Evaluation

Olivia had an evaluation on Friday morning from First Steps regarding her feeding issues. First off, she is doing a lot better! The way First Steps works is the child has to be evaluated to make sure she can qualify for any occupational therapy. We have noticed just in the past few weeks that she hasn't gagged herself on food and she is trying new things a lot easier now. She eats mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, french fries, bananas, pasta, pudding, cream cheese, regular cheese, pepper jack cheese, corn, corn casserole, carrots, green beans. There might be a few more things she has started to eat, but one month ago she wouldn't put any of this stuff in her mouth! She still is struggling with some things, but I expect that and she has had NO occupational therapy its been all on her own!

When the therapist got to our house Friday morning I told her how Olivia has been eating more things and not gagging. The therapist asked me if I wanted to continue with the evaluation. Matt and I decided a week ago we weren't going to do any therapy because she has improved so much with her eating, but we wanted to atleast have her evaluated in case we weren't seeing something the therapist would. I told the therapist yes, to go ahead and evaluate her. She pulled out some toys that were little animals. Olivia was either naming the animal or making the sound the animal makes. The therapist asked me how many words she says now and its about 20 words. She said that if she weren't talking a lot and getting use out of her tongue she would have an issue, but since she is speaking more words than average she doesn't have a problem.

So after half hour of Olivia playing, talking and eating the therapist said that Olivia is too smart and will not qualify for occupational therapy. I am happy with the outcome and glad to have the reassurance that there is nothing wrong with her eating. I mentioned to her that she will take a bite out of something and sometimes will spit it out and she reassured me that is normal behavior. Matt and I still need to work on her eating more things, but she has come leaps and bounds from where we were 6 weeks ago!