feeding therapy update

Grace has been in feeding therapy since March.  We have gone pretty much every week for about 8 months now.  In that time, she has made some progress.  But truthfully, not the advances I had hoped for.   Our original goals were; 1. Grace would feed herself, 2. Grace would drink liquids from a cup and 3. Grace would eat regular foods instead of pureed foods.

At this point, she has accomplished the goal of drinking liquids.  She will now take drinks from a cup during her meals.  I wouldn't say that she is really getting very much liquid, not nearly the amount a typical almost 5 year old child would.  But she will drink from a cup when you present it to her during her snack and meals.  She doesn't hold the cup for herself but still she drinks from it.

She will also feed herself during therapy and at school.  She is not really fully self feeding but she will take the spoon from her therapist, bring it to her mouth, take a bite and hand it back to her.  She also does this at school on a limited basis.  Which is huge progress from when we started therapy.  At home.  Not so much.  She will not feed herself at home at all.

Really.  Not one bite.  She will sometimes take the spoon from me but typically throws it at me or on the floor.  I have talked to Michelle about this and she has no advice.  It is, once more, pretty typical of Grace.  If she wants to do something she will.  Evidently, feeding herself at home is not on her 'want to' list right now.

However, feeding daddy IS on her list.  The other night, I put her on the island for her snack and she ate a few crackers.  Mark sat down and was eating with her.  All of the sudden, she picked up a cracker and instead of putting it in her mouth she fed him.

It was so cute!  And sister was quite intent on her task. 

Since Grace has achieved a level of self feeding at therapy, we are now starting on her next goal.  Eating regular foods.  She has been eating bites of a cereal bar during therapy for a few weeks now.  Again not so much at home.  So now we are moving onto pasta during therapy.  Tomorrow is the big day.  Hopefully, she will 'feel like' eating pasta during her session.