The First Day

Thursday, November 9, 2006
Today was Ben's first day of his full schedule. He began the day in the clinic at 9:45am with a feeding. I watched on a TV screen down the hall. His feeding therapist is Cynthia, and she is trying to ease Ben into the program. She began with an empty spoon and put it to his lips. He wanted to grab the spoon and to take control of it, but Cynthia hung on. Each time he would allow her to touch his lips with the spoon, he was given a toy and praise. She also introduced a "squeeze bottle" which is a hair color bottle with the lid snipped off and refrigerator tubing pulled through the hole. The bottle was empty, but she put it into his mouth to get him used to it. Each session today was about 15 minutes in length. The other 3 feedings used only the squeeze bottle and not the spoon, since he had such a hard time with it. Ben also had music therapy today. His music therapist said he liked it, and was warming up to everyone by the end of the session.
I got "comfort hour" today which was a welcomed break. During comfort hour, the parents can eat lunch in a conference room while their child is being watched by staff. Today we got a 10 minute massage, and I thoroughly enjoyed being pampered. It was a great opportunity to chat with the other moms as well. I get small breaks while Ben is at his preschool, music, and recreation time also. Today he interacted with the other kids and they helped to keep him occupied as well. The day seemed a bit long, but I found plenty to do.
Tomorrow the therapists will start "blocking." Blocking is what a therapist does to keep the child from constantly hitting the spoon away. She may hold his hands down, or one may stand behind the child and block his hands from coming up or moving from side to side. They do not hold on firmly or pin the child, but simply block the hands. This was explained to me today so that I could understand what they would be doing with Ben tomorrow, and also to get permission from me to use that technique. I am very interested to see how Ben reacts to this. He has been very good natured so far.