when will you stop OT?

lemen99

question girls - when did/will you stop OT?

I'm just confused.  DS gets an a hour of OT a week.  I'd started to feel like maybe he didn't need that much, so asked his OT, and she said that he was doing well and feels he needs an hour and wanted to continue to push him.

 But then at the NICU follow-up he measures almost 2 weeks past his adjusted age, and the doctor is very impressed, and writes an order to limit OT to 30 min/week.

So the question is, if he's measuring above his adjusted age, do we need OT at all?  At what point do we stop?  Do I trust the doctor or the therapist?  THey seem to have different perspectives.  The doctor seems to think "he's acting appropriately for his adjusted age so he's fine" while I think the therapist is more focused on getting him to the next step...I feel like she's really striving to have him do his best. 

But part of me thinks any kid can always have more therapy, but it doesn't mean he needs it either.

 

umbcpt

I think that you as the parent can limit the OT if you want, but I would not end it until he has caught up to his chronological age.  You could even cut it back to twice a month or once a month to monitor his progress and that way if a concern arises in the future, you wouldn't have to go through a whole evaluation again.  There is no harm in monitoring, but you also can't make development happen any faster if a child is 'age appropriate.'  It just depends on what they consider age appropriate, adjusted age or chronological!  If I were your PT, I would recommend to stay in to monitor development at this point, once a month, and increase or decrease as needed.  Good luck!

gizmo909

I'm an OT and what you're experiencing is pretty common... doctors and therapists (OT, PT, and ST) tend to disagree and have different perspectives.  In my experience, doctors tend to agree with the parents/family if the family is questioning something.  I've seen this a lot with things like when the patient should go home (when they're inpatient), if and when they should transition to outpatient therapy, and how much therapy the patient should be able to tolerate.  Therapists tend to push harder and be more aggressive with progress than doctors do.  Not sure why this is, but it's something I've seen more times than not.  Obviously, not all doctors and therapists are like this, but this has been the norm that I've experienced.  

On that note, you're his mother, and you know your child better than any doctor or therapist ever will.  IMO, you should do what you feel is right.  I'm guessing your OT is just wanting to push DS to progress even more with the thinking that it can't hurt.  However, based on what you've said in the past, he's not tolerating the amount of therapy she is pushing.  In that case, I would say OT needs to back off a bit.  Sometimes less is more.  Especially if it's affecting him negatively for the entire day.  GL!

Disclaimer:  Even though I'm an OT, please don't consider any of this as medical advice... I can get in too much trouble for giving medical advice!  This is just my personal opinion.