Yesterday we had an appointment with Shelley, the PCMC speech therapist. She helps Ammon learn to eat and teaches me how to feed him :) Honestly I had NO IDEA eating was so complicated. We haven't been for a couple of months because Ammon got sick and then we had that appointment with dysphagia... anyway it was a little long, but very helpful.
I think sometimes I worry too much about not making enough progress with him. Shelly was SUPER happy with the progress Ammon has made and she said if he keeps it up there will be no need for a G-tube (yay!) She said he is eating about like a 12 month would - and that is fantastic! She reminded me not to expect him to eat like a regular baby - because he is not. I think I get so caught up some times in other people's opinions of where he should be and what he should be eating. I can't even remember what is normal for a baby at this age - let alone for Ammon :)
Anyway she agreed with the Dysphagia group that he needs to stick to meltables (no chunks of cheese, granola bars, plain cereal... everything he eats has to be able to "melt" in his mouth) because he is still sucking and swallowing, which means that although it appears he is handling those foods, he is swallowing whole chunks and that is dangerous. We had a nice, long lesson on the physiology of eating (again) - biting, closing properly, lateralizing, using his tongue to guide the food, grinding (as opposed to simply biting up and down on the food). She gave s some exercises to help him learn to grind with his molars.
It was a good visit and nice to hear someone say he is making progress. We just have to remember not to push him and to make eating as pleasant as possible for him!
Post note: Happy Oliver news! He must have been terribly embarrassed when I posted about his accidents because he hasn't had one since - yay!
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