Feeding Therapy Friday... or um just catching up.

I'm not doing so great with the "Feeding Therapy Friday" updates like I wanted to. The truth is that I really hate feeding therapy. I'm usually mentally drained after each session..... Hmmm....Makes me wonder how Rachel feels.

I'm posting tonight because we actually had some huge progress happen during the June 1st therapy session. She apparently just decided that she was going to eat that day. That's right, I said EAT!

Julie started with the Gerber Yogurt Melts in different colors. She always eats those, so of course she picked each one up and ate them. Then Julie gave her freeze dried bananas. She handed her one and talked about how it's another circle food. To my surprise, she took a bite and ate it. Then she asked for more and ate another one. Then she ate a plain potato chip, baby mum mum crackers, and took a bite of a freeze dried mango. It was so awesome. I shed many happy tears and was practically jumping up and down watching her from the observation room. It was just so great to finally see progress!

Of course this progress happened on the day when I was going to tell Julie that we were going to take a break from feeding therapy for a while. I wasn't going to tell her that I've been really really frustrated and am looking at other options. Instead, I decided not to make that decision just yet.

I was nervous about whether or not Rachel would eat any of the new foods at home. She is refusing the the mango (I dont' blame her, dried mangos don't taste good to me either) and the potato chips. She is eating the freeze dried bananas and the mum mum crackers. I was nervous she might stop eating some of her other "go to" foods, but so thankful that it hasn't happened.

So with all of this said, I don't know what to do now. Yes, I am happy... no make that... thrilled that she is eating two more foods. The last session we did on the 8th pretty much sucked. She was back to not wanting anything to do with any of the foods offered. For now, we're going to keep her in this therapy at least through the end of this month. I have some big decisions to make.

Yesterday, we had the appointment with the BCBA at Kaiser. I'm not sure how I feel about him yet. He was able to get Rachel's attention for longer periods of time than I expected. She has a very short attention span, but he kept her interest. My brain is still processing the information I learned, and I'm going to take some time deciding whether I think he can help us. We've been through several therapists at this point. I'm going to take some time to pray about it and see where God leads us. I'll talk about this new option when my head is in a better place about it all.

For now, I'm going to celebrate the progress that she is starting to make.