Developmental Therapy Today

We met with Hannah’s developmental therapist today from Early Intervention. It had been a month since she was evaluated and accepted into the program. She was surprised at how big Hannah had grown and was very pleased to see that there was definitely some progress in Hannah’s motor skills.

Hannah is now able to grab an item with two hands and is totally getting into the toys in her exersaucer (and can even turn herself around in there). We were explaining the freedom Hannah gets in there because she loves to stand up.

She still can’t turn over yet, and really isn’t close to doing it. Her abdomen is so huge because of her spleen and liver being so enlarged that she just can’t get herself over that hump so she doesn’t really try anymore. Also, Hannah LOVES to sit up, but because, again, her abdomen is so big, she finds it very uncomfortable to try and sit. However, she loves to sit on our laps with her knees and legs hanging down a bit. This is her absolute favorite position. She does try to sit up on her own when she is lying back on us or sitting on our laps. We only need to hold her waist, and she can balance herself.

So the developmental therapist told me that even though Hannah hates tummy time that we should really try to continue it as much as we can. We have to be careful because of her spleen and liver, but we are to try it at least a few times a day if not more. Also, she showed us some other tricks to work on to help her try and move over.

While she was here, Hannah was starving so I fed her. Because of her laryngomalacia (poor muscle tone), Hannah dribbles out a lot of formula to the point we joke she has a white beard. She isn’t choking, and even on the slowest nipple, she just has trouble getting it down. No worries about her not getting her nutrition though, she definitely is growing on track. I also explained to her that she thrusts her tongue instinctively while we try feeding her with a spoon. Kind of the same thing she does with her bottle.

So, she wants us to start with an occupational therapist to work on feeding issues with her. We should be starting that soon. We also will say J., our developmental therapist, again in two weeks.