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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

New twist to therapy

Okay, last week I told you about (or it may have been the week before) the new thing we are adding to Ryan's occupational therapy. Well, we started it on Monday and he did pretty well. She showed me how to massage his palate then put a little pressure on his bottom teeth. I don't remember her doing the upper front teeth just the bottom front. I will have to make sure when she comes back next week. I fed him his bananas with a dip into his applesauce. He gagged once or twice but if she distracted him while I spooned it into his mouth he was fine. I did try to use the nubby/textured utensil but that didn't get very far so I just used the spoon. The main goal is to get him to eat so I thought it best to go with the spoon until he can relax a little better.

Yesterday I did this on my own so it was kind of hard to figure out how to distract him. He fought me a little on the massage but then he totally surprised me. I was able to dip the bananas into the applesauce with NO GAGGING after that very first bite! The boy ate two "tubs" (plastic rectangle shaped jars of food) of bananas and one complete tub of applesauce. WOW! Today it's time to see if I can get him to take a whole spoonfull of applesauce or pears with no banana chaser. Even if he takes a bite or two and I have to go back to dipping it will have been a major breakthrough for him.

Yeah Ryan!!!

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