MRI

The results for Robbie's MRI and blood tests came in the mail today. All normal! What this means for us now I do not know. I guess we will discuss that with the neurologist next week. Praise God! Thanks for all the prayers :)

Happy Things!

This will be somewhat random (as if all the rest aren't!).

Robbie has a new tooth! This makes tooth #5 and he is trying to get another through.

A new favorite thing for him to do is rock back and forth on his knees. This is great for his PT. It is pretty much all he wants to do now :)

He is starting to string lots of sounds together, making it sound like he is talking. It is really fun to hear him jabber.

Robbie's first birthday party was last Saturday. He was very sleepy when it started but within an hour got a second wind and had a blast! He was lucky to have a Great Grandma and 3 Grandparents there along with all his Aunts, Uncles and cousins. While not rocking on hands and knees, he enjoyed opening his gifts and playing with the new toys. When it came to the cake he didn't really care for it. Chet had to put Robbie's hand in it to get him to touch it. We touched a bit of frosting to his tongue and he gagged. So it didn't get very messy. . . . After getting cleaned up he spent the rest of the time playing and had a great time! Thanks to all who came!

Feeding Evaluation

Robbie's feeding evaluation was today with a speech therapist (Blair, who has a feeding specialty). It went very well, he was true to form, even gagging and throwing up the puffs. She fed him a few different foods and watched how he ate, what he refused, what he would touch, etc. She also asked about a million questions :) When he was done Blair gave me a few papers with foods he should be experimenting with and meal plans to get the most nutritionally. She said he seems to have oral motor problems. He can't move the food correctly in his mouth.

What this means for us. . . We have to get him used to chewing all kinds of stuff. Since he won't on his own we have to start making him put things in his mouth like carrots and celery as well as toys. We also have to continue giving him puffs, Gerber Graduate foods and table foods. He will gag and throw up. As he does this we are to use positive statements and positive reinforcement with a smile on our faces. Doing these things will desensitise him to the various textures, tastes and smells, as well as move his gag reflex from the front of the mouth to the back (this usually happens normally as kids stick stuff in their mouths but since he doesn't....).

So we will now start going to speech therapy for this once a week as well as PT. Pray that the insurance will cover most of it and that they will be able to make the appointments back to back so we only have to go once a week out to Celebration.

He is still scheduled for the swallow test in January. That will show precisely what he is doing with the food once it is in his mouth.