*sigh* I THOUGHT we were finished with Early Intervention

[lilycat88]

DD was discharged by her PT just over a week ago after catching up with her gross motor skills. We thought we had left the world of Early Intervention behind. Nope. I placed an innocent call to her ped today asking about a behavior she just started about a week or so ago and *BOOM*, another EI evaluation. This time, it's her drinking...or swallowing, I guess is more appropriate. She's been a pro at drinking from a straw cup since about 8 months but recently she's been "losing" more than she's swallowing. At first, I thought it was a game or something nifty she just figured out she could do. Usually, though, if it's a game (like dropping the fork, etc.) she chuckles because she knows she isn't supposed to do that. Not with this, though. It's strange. She doesn't have a problem with solids and almost always when she has problems with losing a lot of liquid, it is at mealtime/snacktime. She carried around a cup yesterday afternoon at a picnic and hardly lost a drop.

I don't think this is any sort of a huge issue. Just a frustrating one. In a way, I'm glad we've been referred for an OT eval. I've kept a couple of things in the back of my mind recently to ask about at her 15 month appt. Things like she seems to have a really strong gag reflex (so does her daddy, though) and that she absolutely refuses to tip a cup up to drink out of it. She was like that with bottles, too. Her PT looked repeatedly at neck muscle issues to make sure she didn't have any tightness that made it uncomfortable to drink that way but everything seems fine. She just absolutely will not lift anything up enough to drink out of it. Perhaps there is some small issue and these things are all somewhat related. Perhaps I just have a weird child. Either are possible. :-)

Thanks for listening. I'm just whining, I guess.

Jamelin
Mom to Susanna born 6/29/2004

[searchdog]

Well at least this time around you know what to expect. You and I both know the good things our EI does here. I am assuming you get to have the same service coordinator? Hopefully thay can get her evaluated quickly and figure out what is going on.

[brittone2]

Oh Jamelin, I'm sorry :( How frustrating. But at least now you are familiar with how EI works and the help it can provide. Hopefully it will be a short length of treatment and Susanna will improve as quickly as she did with her gross motor skills. I'll be thinking of you.

Will she drink from a straw at all? I'm not a speech therapist or OT, and no oral motor expert by any stretch, but if she's "leaking" liquids sometimes drinking thick liquids (like a milkshake/smoothie type thing) can help strengthen the appropriate muscles to create a better seal. I'm sure the OT will give you some great suggestions.

Let us know how the eval goes.

[mudder17]

Aww...hugs, Jamelin! It's got to be frustrating, but at least you know there's good help out there for her! And I'm sure we all think we have a weird child at one time or another...DH just called DD a weird child yesterday. ;)

Please feel free to vent here any time!

Eileen

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[Wife_and_mommy]

Whine away. :)

Again, my friend's little girl had similar issues with drinks. It's part of the low-tone. Friend's DD got some exercises to do and she's doing much better.

On the cup-tilting, my dd has drunk from a straw since 8 months as well and she doesn't know she needs to tip a sippy or regular cup to drink. It's never occurred to me to be concerned about it. I think it's because they got used to sucking from a straw. They don't realize they need to tilt their heads back to drink from cups.

I'm sure Susanna will continue to improve. Good luck. :)


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[lilycat88]

Beth,
She drinks nearly exclusively from a straw. The strange thing about this is that she'll go for a day or so drinking out of her straw fine without leaking anything more than a few drops. Then, she'll go for a couple of days where we either have to strip her before giving her anything to drink or change her dripping clothing later. It's so unpredictable. I'm going to grab the video camera the next time she has a "bad" episode just so that we can show the therapist what she is doing in case she doesn't duplicate it. Her ped office said this could just be a little "developmental blip" that she might be over by the time we actually get the evaluation. Could be that she is getting ready to achieve some other milestone or do something else and she's just not paying attention to drinking sometimes. I could believe that. She's teething and her verbalizing seems to have taken a jump up in intensity in the last couple of weeks. She's imitating more and getting some actual words. Perhaps her mouth/tongue/throat is just a little "overwhelmed".

Thanks,
Jamelin

Jamelin
Mom to Susanna born 6/29/2004

[starrynight]

I wonder if because she is teething it could be from pain, if the gums are sore or swollen she might not want to suck as hard at the straw to keep from dribbling. Perhaps she actually has to try very hard to not drip and you don't notice it but now if she is in pain she can't do it so she is dribbling. I think having her checked again is still a good idea but hoping the best for you that it's just teething pain.

I know the frustration, we were ready to discharge E from ECI and now her leg is doing something funny all of a sudden so we have to wait it out and make sure she doesn't need PT on top of the OT she was getting. Hang in there, wishing you the very best!