OT Visit #3

This morning we were able to go to ladies Bible study. The last two weeks the study was cancelled due to snow. Nadia did a great job (no tears) and giving her peanut butter crackers to eat on the way home meant she stayed awake and then slept from 1-3:30 in her bed later that afternoon. The last time we went she didn't nap At All at home due to a very short nap in the car on the way home. While she napped Karen spent 75 minutes with Ian. She was pleased with the progress I've made with him with the oral stimulation exercises. Last week he gagged when I touched his tongue, but he doesn't do that any more. This week I'm to focus on the palete of his mouth. I told her the sippy cup transition totally failed but that I had been able to get him to spend a lot more time in the highchair this week. She gave me a different cup to use (one side is cut out to allow for the child's nose) and suggested I try to get him to drink his formula in that cup. I tried it this evening to no avail. He will drink a tiny bit of water from my glass. I'll try using that new cup for water tomorrow. She also gave me a new spoon to use and suggested I put some of his formula/cereal on it. That also didn't work at all this evening. She said that if we're not seeing some progress by early March that we should make an appointment for him to see Dr. Williams, a psychologist who is part of the feeding team in Hershey. We are headed to Hershey on the 24th to see a pediatric GI. It seems strange to think my 14 month old might need to see a psychologist, but if he can help Ian learn to eat solid foods, then I guess that's what we'll be doing.

In terms of Ian's sleeping habits, she said we did the right thing by letting him cry the last two nights. It. Was. Hard. Especially since he cried for 2.5 hours straight at one point on Sunday night (from 12:15-2:45am). That was torture for all four of us. In addition to waking up several times during the night, he's also been getting up very early each day (sometime between 4:45-5:45am). The boy isn't getting much sleep! Karen thinks that if we let him cry again tonight then it should go better starting tomorrow night. She said it rarely takes more than three nights of letting a child cry. If he's still struggling, we're to try using the radio (set on a station that's just producing static) as white noise again. Because we worry about him throwing up if we let him cry, she said not to feed him after 6pm. We usually feed him again right before he goes to sleep. She also suggested transitioning him from two to one nap a day and insisiting that he nap for at least one hour. I really don't think he's ready to go to one nap a day. I'm going to hold off a bit before I try that.