Day Five: Schedule

Schedule: ZZ is the 3rd of the 3 patients in this program, meaning he starts and finishes the last. This works out really well for us since we are the only family in the program who are from far enough away to stay in a hotel. We like the extra time in the morning and aren't rushing home to anything. He starts with a 25 minute feeding by the speech therapist. She is the one on the team who calls the shots as far as how the other feeding sessions will go (with input from the team). Then he has Occupational therapy which usually involves some sort of physical activity which he loves plus some sensory play which causes him a few issues. After OT he has speech therapy which involves oral motor stimulation. Then he has a feeding done by the OT so she can give feedback on sensory issues. By now it's noon so I put him down for a nap and tube feeding. His afternoon consists of 2 feedings by the psychologist who works on his refusal behaviors.

Occupational Therapy:
Today he did a wheelbarrow crawl to pick up toy people and put them in the bus. I watched that part and although he got tired, he was having a lot of fun. I asked the OT and she explained that this is a muscle strengthening exercise. Typically kids who don't eat have lower muscle tone like in the neck and face because, well, they don't chew. Eating is exercise - I knew it!! Then they worked on washing the bus with shaving cream. He did a few touches and had just a few refusals, but here again it was touches not diving in, so there his sensory issues come in to play.

We ended the week with success at eating from a dry spoon, a water filled spoon and a juice filled spoon, ...this seems a little slow to me, but the therapists all say he's doing well, so I'll defer to their judgement.