OT Tuesday

I took BabyGirl to "play" with Miss Emily this morning. She came home armed with new sensory "toys." She has a tub of bright blue Thera-putty & a long green Thera-band. The putty is like heavy duty Silly-Putty. I remember G'pa M&M having a tub of it when he cut his finger tip off many years ago. Miss Emily hid things in the putty for her to find...small coins, marbles, etc. The band is like one of those big exercise elastic bands for her to stretch against. She loves them!



She's also really enjoying the blowing part of her sensory diet. Bubbles as OT is the best thing ever!

Last night I made her a "fidget tub." I filled an old Cool-Whip tub with small odds & ends in different sizes, shapes, and textures. There are small shaped erasers, buttons, pesos, marbles, femo beads, wooden beads, tiny figurines, dice, and little toys, then it's all buried in nearly a pound of dry navy beans. It gives her lots of things to feel & sort, weight on her hands, and lots of movement. She played with it for nearly an hour last night while I put the boys to bed, settled Bitsy down for the night & took my shower. Bed time wasn't the issue last night that it's been for the past few weeks. I'm hoping the fidgets are what helped & it wasn't just a "good night."

While she was engrossed in her fidgets last night, I sat down on the couch & played with her. As we were playing I asked her what she thought about having SPD. She said, "It's GREAT, Mom! I love it!" I was shocked. Why would she love being so uncomfortable & miserable? What's to love about melting downs and falling apart over a pair of panties? "I get to play with cool toys, have lots of fun, jump on my trampoline, and go to therapy. Therapy is REALLY fun! I love going there." I'd never thought of it that way. To her it's become less & less about what she can't tolerate and more about what she gets to do. She amazes me continually.

She left me alone on the couch with her fidgets for a bit & I sat the bowl on my lap to play by myself. It was surprisingly relaxing. I buried my hand under all the beans & toys just to see what it does for her. The pressure of the beans on my hand felt so calming. It's hard to explain. I would love to have that kind of weight to curl up under. Yet again, like mother like daughter. When she came back, I had her try it. She loved it too.


Miss Emily suggested a weighted blanket one of the first times we saw her. BabyGirl wanted no part of it thinking it would make her hot. After feeling the weight of the beans on her hands, now she wants me to make her a weighted blanket. I'm trying to work it out in my head so I can start working on one this weekend. I figure if she doesn't like it, I'll use it myself!



On the diet front, while not going full out GFCF (Miss Emily said that would not be fun as BabyGirl would probably go through full blown withdrawls if gluten & casein are her problem), we have cut back quite a bit on both. BabyGirl is now drinking about 2 small cups of milk a day as opposed to the 4-6 full tumblers she was drinking a day. She's eating granola bars (while not totally gluten free, much lower in gluten than her old snacks), more fruit, and carrot sticks for snack. Dinner is still pretty much the same, but I'm more aware of how much dairy & wheat is in what she eats & try to cut back a bit.



There's not a drastic change, but she does seem to be improving a bit. We'll keep it up & see how it goes. I like the idea of cutting back while not entirely cutting out. It feels like a much safer avenue to me. If I see a drastic change, we may go futher down this road.



We'll go see Miss Emily again next Tuesday. Perhaps OT Tuesdays will become a regular thing around here.

More Baby Steps

Went to see Miss Emily yesterday. Spent a good deal of time talking about bed time (could just be behavioral...yippee) and the GFCF diet. Miss Emily said not to go cold turkey with gluten & wheat. She compared it to an addiction & said that would be too hard on BabyGirl's system.

She also added blowing to the at home sensory diet. Blowing bubbles, pinwheels (which of course I couldn't find yesterday at the store), cotton balls around with a straw...BabyGirl loves the idea.

We picked up Almond milk (which so far BabyGirl will have none of) and GF mac & cheese (yes, I know... cheese=casein & therefore defeats half the purpose, but we're starting small, remember?) at the local health food store.

We're going back to see Miss Emily on Tuesday. Since I still haven't heard from the school's OT, I'm going to up BabyGirl's visits to Miss Emily to once a week. BabyGirl is thrilled as is Miss Emily. They love each other. I am so glad!