Random Parks

So on my way home from Pirate Cove we saw this huge park just around the corner and Holly was fussing in the car and not ready for a nap yet, so I decided to stop and check it out. This park was huge. the main play structure was themed like the old west with a "mine" and bridge and wagons and horses. Holly had fun riding in the wagon.

This structure was like a huge maze. Not super baby safe so I stood about 6 inches behind Holly and she crawled along and explored, but she had a blast as it seemed to go on for "miles" with many twist and turns. there were about 15 slides coming and going from various sections of the play area and two bridges and a third that turned into a sidewalk path.

This park was inland a little more so it wasn't quite as breezy as the other one. and The Sun wasn't as bright as we were surrounded by a grove of tree's so I was able to let her take her hat off.

Lets see the weekly update, Monday was therapy with katie and a Playdate a Chloe's this is the new day for those Playdates. Tuesday was when we went to these parks, and in the afternoon on Tuesday was when I headed to Tumble and tea for a late Lunch

On Wednesday we stayed in. Holly had PT with Sally and then we saw the feeding therapist for her evaluation. It was pretty interesting. She said I am doing a great job, but certainly I am working too hard and we can hopefully make things easier for both me and Holly.

She totally thinks the eating issues are related to sensory problems. One of the things she recommended with propriocepture games before mealtime.

That is basically things that consist of heavy muscle work. like the wheel barrow or squishing and burrito games, deep pressure. I guess activating those big mucles and using some of that energy helps her to self regulate and be ready for eating. She wasn;t very specific on why this works, but said that the various sensory systems are related and connected and working with one will trigger ease in another.

This is the Second Play structure at the park. It was a bit more baby friendly with a slide Holly could do on her own, although I went down three of the bigger slides with her in my lap on the pother side of the park. This has an under water theme and she had fun climbing up on the rock climbing wall and the lumpy slide.

Lets see... The other thing that the Feeding Specialist recommended was adding more flavor into Holly's food. She observed that there was not a lot of lateral tounge movement and although she did nibble and "chew" this was basically wit her front teeth and not much with her jaw.

The therapist feeling was that holly wasn't getting a good sence of the food in her mouth where it was, so wasn;t getting enough input to know what to do with it.. This also relates to the over stuffing, as she keeps adding more till she gets enough input in hopes of it triggering an appropriate responce like chewing or gnawing but then when she tries to swallow she gets in trouble because it is more then she can handle.

The idea is that if you make food more flavorful then it activates the tounge and sences to tell her where it is in her mouth and she will explore the food more. She sais to think outside the box away from just sweet and salty. So here are some of the recommendations; Sesame oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, pickle juice, cinnimon, vanilla, horseradish, ranch dressing, pepper, cajun spices, ginger, garlic, mint. All of these (seperately of course) can simply be added into her regular baby food jar purees. So take some green beans, or apple sauce and add in a little horse radish and there you go, you have added a punch of flavor. I am not sure how great those flavors go together or how good they taste, but it is about giving her a new strong flavor, so if youhave ideas on more let me know.

The other thing she want's her to do is chew on hard things, like teething buscuits. But here is the caviot. So today she was eating a barely teething buiscuit and a banana cookie. A peice was bitten off but she then didn;t chew it she basically swallowed it whole. It was sorta a ragged peice and it isn't something that just melts like a puff, so she was a bit concerned about that.

So it was with mixed feelings that she recommended I let her gnaw on a carrott stick. But basically she wants something that is long and thin and can get back to her molars and she can really work on. The issue is that I have to keep a close eye on her, because if she is able to bite a peice off, i have to be ready to swoop in and scoop it out, lest it me a choking hazard. So while a long thick pretzel stick might do the trick, she thought that might be too easy to bit, where as a carrott is much harder. She also said i could cook the carrot or for example a potatoe in a fry shape and then freeze it. So she can gnaw on it and then as it melts she might get little bits of it, until eventually I have to throw it away.

SO the ultimate goal is for her to be able to feed herself grown up food. But the short term goal is for her to tolerate more chunky foods that are fed to her without her gagging on them, also the therapist thought I needed to work on getting her to eat/drink more in one sitting less frequently. So 5 times a day totally 2 snacks 3 meals, rather then the now every 1.5-3 hours a feeding. It is some days still 5-7 bottles and 1-4 food feedings, and that is where the "working to hard" comes in. She observed that I am making a real effort to not turn feeding time into a battle, but I have to carefully balance that with giving her enough that she is full to go several hours between meals, so we both don't have to be chained to so many small feedings.

She will be writing up a report in the next 3-4 weeks and send it to Leela, who will forward it on for approval. The report will recommend therapy 1X a week and may or may not be done by her, just depending on the authorization and who the regional center chooses, although she said she would love to work with Holly.

I also asked her about the speech. She indicated that is she does start using her tongue more it might help with a few more sounds but that the work she would be doing is very different from that of a speech therapist and there is very little overlap in her mind, especially since she thinks we need to in part focus ont he sensory part of it. So she encouraged me to soilder on with my quest for Speech Therapy (SpT). She said that some SpT do work on feeding issues, but most feeding specialists that are OT's don't do speech.