More feeding therapy

Maria saw her new feeding therapist again today. It's been three weeks since the last time and the therapist was shocked by how much progress Maria has made. For example, she's getting good at drinking from an open cup. She can't hold the cup herself, but if we put it to her lips she knows to suck a little liquid in, then close her mouth so it won't dribble out. She tires or gets bored pretty quickly, but I'm trying to use the open cup at meals to give her a break from the bottle.

The feeding therapist also said that Maria is already meeting a lot of her goals after just two visits, which surprised her. I told her Maria used to do that to Norma (her last feeding therapist). Sometimes they just can't keep up with her.

The therapist showed a few new tricks we can use...and a few we can't. I explained to her that anything we have to do in addition to Maria's normal schedule, like taking a block of time to do nothing but use an open cup, may or may not get done. Things we can do in parallel with existing tasks, such as using an open cup rather than a bottle during meals, are much more useful to us. She seemed receptive to that and said she'd focus on those kinds of things in future sessions.

Obviously, Maria is still in her fast-development stage. I saw differences in the way she moved and behaved when I picked her and Cathy up at the airport, and it had been only a week since I'd seen her. We hope she keeps up this pace for a long time.