Sunday, September 11, 2011

Some Days I Think My Husband Could Be an OT

Today was one of those days where something has rubbed off onto Anthony after 7 years together. We started dating when I was beginning my 2nd year of OT school (7 years ago on Saturday) and I talked "OT" a lot during the two years we dated/were engaged and I continue to talk "OT" a lot being in practice for over 5 years now. I know he empathatically listens to a lot of things that I say about work and school (when I was in it), but I also know that he admits that a lot of it goes right over his head. Similar to how I listen to his legal talk, but don't understand most of what he is talking about. Today he proved that deep down there is a little OT inside him.

We were having dinner this evening. Nathaniel requested to set the table, requested noodles for dinner, and began to dig right into his meal when it was presented on his plate. Hooray for progress and happy mealtimes again (I hope). Of course, as usual, after several minutes of eating well, he slowed his eating down dramatically eating very little and needing to be reminded to eat. That is where my husband rolled in to save the day. Nathaniel asked to have "a few cars" at the table for dinner. So daddy brought some over and each car delivered a piece of food. This was a willing game for Nathaniel and he ate every bite delivered plus extra bites off his plate and then sent the cars back to daddy for more "loads". This was a true therapeutic meal. Therapeutic mealtimes are a classic way to get children who have developed aversions to mealtimes, oral intake, etc, to get back into enjoying mealtime and finding it pleasant and fun. Hooray for daddy!!!! He came up with it on his own without me even mentioning therapeutic mealtimes to him during these last several weeks of mealtime struggles. Like I said, something must have rubbed off. (It worked at bedtime snack too - which usually is an ok time, but we had more intake tonight than we usually do). Let's hope we are continuing on the track to eating well again.

On a side note, Nathaniel is tolerating his acupressure massage very well and even knows the routine of massage steps better than I do some days. His bowels have seemed to have slowed down since starting this. I am hoping that this in combination with some periods of increased oral intake and higher calorie boost will help him plateau rather than lose weight this week and eventually begin to gain again (even if it is his slow steady gain of 1 ounce/week). Just being a mom and praying we are now going into forward momentum as well as trying everything I can to make it work and being an OT and using all my sensory processing and feeding knowledge to help him on the right track.

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