Friday, August 2, 2013

New therapy for Miss L

This week after waiting a few months we have started therapy with Therapy Focus:
http://www.therapyfocus.org.au/
PMH stops therapy at age 2 and you swap to a local provider and we chose Therapy Focus. Therapy is done at home like Miss A has so it makes life easier. This Tuesday we had our first home session focusing on food. The speech therapist and OT were there to watch her eat. They identified a few isues very quickly:
She doesn't use her teeth to chew
She overfills her mouth
She doesn't bite properly when taking a bite of food
She chokes on food and water
She masticates more than chews her food

They took a video of her eating lots of different foods and found she did the same thing with each one. The choking has been a problem for a while and we worked on that  in the feeding group at
PMH. She chokes to get food out and or pleasure as well. Seeing that she doesn't use her teeth is interesting too. She has a very strong suck and her tongue is used in place of her teeth a lot of the time. Explains why she still likes food that is smaller and softer.

We also looked at how she sits while eating. Her high chair doesn't support  her head anymore soshe rolls it around and looks everywhere while eating. Not great for safety. We need a special high chair that gives her whole trunk support and means she doesn't have to work on holding herself up. I have noticed she eats better in the pram or car seat where her whole body is supported. For an adult it would be like sitting on a fit ball doing crunches while eating lunch. Your stomach is holding you up and working out yet you're filling it with food!

So all of that in an hour long session. I am very happy with the therapists and look forward to seeing what changes we can make....

 



1 comment:

  1. Congrats guys!! I noticed in photos the other day that she has some good weight on her too! Such a wonderful sight to see <3

    Kirsty xx

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