MIA update,,,

The frist thing done was a series of trials on what toy he liked best! I
thought this was nuts but he was having fun sooo...

They took 16 toys and narrowed it down to 5 favorite toys to use during feeding.
After a couple of days they began the feeding portion. At first they introduced
empty spoons. The idea is that he would take the bite from an empty spoon
willingly with in 5 seconds. He quickly complied becasue we had worked on this
at home. The first week flew by and he did well. He did not have seperation
anxiety and he enjoyed the therapist. Most of all he enjoyed himself in the
large mirror.

They began to feed him dipped spoons and the ratio changed according to his
reaction. They would take 10 bites and 3, 7 and 10 would be dipped and then
change it again according to his reaction. All the food came out in his drool.
There was not one swallow that I could tell. All the data was fed into a
computer program and measured his progress. Finally came the day when they felt
it was time to offer pea sized bites in the raito. He did well with accepting.
Yet still no swallowing.

At the end of week two they tried a placement study and a flip spoon. He still
was not swallowing. I was beginning to dispair. He was still happy and the
food being placed in his mouth was not a threat for him so we had accomplished a
lot. Any one who knows Ty remembers that food could not be near him. He had
zero tolerance for any substance that might wind up in his mouth.

At the end of the second week we made some changes. We changed his oral motor
exercises. I was massaging his gums and lips and we were doing some chewing
exercises with the nuk brush. They tried the dry nuk brush and he responded
well. Nextt they tried the dipped nuk and incorporated the placement from the
study and he did well.

It seemed to be the nuk brush in the middle that triggered a swallow. They
began with the pea sized bites on the nuk brush and he began to swallow 6 out of
8. I have to tell you that I cried.

So here we are. Bites on a nuk brush. Placement towards the back and center.
WOW...I wonder what the next step is!