Days 19-23

May 8, 2017

3 min read

(Above: planning his next move...i.e. scheming ;-) )

Praise God! We have GREAT NEWS this week!

Drinking from an open cup is going wonderfully! He just needed a little motivation....so his iPad is the reinforcer and it is working beautifully! When he takes his drinks, he gets time to play on the iPad. This past week we also doubled the amount he is taking per drink. So liquids are going really well. Next steps would be to increase the volume of liquid in the open cup and wean away from the iPad, as a reinforcer, over time. God is good all the time!

On to FOOD! Well folks....we did not have to implement the tube that I mentioned last week. We continued to push forward, past his problem behaviors and rejection...and he finally CHEWED the bite and swallowed it!!! Woo-hoo! To give you some details, the bites of food are 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 (so picture a starburst candy cut up into 4 pieces)....i.e. very small! The rules are that he must chew the bite 10 times and if he doesn't, I am not allowed to praise him or tell him good job, etc. He also has to show me the food masticated (thoroughly chewed) in his mouth BEFORE swallowing. That is next to impossible to teach a 3 year old. It is very natural to swallow food once it is chewed all the way...not stick your tongue out to allow me to verify it is, before swallowing it. So we had a couple of days of touch and go, where they thought they would have to utilize the tube to teach him to chew 10 times, for each and every bite. BUT....he figured it out! Hallelujah!

More details: there are 4 different sizes of bites, it moves from the 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 bites and goes up 4 times until each bite is the size of a starburst. Well....I will spare you guys all the in between, Sebastian is eating a SIZE 4 bite, the biggest bite, chewing all the way and swallowing. With NO problem behavior, and no reinforcer. Holy cow you all....I hope you all can understand how life changing this is for us and how amazing it is to see him eat and chew bites of 16 DIFFERENT FOODS! To God be the Glory!

Right now, his meals are half solid, half pureed to get in all his calories. He needs to increase his stamina, in order to have a full meal of table texture and no pureed foods. So one goal will be to gradually increase the number of table texture bites per meal (until they are all all that form). After this is successful, the goal will be to introduce him to self feeding table texture foods.

We are blessed beyond measure! "God's Grace is immeasurable, His Mercy is inexhaustible, and His Peace is inexpressible." We simply could not make it through this without the Grace of God and we are forever grateful.

"Lord, give us continually grateful hearts." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Below are some fun pictures from our week....we went to a pretty sweet indoor play place that the kids LOVED!