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D.C. Area Babies
Early intervention update
So I set an appointment with Early Intervention because of our feeding concerns about LO.
They came out in two parts. In the first appointment, they did some preliminary observations and talked to me and DH about the program. For the second appointment, they brought an occupational therapist, a special educator and another woman who had a lot of nutrition experience.
The evaluation took about 2 hours and they scored everything during the appointment. They played with LO, asked us questions, watched him interact, and watched us feed him/watched him eat.
The good news is that there is no delay issue. At all. On every measure he scored at or above age level. They measured him at 20 months for fine motor skills and 21 for social-emotional development, and he came in at 18 months for verbal skills. He even measured ahead on the feeding skills (apparently he has a very good rotary or rotational chew, lol). Since he's 13 months old and 12 months gestational age, that was really awesome to hear.
They said that his weight gain issues are not developmental, and are probably due to his build, high level of activity, and family history. They were also very much opposed to the idea of using Pediasure because of the high level of sugar in it, and gave us a lot of great ideas about how to help LO gain without giving him a lot of added sugar.
The OT also gave some good ideas about how to position LO for eating and ways to help him self-feed more. Since we implemented some of them, he is eating more.
He is still nowhere near the weight target our pedi set, though, so I am concerned about our weight check appointment (which will be next week). I do feel comforted to know that his development is on track, and I feel like I can ask the doctor better questions (like why do we care if he is skinny if he is meeting all his developmental milestones?).
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Re: Early intervention update
great news!!
That's wonderful news. I'm sure it gives you some peace of mind.
Do you happen to have a link to your original post about the feeding issues? I'm asking because I was at a friend's house for dinner the other night and her daughter has some feeding issues that she was asking "is this normal?" I wanted to link her to your post to just give her some insight from some other mom's with similar type issues. If you don't have it, don't worry about it. I was just curious because I was remembering that there was a post about it in the last few weeks.
https://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/63142093.aspx
https://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/63030434.aspx
Here are my two most recent OMG Help! posts :-)
Thank you so much. It was the second post that I was thinking of. I am going to send it to my friend.
would you mind sharing the ideas they had for weight gain? i have a 12 month old with major feeding issues!
glad to hear all is well with your little guy!
Jessak - in the links I posted there are a lot of great suggestions.
The specific things the OT suggested for LO were changes to his posture while eating, and the angle of the chair. She also suggested putting smaller amounts of slightly larger pieces of food (we were putting too much finely diced food in front of him and overwhelming his with things he couldn't pick up so he was getting frustrated), and only giving him one type of food at a time. She also really helped us think about portion and serving sizes (a serving for a 12 month old is 1 tablespoon of each kind of item), so if LO eats a tablespoon of oatmeal, a tablespoon of fruit and a tablespoon of protein, he's doing pretty well.
She also gave us advice about helping him use the spoon "himself," and tonight I got him to let me feed him almost a whole thing of yobaby yogurt after his dinner by encouraging him to stir with his spoon.
Our main concerns were with drinking - using the sippy, straw cup and bottle, and she gave us some good suggestions about those, too.
I think that if we continue to feel like LO needs help, I'll definitely talk to an occupational therapist and nutritionist in the future. At the very least, it made me feel so much less stressed and tense about mealtime, which I'm sure he sensed. And 12 months is the time when they really want to become independent, so the stress and tension just kind of exacerbates their already stubborn ways, lol.
That's great news!
I'm so grateful for the OT my son is getting - and it's so nice to have experts look at your child, isn't it? Yay for services.
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