts to gag on something it's best to startle him a little to for him to spit it out. It's a fine line though cause as my daughter said when I told her that later, sometimes if you get rally startled you inhale really fast and that would maybe make him swallow hard/choke.
As a little reward for his efforts, she let him play with a puzzle while we set up some more stuff. Time to play with wet things too. She put some vanilla yogurt and apple sauce on her plate, and had him scoop some on his. She drew a circle in hers with a spoon and asked him to do the same. She picked up some of the smushed crackers and sprinkled them on top. Still he played along. Finally she asked him to mix up the crackers into the yogurt or applesauce. He hesitated quite a bit but finally agreed to do it together with her. Once he does something wet that he doesn't like, she quickly wipes it off and says, "No big deal". The idea being you don't want to torment the poor kid by forcing them to keep it on their fingers if they don't like the sensation, and teaching them that they can just wipe it off if they feel like.
At that point her had pretty much had enough, and our hour was up any. The Early Intervention group is also sending a Occupational Therapist to our house on Tuesday to evaluate him, and I asked her about that. I feel like he's fine when it comes to motor skills, it's just the sensation he doesn't like and I guess it's more of a behavioral problem than a developmental. She said that most times, she works hand in hand with an occupational therapist as they work with him to get comfortable with different textures of non- food items, as a parallel therapy. They both follow something called Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Feeding therapy. More on that after she comes on Tuesday.
She asked me to do more of the same activities with him before she comes back next week, and was pretty happy with his progress so far. The dry foods no longer freak him out. It's now the wet stuff he needs encouragement on. She recommended sneaking a little hard stuff in his food (ground up Cheerios in yobaby for example), and increasing the amount as he tolerates it. The first time, so little that he can't see it, but maybe tastes it, and then increase it.
Yesterday, I set him and his sisters up to play with food. I gave each of them a plate with some Cheerios on it. First I had them line them up to make a road, then train tracks. Once I saw he was fine with touching the dry ones, I had them each smush a couple of Cheerios. We pretended it was sand and then I added a little of his left over baby food to be the water at the beach. We took some of the whole Cheerios and used them as people and had them "dive" in to the water by pushing them in. The idea being to start with just touching something dry, then smushing it to change the texture, play with the texture, and then combine the dry with the wet to get comfortable with the wet texture. He did pretty well with all of it and played along. My daughters of course want to speed things along and asked if we could use cheese or bananas instead. I tried to explain that even though those are soft, that's not the direction we are going in yet. Lots of baby steps before we actually get to the real food.
This morning after his drop off class and a quick lunch the therapist came back. She started in our family room, first using the same brush as last time rubbing it all over his body to get him used to different sensations. He giggled through most of it. Then aw did the monster faces and wiggling his lips. Then she does a thing where she rubs her fingers all around the inside of his mouth pretending she's looking for an animal. She never does find it as the sneaky thing goes down his throat to his belly :)
Then she got a kind of hard rubbery toothbrush and dipped it in Pixy Stick powder and rubbed it around his lips, mouth and his tongue, and had him bite on it. She does everything 5 times, and he was fine with it the first couple of times and seemed to like the flavor, but by the 3rd time he was getting tired of it. But again she did a total of 5 times. Then she let him play with a puzzle - he chose one of the fishing puzzles with the little fishing pole. Then it was time to get in the kitchen and play.
He climbed up in his chair and we got out Ritz crackers, Cheerios, apple sauce, and vanilla yogurt. We started with the Ritz, first rolling it around on the plate, then smushing them with our fingers and then crushing them with a palm or fist. She had him take one of the whole ones and put it on his cheeks, head, nose to get used to the feel. Then she had him balance it on his nose and then pretend to sneeze and look down real fast to try and get it to land on the plate. He did fine with that.
Then she had him try and hold the Ritz in his mouth. It took a little encouragement to get him to do it, but he finally did and then spit it out. The second time he tried, he used his teeth instead of his lips and accidentally but off a small piece. He started to get scared and cry and she told him it was ok to spit it out, which he did. After calming down a little she had him do it again and he was fine. Then we held the Ritz in our mouths and then balanced some Cheerios on it, before dropping them down on the plate the next time again he bit off s little and got more scared and stared to cry. She had him look up and that got him to spit it out. While he did rub off what was on his face, he never picked out the piece of cracker that had gotten in his mouth, so he must have swallowed it. She had him do it one more time, so that his final memory of the exercise wasn't a negative one. She also explained to me that if he starts to gag on something it's best to startle him a little to for him to spit it out. It's a fine line though cause as my daughter said when I told her that later, sometimes if you get rally startled you inhale really fast and that would maybe make him swallow hard/choke.
As a little reward for his efforts, she let him play with a puzzle while we set up some more stuff. Time to play with wet things too. She put some vanilla yogurt and apple sauce on her plate, and had him scoop some on his. She drew a circle in hers with a spoon and asked him to do the same. She picked up some of the smushed crackers and sprinkled them on top. Still he played along. Finally she asked him to mix up the crackers into the yogurt or applesauce. He hesitated quite a bit but finally agreed to do it together with her. Once he does something wet that he doesn't like, she quickly wipes it off and says, "No big deal". The idea being you don't want to torment the poor kid by forcing them to keep it on their fingers if they don't like the sensation, and teaching them that they can just wipe it off if they feel like.
At that point her had pretty much had enough, and our hour was up any. The Early Intervention group is also sending a Occupational Therapist to our house on Tuesday to evaluate him, and I asked her about that. I feel like he's fine when it comes to motor skills, it's just the sensation he doesn't like and I guess it's more of a behavioral problem than a developmental. She said that most times, she works hand in hand with an occupational therapist as they work with him to get comfortable with different textures of non- food items, as a parallel therapy. They both follow something called Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Feeding therapy. More on that after she comes on Tuesday.
She asked me to do more of the same activities with him before she comes back next week, and was pretty happy with his progress so far. The dry foods no longer freak him out. It's now the wet stuff he needs encouragement on. She recommended sneaking a little hard stuff in his food (ground up Cheerios in yobaby for example), and increasing the amount as he tolerates it. The first time, so little that he can't see it, but maybe tastes it, and then increase it.
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