A couple of weeks ago, Javy's teacher asked about why Javy seems to have a hard time swallowing and gets choked up. She asked if he'd ever had a doctor say that he needed to be on a special diet. I kind of shrugged it off, because this had been a concern of ours when he was younger. His speech therapist at the time had recommended that he have a swallow test. That's when they take an X-Ray of his throat while he's swallowing some food. His speech therapist and pediatrician were present and they said everything looked fine, he swallows normal. We accommodated his tendency to swallow food whole by just making sure that his food was cut really small so he wouldn't choke. Life went on.
Until his teacher brought it up, again. Because I live a drama free life and am open to all possibilities, I accepted that the teacher's concerns might be valid and this issue may need to be readdressed. In other words, I didn't freak out. I told the teacher that the person to talk to about this would be a speech language pathologist and I know an excellent one. But the teacher said that she'd just bring it up with the school's new speech therapist, who I had yet to meet.
A couple of days later, Javy's crack team of educational professionals and his home team, met up for his annual IEP meeting. It was there that we met his new speech therapist and I like her. She was right on this whole swallow thing. She seemed to be geeking out on it and I love it when specialists geek out about my son's conditions. In my experience that usually means that they're going to follow through until they solve the problem. And then I usually get to geek out on it, too. Staying up all night, Googling stuff. It's a vicious cycle.
Anyway, she explained that the way Javy's mouth is shaped, he has a hard time manipulating the food with his tongue so the food gets swallowed before its chewed properly. At this time, the light bulb went off in my head! Ta Da! It's because his palate is small. That's been one of the observations made by the geneticists since Javy has been seeing a geneticist-narrow palate. I asked the speech therapists if its possible that as Javy has grown, it's just gotten worse, creating this new concern. I had noticed it, but I contributed it to Javy laughing uncontrollably and getting silly when I was trying to feed him. It was a point of frustration for me.
The ST agreed to do an evaluation on him, but in the mean time she gave me a few things to think about. Feed him softer foods at night, because its probably very tiring for him. (I had never thought that eating could be tiring, but it made sense) And also eating dinner earlier. I have no problems with this because I grew up at grandparent's house and grandma sometimes had dinner on the table as early as 4:30pm.
Yesterday, I actually got a house call from the ST, because she lives down the street from us and that's just how we roll in Hawaii. (Awesome!) She gave me a name for Javy's swallowing disorder-dysphagia. I've been trying to geek out on it but I feel like I have ADD right now. (I got glutened the other night, handling dog food of all things.) I'm impressed that I'm even able to write this, I tried last night, but couldn't get it to flow. There's a lot of stuff about dysphagia, and I need to wait for the ST's report to figure out what's best for Javy.
It's just another reminder that we can never get too comfortable in Javyland. We'll see you at the buffet.
Until his teacher brought it up, again. Because I live a drama free life and am open to all possibilities, I accepted that the teacher's concerns might be valid and this issue may need to be readdressed. In other words, I didn't freak out. I told the teacher that the person to talk to about this would be a speech language pathologist and I know an excellent one. But the teacher said that she'd just bring it up with the school's new speech therapist, who I had yet to meet.
A couple of days later, Javy's crack team of educational professionals and his home team, met up for his annual IEP meeting. It was there that we met his new speech therapist and I like her. She was right on this whole swallow thing. She seemed to be geeking out on it and I love it when specialists geek out about my son's conditions. In my experience that usually means that they're going to follow through until they solve the problem. And then I usually get to geek out on it, too. Staying up all night, Googling stuff. It's a vicious cycle.
Anyway, she explained that the way Javy's mouth is shaped, he has a hard time manipulating the food with his tongue so the food gets swallowed before its chewed properly. At this time, the light bulb went off in my head! Ta Da! It's because his palate is small. That's been one of the observations made by the geneticists since Javy has been seeing a geneticist-narrow palate. I asked the speech therapists if its possible that as Javy has grown, it's just gotten worse, creating this new concern. I had noticed it, but I contributed it to Javy laughing uncontrollably and getting silly when I was trying to feed him. It was a point of frustration for me.
The ST agreed to do an evaluation on him, but in the mean time she gave me a few things to think about. Feed him softer foods at night, because its probably very tiring for him. (I had never thought that eating could be tiring, but it made sense) And also eating dinner earlier. I have no problems with this because I grew up at grandparent's house and grandma sometimes had dinner on the table as early as 4:30pm.
Yesterday, I actually got a house call from the ST, because she lives down the street from us and that's just how we roll in Hawaii. (Awesome!) She gave me a name for Javy's swallowing disorder-dysphagia. I've been trying to geek out on it but I feel like I have ADD right now. (I got glutened the other night, handling dog food of all things.) I'm impressed that I'm even able to write this, I tried last night, but couldn't get it to flow. There's a lot of stuff about dysphagia, and I need to wait for the ST's report to figure out what's best for Javy.
It's just another reminder that we can never get too comfortable in Javyland. We'll see you at the buffet.
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