Mia and I waited for Liz to come get us. When I saw her open the door, I remembered that she planned for us to work on feeding today. "Does she have any treats?" Liz asked me. "I've got goldfish in the car" I said. "We've got goldfish in the kitchen she said as she walked us through the back hallway.
We walked into a small room with a sink, refridgerator, dishwasher, high chair and a small set of table and chairs. We seated ourselves, Mia and I on one side and Liz on the other. Liz had a small green bowl in front of her and set an orange bowl in front of Mia. Liz had a piece of paper with a grid. There were actions with corresponding pictures in each little box. Liz pointed to the box that said touch, with a picture of a finger on it. She put a small carrot in each of bowl. "Mia, can you touch it?" Liz asked as she touched the carrot in her bowl. Mia took a beat and then touched the carrot. Liz dropped a goldfish into Mia's bowl. She quickly scooped it up and ate it.
"Good job Mia, now can you kiss the carrot?" Liz said as she kissed her own mini carrot. Mia puckered her lips and smacked the broad side of the carrot. "Good job Mia, you kissed it" Liz said. Another goldfish plunked in her bowl. "Now can you lick it Mia? Can you lick the carrot?" Mia made a face like she smelled a rat. She didn't do it right away, as if she sensed the carrot had some beneficial nutritional value. "Come on Mia, can you lick it?" Mia picked it up and with a mildly disgusted look she licked the carrot. "Good job!" Liz said.
We worked on lick for three or four more times. Liz said that she didn't want to move too fast past this one. It was a big enough step that she wanted to make sure Mia was comfortable with it. It got to the point where Mia didn't even need prompting to lick the carrot, she would pick it up on her own lick it and then hold her hand out for another cracker.
Now it was time for the big one, the one I was sure we wouldn't get on the first try. Liz held a carrot between her teeth. "OK Mia, can you bite it?" Mia grabbed the carrot and bit a small slice into her carrot. "Good job Mia" both Liz and I were surprised and excited. I brought a laminated visual chart home with me. Liz encouraged us to work on it our own. Starting with touch and hopefully ending on bite. She warned me that kids will sometimes make more progress in therapy than they do at home but try not to get discouraged if we don't get as far on our own. I'll give it a try for snack time today.
