At age 4 1/2, Luki is still not an independent eater. He can take a spoonful of food into his mouth but cannot initiate scooping food onto a spoon, bring it to his mouth and repeating the process. He has not made much progress in this area ever since he was 3 years old. Granted, I may not have been diligent in feeding therapy at every meal time and without an ABA therapist or supervisor nagging me to continue with feeding therapy, it just became quicker and more convenient for me to do the work than wait for him to try on his own. I take full blame for his lack of progress. Gabe always takes my lead and he has been of the same mindset. Along with potty training, this area has been the hardest to tackle but most desired. When we are on a time crunch, it's hard to wait for him to finish eating and I end up finishing the job for him. I was told to not do this and let him go hungry as he may come around, but for some reason, this has been very hard for me to do.
He also refuses to finish a meal without his videos. It has become a habit to turn Baby Einstein or other children's videos during mealtime. Perhaps, turning it off completely and having him focus on eating would help; but, habits are hard to break and without it, he may not sit still long enough to eat. He still needs to be strapped onto his keekaroo chair otherwise, he is on top of the table.
Here, Luki is eating apple wedges. He can put small pieces into his mouth but is still unable to take a bite of a larger wedge and pull the unbitten piece out of his mouth. He just shoves the whole thing into his mouth. We are working on this, too. He has always chewed with his mouth closed. I don't think his bite is as strong as a typical person. Sometimes, I worry that he just swallows food half chewed but when I examine his stool, I don't find large pieces of undigested food so maybe it's ok?
He is doing an amazing job with french fries being able to pick one at a time instead of a handful.
**********************
On another note, we purchased the Mac Laren Elite special needs stroller out of pocket near the end of the year. We had some money left over in our healthcare reimbursement account to be void at the end of the year so we went ahead and purchased the stroller with no help from insurance or MediCal, thank you. Kaiser flat out refused to provide one and MediCal was taking too long for approval. We submitted a request with our pediatrician's approval for need but they wanted more "documentation". What exactly they wanted to know more is beyond me. Isn't it enough that he has hypotonia, has risk for falls, autism, wanders, anxiety in unfamiliar outdoor areas, etc.. What the hell more do they want to know? It was easier just to get it on our own and I am so glad we have it. Luki can no longer stop the wheels with is feet - a problem we have been encountering with his other strollers. It was money well spent.
I plan to take apart the old MacLaren Quest and use the canopy and seat liner on the new Elite. That should save me some money on accessories.
No comments:
Post a Comment