Day 13 at MAC

Ah, spoon-feeding......if only I had access to the video they took during her first session. Hopefully tomorrow it will be in my hands and I will do my best to upload it here. Her first session finished up Meemer's training, and her second (the shortest) session was milk-drinking.

Then came self-feeding....the first session....the first-ever prompting of Ruthie to feed herself from that evil thing called a spoon. They loaded the spoon for her, put it on a plastic plate, and put the plate on her tray. They gave her five seconds to do something with it before verbally prompting her to take a bite. 

She was very confused.

So they ended up doing hand-over-hand for the first 2-3 bites. Then, she looked like she was going to put her own spoon in her mouth.

But she didn't. She just held it there like she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. More hand-over-hand.

And then......she did it. She put her very first spoonful of food in her mouth. The first ever. By herself. Ever. 

I'm sure in the video you'll hear us in the background (behind the "sound-proof" one-way glass) screaming and cheering for her. It was AMAZING. Tears were wiped away and I wish you could have seen the look of pride on her face. She was so very proud of herself, as well she should be!

The rest of that session went beautifully. Not only did she take all her bites (still needed the verbal prompt, but was happy to comply) but she often went back for a second taste of the spoon to make sure she got all that was available to her. For the first time in her life, Ruthie seemed to be wanting, even enjoying, her food. I've never seen her interested like that.

Her fourth session was half/half with milk and self-feeding. She is still getting only tiny amounts of milk - 1ml - but she did amazingly well today and barely spilled/dribbled any of it. You can tell how proud she is of herself when the therapist praises her - she LOVES to be praised (who doesn't?) and it really motivates her to succeed.

 

Her day's totals are down a bit today because of the extra milk in the last session and the introduction of self-feeding, but she still did very well. I got 192 into her at dinner tonight, making her grand total today 564 grams!

She finished one of her "cups" of milk during her last session today without spilling any of it (or chewing the cup or blowing bubbles in it and laughing) and she was highly praised. Look how proud she is of her accomplishment!