Way to go, Joshua!

Today Joshua had both Feeding/Speech and Physical Therapy. Part of me thought the feeding appointment might not be necessary, but I wanted the speech therapist to determine whether we needed to meet or not since she is the expert. Joshua ate as long as it was food he was familiar with and that which he wanted to eat. He shooed some food away, but he ate enough so that the therapist could see what was going on. Since 2 months ago when she first evaluated him he has gone from a 7-9 month level to a 12-14 month level. He has made amazing progress over the last 2-3 weeks in particular. Mary Jane gave me a list of recommended foods, servings sizes, and other tips and ideas to guide me in feeding him over the next month until we meet with her again. Joshua pushes stage 3 foods away a lot because he wants table food now. He enjoys self-feeding more, so it looks like the baby food days are nearly over.

Following the Speech Therapy we met with Amanda for Physical Therapy. Amanda had to step out of the room for a minute, so I set the larger tractor on the padded table, turned on the motor, and let it drive across the table. Joshua immediately started cruising after it. Once the tractor reached the end of the table I turned it around to go back to the other end, and Joshua continued to follow it while on his feet. He took about 4-5 steps each way, which was more than he has done at home. He spent a great deal of time on his feet playing, cruising, and even walking behind a push toy in PT. He is not confident enough to stand in mid-air yet, but he's doing really well with his cruising.

Joshua likes to play with tractors a lot in PT. In fact, he can spend an entire session playing with tractors of different sizes. Amanda surprised Joshua with a little tractor to take home. It looks very similar to the ones he plays with in PT. It was so sweet of her to think of him when she saw it and buy it for him.

Another exciting thing today is that Joshua cut tooth number six. He has now filled in the front teeth space.

Good Report

Joshua had his 15-month check-up today. Can you believe he is already 15 months old today?!?! Time is really flying by. I still want to think of him as a baby. I guess it's because he is my baby, and he is our last, but I think he still looks like a baby. He doesn't have much hair, and he just has that baby look about him. I guess when he starts walking he'll seem older to me.

Joshua had a good physical today. He started off toward the bottom of the charts at birth, but he's catching up gradually. Today he weighed in at 22 lbs. exactly (50th percentile). He is 31 1/4 inches long (60th percentile), and his head is 48 cm (60th percentile). He got two shots today. One was the last of his pneumococcal conjugate and the other was the MMR.

Joshua starts feeding therapy next week right before PT, but based on how well he ate today I think we may not need it, or at least for very long. Joshua ate a great supper! He ate some finely chopped baked chicken, cream corn, and green beans. Darrin fed him some after I ate so I could take a break, and Joshua was covered in food. I wish I had thought to get a picture. This is the best table food meal he has ever eaten. Yay!



***Read on. I posted twice tonight.***

Joshua's Eating Real Table Food!!!

Right before Joshua's first birthday he was evaluated by Early Intervention. They found that he was behind in self-adaptive skills in his eating because he was only eating stage 2 baby food (pureed food) and was not taking to a sippy cup much. Since then he has mastered the sippy cup and we also had a complete feeding evaluation on him a month ago. After little progress other than the fact that he does eat meltable/dissolvable foods the feeding therapist has decided to start Feeding Therapy weekly. We have yet to start, but today he made huge progress!

While I was getting some lunch together I pulled out a cracker for Joshua to munch. When he finished it he took one bite of his baby food and swatted at it. I pulled out some Gerber veggie crackers thinking that might be a little healthier than regular white crackers. He ate several, but still fought eating the baby food. I managed to get a 2nd bite in him, but I gave up after more swatting at the spoon. I could tell that he really wanted to eat with his hands. I gave him some cheese of which he ate a little then began tossing it on the floor. I searched the kitchen for something soft he could try. I decided to cut up some banana in small pieces.

Months before Joshua would just gag on banana even mashed up. But today he gobbled it down! He ate about 1/3 of a banana! I am so excited! We'll have to try some more table food. I am so eager to try some other foods now that he's not gagging. Maybe we won't need the feeding therapy after all.

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.