Feeding Evaluation

Joshua had his feeding evaluation this morning. Some of you may remember how upset I got that Tennessee Early Intervention ranked him at a 60% delay and at a 4 mo. old level. Well, I knew that had to be wrong because he eats stage 2 foods, and I was right. Mary Jane at the Children's Hospital evaluated him, and she said he is around a 7-9 mo. old level. Seven months is for the stage 2 foods, but nine months for eating meltable foods, such as Gerber puffs and dissolvable crackers. Eight months would be for eating soft mashable foods, which he is not doing yet, but we are going to work on that.

Joshua thrusts his tongue forward and backward when he eats, but he does not move it laterally from side to side. Mary Jane gave me some exercises using food as well as a chew toy to work on with Joshua to help him move his tongue laterally as well as to work his jaw and chew with his gums. We will go back in a month to re-evaluate how Joshua is doing.