A successful OT session

Maryam's OT session went REALLY well yesterday! Maryam's usual therapist Dawn is on maternity leave so yesterday she saw a therapist named Beth. Beth is the owner of the practice...I think. Anyway I had just started explaining to Maryam the idea of swallowing earlier this week and Beth took it to another level. What I had been doing was talking to her about what we do with the food after we chew it up. I told her that we swallow it and it goes down the throat and into the tummy. I showed her on her body and mine where the tummy is and rubbed it and said things like "we get full when we eat" and "now the water you just drank is in your tummy" or "the cookie will go into your tummy" or I would show her by taking a bite of something and telling her that its now in my tummy.
Beth had a GREAT idea, she walked Maryam through the whole process and exaggerated everything. She totally kept Maryam's attention the whole time too! She took a bite and then exaggerated the chewing and then when it came time to swallowing Beth had Maryam touch her throat and exaggerated a giant loud gulp so that Maryam could see, hear and feel Beth swallow. Brilliant! Maryam actually responded!
Last night Maryam was doing her usual pick off of Mommy and Daddy's dinner and completely ignore her own when I know for sure that she swallowed a piece of Mommy's taco! And then after dinner she requested the usual "Chatos". We saw her SWALLOW at least 7 maybe even 10! How amazing is that? Hooray!
My friend Christi asked, what is the Dietitian at CHOC going to say about the "Chatos"? And I have NO idea! BUT I'm not going to stop having Maryam eat ANYTHING until I'm instructed to do so.
Speaking of CHOC, I got some more information from our wonderful case worker yesterday. I got a link to some information on their website http://www.choc.org/feedingprogram/index.cfm The program sounds amazing. Brett and I cannot wait to see if this will do the trick for Maryam. She has come a long way with OT from not wanting to put anything into her mouth to now needing to learn to swallow. I'm very grateful to Maryam's therapists! But her therapists agree that its time for a more intensive treatment. I found an amazing story on the CHOC website about a boy named Ryen, you all should read it if you get the chance. I pray that Maryam will have as much success from the team at CHOC as this little boy did.