Speech Therapy #2

     Quick update.

    We scheduled speech therapy for Leo after he went back on the bottle. It seems that his suck is a little weak and he's a bit reflux-y so we just wanted to make sure that he was swallowing, getting what he needed, and there weren't any muscle issues that we weren't aware of.

    Went in today and, again, got the news that we do not need to meet with her regularly! Leo did great with the bottle. We are watching the time that it takes his feeds (not going too long), and there are things we can do to help him not get overwhelmed by the flow of the nipple (and then the milk goes down the wrong pipe). It was very comforting to talk to the therapist about our concerns. Brad and I were worried about what these struggles meant for his swallowing ability and the future. Would he be able to eat solid foods? Is he going to need a feeding tube? Your mind just goes to worst case scenario sometimes, and it can get away from you. The therapist told me that Leo's timeline might not look like most other kids, but he's doing great right now and there's a lot we can do to work with him. It's possible he'll be on pureed food for a while. Who knows? It seems like, again, his muscles might not do things naturally so he'll have to work on it, but he could quite possible do it eventually. Basically, there's a lot of room for hope and celebration and we can't let our worries get away from us.

    Today I am thankful for health insurance, therapists, and email contacts. Please just keep Leo's muscles--I guess today it's specifically mouth and throat muscles--in prayer, and that his feeds would continue to go well and he would continue to grow and develop.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leo is 3

Image
 *disclaimer* I just need to say that this post was written many times. Many things were written and then deleted. Paragraphs were switched around. Some sentences just didn't make sense at all. Trying to reflect on Leo's life as a whole obviously leaves me a bit at a loss for words. I think there's some good nuggets of truth in here. I know that scattered nature accurately reflects my mind as well. So, here's some thoughts from Leo's 3 years of life because I want to say so much but I never felt like it came out the way I wanted but I don't want that to keep me from sharing it :) A reflection on Leo's 3 years of life, from the perspective of his mom, written without fear of offending or coming across arrogant... I wish that his birthday brought only happy memories and not all the painful ones. We are overjoyed at who Leo is and how he is. We see great strength in his differences and interest in a life we never thought we'd have. But the very moment he wa
Read more

Happy 2024!

Image
 Some goings-on in the Wilcox family :D Leo got a haircut. We shaved the little lion's mane. But it'll grow back. I promise! We just think he's the cutest. So, when he gets a straight buzz, I've been doing it. I feel very accomplished that I can buzz his head and get us both cleaned up afterwards. However, when he gets more of a haircut it's either my sister or my cousin doing it while I hold him. I'm a big fan of the buzz, though. We had a family filled Christmas. Blessed. To be a blessing. Holidays were sweet times. A little story from them: We did a Friendsgiving one night and met some friends of friends. One guy asked to hold Leo and then offered to keep him while Brad and I got food and ate. It was a beautifully weird feeling to plate my food with Brad and sit down and eat while hearing Leo's happy noises from the couch. Leo was chatting away and the guy was so great with him. It was so wonderful to practice setting aside the voices of, "Is he frus
Read more

A Little More of an Update

 Hiya' Friends! These are some things regarding Leo's care, appointments, therapies, development, etc. that are rolling around in our heads these days. Eating, Pukes, Weight We haven't seen nutrition or GI in a little bit. We've monitored his weight in our own way or through some of the appointments we have had. It's not at a totally great place, but I'm not too concerned. He is mostly going up, but has some up and downs just not drastic. Brad and I are confident in feeding Leo some food that we blend up ourselves (instead of the packaged) in order to expand our options of what we can feed him. We are not replacing meals with what we have blended, but just introducing new ingredients into his system in a more significant portion (60mls of blended food). This is a bit of a time-consuming process and so far we have run into one ingredient that did not seem to sit well in his system. He did not seem to adjust to it even with some time. We have seen that feeding him
Read more