This afternoon we met Finn's new OT. His name is Andre and he's a younger guy (younger than me, that's for sure. He called Michael "sir" and Michael kind of cringed and said, "Hey, you don't have to call me that." Yeesh.). Very nice . . . and seemingly normal, for what it's worth. I don't know, it just initially seemed strange to me that a guy would be a therapist. I'm obviously very narrow-minded. So anyway, yeah, young guy, married, mentioned that he and his wife might be expecting their first baby (which led me down this whole mental path of "gee, since he works with babies and children with disabilities, I wonder if he and his wife will do prenatal screenings, and if they found out they were carrying a baby with a genetic issue, would they terminate? . . . blah blah blah).
Anyway. I dunno . . . the session was a little anticlimactic. It being the first meeting, we spent a lot of time with him just asking me a lot of questions about Finn. Our focus for now (where my main concerns lie) is feeding, as Finn still gets the majority of his nourishment via the boobs, which is fine, but we seem to be having a little trouble transitioning him to more other foods. He eats stage 2 baby food, but gags on anything with texture and does not self-feed at all, so I guess I just want some direction and guidance there. So at the end of today's session, Andre observed me spoon feeding Finn and offered suggestions to help him eat more effectively and transition to more substantial fare.
I must admit that I am having mixed feelings about this, as I have all along with PT as well. I still haven't decided how necessary this all is for Finn. I go back and forth, back and forth, between thinking that therapy is a waste of time and thinking it's absolutely crucial.
Aside from this stuff, Finn is doing, well, great. Crawling all over the place now, he's also recently figured out how to go from all fours to a sitting position (although once he's in a sitting position, he still can't figure out how to get out of it! So I usually have to rescue him when he's tired of sitting). He's got 3 teeth now: the two bottom front ones and one top front.
And I guess that's about it.
3 comments:
I always wonder the same question, seeing as how I work in the special needs community.
Also, basically everyone working in special ed is female, and the majority of the students we work with are male. So I always get happy to see male therapists, teachers, staffers etc. My boys TOTALLY gravitate towards the men.
My little brother is 16, about 6' tall. he's a big kid. But he works with little kids with autism and adoressss it. and he's great with them. But it still makes me smile to see my HUGE brother and these TINY kids.
I know how you feel when it comes to OT and PT. I felt the same way with my preemie because I am trained in the same areas being a early childhood educator and teacher but I thought "you know it can't hurt to have an outsider take a look". So we went along with it and the sessions went great. I was doing everything right and the areas that I was concerned about were the same ones that she was but she offered me simple activities or advice that I hadn't thought of so I have to say that they were helpful with little things and that's ok because without those little suggestions it may have taken her longer to figure out certain things or may have delayed her longer. Try and keep an open mind - they are there to offer suggestions and help but you don't have to do anything they say if you don't feel it will help. I know you are doing a great job with Finn because look at your older children - they are perfect just like he is!
I hear you on the back and forth feelings about therapy. I am not convinced it's all it's cracked up to be, but I basically figure it can't hurt. Glad you guys like your new OT.
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