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.