Days 28-30

So, here we are.  3/4 of the way through the program.  She's making amazing progress.

Monday, Sarah was off the charts wild.  Mommy forgot to give her the ADD medication.  Three days in a row.  Oops.  She did fine with her feedings, but was unfocused and hyper.

Anyway, they introduced french toast for breakfast.  Sarah was largely unimpressed.  She did well at first, but then really struggled.  She started gagging on it, and then refusing the bites.  I was told I handled it very well.  One of her therapists brought in some hot water for me to mix in because it got too dry.  That helped a lot.

She had speech in the morning and did great.  She struggled a bit, but mostly got her bites down and did as she was told.  It was really nice to see.

She got a new food for lunch - mixed vegetables.  The cool thing about this was they normally put peas through a strainer before blending them down to remove the shells.  Not that day, and Sarah did just fine with it.  I don't even think she made a face.

In the playroom during the hours the staff isn't there to supervise, I got the joy of dealing with a Sarah poop accident.  Yuck.  Why, oh, why does she always save that for me? Not to say I want her torturing the playroom staff with that mess, but a break would be nice.  Sigh...

She had OT after that, but I forgot to ask how she did.

At dinner, she had chili for the first time and liked it.  I was nervous about it because it has a strong flavor, but she didn't seem to mind after a few initial weird faces.

Tuesday, I remembered to medicate Sarah and she was much calmer.  Thank heaven!  They gave french toast again and she gagged on the first bite, but she was fine after that.  I think she might have been nervous from having such a struggle the day before.  Her food for the chew session was peaches, and she didn't have any issues with that.  It's what she'd been working on since lunch or dinner the day before.

At lunch, her food for the chew session was ravioli and she did great with it.  Her therapist said it was exactly what she was supposed to do.  Cool.  She ate great for me too.

I met with social work that afternoon.  They wanted to make sure things were still fine at home (they are) and get some papers signed so they can call the school and try to coordinate training there.  I also signed a paper giving Sarah's aunt permission to discuss her feeding program.  That would be a little awkward if I didn't, considering she'll be here for training at some point.

At dinner, she had chili again and gave it some very weird faces, but got it all down.  She got spaghetti-o's afterward, and even chewed those (not in a session).  I was really proud of her.

Today was a stellar day for her at the clinic.  She seriously just rocked all of her sessions!

She had regular oatmeal at her chew session.  I mean regular, as in not blended, not made by Gerber, just regular oatmeal.  The last attempt at that was four years ago at her previous clinic and it was a DISASTER.  Not today.  She seemed to love it.  Woo-hoo!  She didn't give me any trouble at breakfast, even when her pancakes got thick toward the end.  She just chewed them a little and worked through it.

She did great at her school session, and her teacher showed me her work.  Sarah really worked hard and did well.  I watched part of OT.  She was eating fork-mashed mac & cheese, diced cucumber in ranch dressing, and she was licking ranch dressing off a pretzel stick.  It was very cool to see.  She is on a one-year-old level with chewing, which is great considering she had basically NO chewing skills when we started.

Her speech session was awesome too.  She didn't spit out a single bite.  She ate green beans, pretzel sticks, and dried bananas.  She needed some help manipulating the food, but she did everything she was asked without fighting or complaining.

Her lunch was great too, although she did gag on her first bite of broccoli and cheese during the chew session.  It seemed to be out of surprise.  The meal I fed her had one food of a higher texture than usual - peaches.  She did fine with them and knew what to do.  She was just ON today.

Dinner was great too.  She had a new food - macaroni and beef (Stouffer's, I think) and didn't have a problem with it at all.

I am loving this new attitude.  I really am.  Go Sarah!