Meeting Milestones

Natalie’s been surprising us so much lately. I can hardly believe all she’s started doing in the past few weeks. She’s really on the move! We had our 18 month IFSP review this week and it was so fun to be able to check off some outcomes.

So, here’s her current status:

She turned 18 months old! We decided to do a cake smash shoot since she wasn’t that interested at a year and I had seen some cute photography ideas since her birthday. It was lots of fun even if Julia did think we were ‘wasting’ all the cupcakes!

A few days after, I got pretty concerned that she might not be able to stay in a room with her peers when she goes to preschool this fall. She was still not feeding herself at all. She had really started eating lots of variety of foods with no problems as long as I put it in her mouth. She just would not do it on her own. So, I got out the book Fine motor skills for Children with Down Syndrome and tried some ideas for ‘helping your child develop sensory awareness and discrimination skills in her hands.” They suggested playing in things like playdough, touchabubbles , sand and doing hand massages. So, we first got out the playdough. The big kids were creating things on the kitchen table and I handed Natalie a big ball of blue playdough while she was sitting on the floor. I turned from her to the big kids and then looked back and it was in her mouth! I did not expect that as she hardly ever puts things in her mouth. I grabbed one of her straw cups with handles that she’s been able to drink smoothie from and put water in it, holding it for her. She wasn’t very interested but at least she got her mouth rinsed out. I left it on the floor. Later on that day, she was in the kitchen again. She picked up the cup and drank from it! So amazing! God again confirmed to us that she CAN do the things that Zach and Julia did but n her own time.  She also has been able to drink from her own bottle using the Ba Baby Bottle holder.  We lay her on the floor to drink, though, because she hasn’t been able to hold the bottle up in the air yet.

A few days later she amazed us again by picking up a veggie stick and eating it! We had been trying a lot of small things like puffs. When I put them on the tray she would push them all around quickly and then onto the floor. I read that if her pincher grasp was not developed, long skinny food might be easier to start with. It worked!

Gross motor skills are coming along too. Our PT suggested that Natalie might benefit from SMO’s (Supra-Malleolar Orthosis).  Natalie’s low muscle tone was causing her ankles to bend in a little while standing. The SMO’s will help the bone to grown correctly. She has to wear them 4-5 hours a day but they are small enough that they only stick up above her shoe a little. We tried some of the shoes that are designed to fit the SMO but they were so bulky, Natalie stopped crawling. Our PT figured out some of Natalie’s own shoes would work so now Natalie’s much happier with the SMO’s. Even without the help the SMO’s give her, though, Natalie is really cruising on furniture a lot. We’ve been teaching her to climb on the couch to help strengthen her arms and to ‘turn around and slide down.’ She thinks accomplishing the climb to the top of the c

Natalie gets on the Couch.

ouch is hysterical and laughs through the whole process! Her crawling is now a combination of army and traditional hands and knees. Army is still faster, though, so when she sees that Zach and Julia’s ‘forbidden’ room door is open, army still is her first choice. She wants to get in that room!

With speech, we are starting to move out of just feeding help and into some language skills.  I made a family flash card book and she seems to be able to pick out Zach and Julia with her eyes when asked.  Going to keep working with flash cards of come first words.  Repetition has always helped her learn so we try to do it every day.

I also started the growth component of Nutrivene after her 18 month checkup.  We really feel the daily supplement and digestive enzyme have been helping a lot.  I just can’t seem to remember to do the growth formula since it has to be before bed and 1 hour after eating protein.  She’s still making it on the normal growth chart but on the low side.  We are hoping the ‘grow juice’ will help her with sleeping, short term memory (comes with more efficient REM sleep) as well as growth.  That’s the idea, anyway, so we’ll see.  Along with her pediatrician visit for 18 months, we also saw the eye doctor.  Her eyes have most likely gotten worse in the last 6 months but she fought the doctor pretty hard so we can’t be sure.  He thought we’d check it again in 6 months but that she will probably need glasses sometime around 2.