"You do it"

Today I was able to start chewing therapy with him. I was not sure about proceedure and protocol but I knew I could motivate him. Taking away the toy after 20 seconds does not motivate my boy to cooperate. Now we know.
The protocol is as follows:
I am going to give you your bite and tell you "take your bite, Artie".
When you take your bite I am going to tell you to chew. When you chew 10 times I am going to tell you "good job chewing" and you get the toy to play with. If you do not chew I am going to tell you "You need to chew" and if you still dont I am going to say "chew like this" and show you with this straw. Then I will say "you do it". If you still dont, I am going to hold the chewy in your mouth until you chew and help like this (pressing lightly on his chin} and when you chew, you get the toy.

Now this did not make him happy. So when I got in there I slowly developed "protocol drift"!

We ditched the toy. After the first session I just did not put the toy back on his tray. Taking it was not working. I was thinking they were going to fuss at me any moment. Non compliant mom...tisk tisk!
I loved on him instead. For the first few times he fussed during the 20 seconds after he chewed and I kept taking his face in my hands. We leaned in with our heads touching and I told him what an awesome little guy he is. He calmed and the fussing stopped. Then suddenly during one 20 second break he grinned at me and I knew we could do this. The second set of chewing he watched my face. It was pushed to the point of me demonstrating the chew and he followed through. By the end of the session he was calm and chewing most of the time. When he didnt chew he watched me. I moved his chin a few times but there wasnt any blow up over it and we finished the session on a loving happy note. He did much better with me.
Now if I can keep it up...two times a day for 20 minutes. I know he is tired afterwards.

On the last day of therapy the Marcus Institute sends the therapist to your home to watch you go though a day of feeding and therapy
Then the therapist mentioned having next Friday off...our last day. I asked about the home visit at the RMH...I told her that if she was takng off then there was no need for us to stay another day. That means four days instead of five days left. FOUR DAYS and we are home! If given a way out...I am gone! I am armed with therapies and Artie is swallowing. We are ready to move on with chewing and introducing more foods.
We came, we did it.
Lets see how fast I can pack this weekend.