Feeding Therapy - It's Paying Off, Baby!

Yesterday was Austin's 2 Year Tubiversary!!! Excited? I know, me too. The way I see it is we can be unhappy about it or we can embrace it. So we are embracing feeding therapy and Austin has made some significant gains since we started using his Passy-Muir valve during sessions. {happy dance!}

He has been doing really well with food or drink offered to him and continues to favor things like shredded cheese and chips. He is a little salt lick , just like his mom. {I'm so proud!} You'll see in tomorrow's post just how far he has come with food.

Now mind you I said he is doing well, translation: he is not pitching food or beverages across the room {often.}

Lately we have been focusing on drinking. Just like every parent who has a child with dysphagia, we have an array of once used sippy cups. We have an arrangement, Austin & I. I scout out sippy cups and purchase them; Austin tries them once and then they go to the used sippy cup lot. The lot is FULL! We have tried them all, straw, no straw, valve, no valve...open, shut and upside down cups. So you get the idea. We had a similar arrangement with bottles, back before his tube feeding days.

Currently we are focusing on using a Nosey cup. This cup is a special plastic cup used often in feeding therapy. It is measured appropriately {one ounce of liquid} and has a cut out for the child's nose area. The special cut out is essential because otherwise a regular cup might cause Austin to tilt his head back too far and attribute to aspiration.





During a recent therapy session I was able to capture some video of him drinking from a Nosey cup.  WOOT!





All of this preparation will come in handy for his next swallow study, which has yet to be scheduled.


Thanks for peeking,




Photo courtesy of Talking Child