Mashed Potatoes

This fall is our goal to get Nathan eating properly... well.. at least more of different foods. It has been an endless battle between my husband and I for a couple of years now. We are both frusterated with Nathan's rigidity towards foods to the point where if the chicken nugget has specks of black from the stoneware, he won't eat it. Over the summer, during snack time we got Nathan to eat cheese and grapes. Now, he goes for cheese first.. grapes are still inconsistent, but with prodding will eat them. Banana's are still hit and miss. He hasn't eaten his cereal with milk in it since that day he blew me away :( And last week, after a 45 minute battle over toast and peanut butter, he ate cheese whiz sandwhich cut out in cookie cutters in shapes of tools for his afternoon snack.

Now, I know when he does go to school he has cheese whiz and cheese he can take. I try my hardest to keep him on healthy snacks, meals.. but it is always the same. So, fast forward to the now and our committment to get Nathan to eat 'meal food'.

Today, Laura (his worker) and I tried mashed potatoes. It was tough, but with a heavy reinforcer he ate it!!! At supper, with the same reinforcer he ate the rest of the mashed potatoe. My husband wasn't keen on the 'toys at the table method' but it worked. And I have to tell you all.. I broke down crying. All of a sudden my chest and throat swelled up, and my eyes got teary. I got a picture in my head of taking Nathan to my parents.. or the in'laws and putting mashed potatoes on his plate and him eating it!!!

I know we are into a battle. We'll meet many shields and reinforcers will wear off and have to figure out new ones.. and who knows what will happen tomorrow when we try the mashed potatoes again. And then carrots... etc. I'm not going to push meat, he's on chicken nuggets and I want to keep them familiar on his plate as we are introducing different textures, tastes and colours.

If anyone has any advice, recipes or ideas.. please share :)

Right now, he has his breakfast, lunch is PB, supper is smiley / curly french fries and chicken nuggets. His snacks are cheese, crackers, yogurts, fruit candy things.. stuff like that.

YES!!!!

Recieved the call from YMCA and Nathan and his worker is accepted at their Preschool program. I'll be going in on Tuesday morning for registration and tour. It's a little more out of my way, 4 mornings a week Mon - Thurs. His worker will be coming over 2 afternoons a week and a social skills group at the center 1 afternoon a week.

His articulation of 's' sounds are WOW!! Even being carried over into everyday speech, with simple reminders of repeating the word the right way, to emphasize the target sound, he has come along way. Something clicked in his perspective, visual field and now understands the concept. A game we play is sitting back to back.. I say, I see.. a plant.. he can't see it cause he isn't facing that way.

Multi-step instructions are currently on a 3-step within the room and progress is being made. We try to make this fun and silly.. go get a car, bring it over to the table and put it in your alphabet box. Before.. he refused to do that as his alphabet box was JUST for his letters. Everything has its spot.. right?? He's still rigid about somethings.. his round container of crayons cannot go on a rectangle shelf which holds his markers and pencil crayons, only his write and wipe books can go there.. his crayons currently have no home, and there fore are constantly being moved from table to table.

Things are on track again after a week of alot of phone calls. I still have to call his old daycare to let them know that Nathan won't be attending their preschool this year. I'll do that on Monday.

Road block

After speaking with Nicole about having a worker going to Nathan's daycare 3 mornings a week.. turns out that the daycare won't allow her to come in. But, she will hire a TA to come in and work with the worker while attending to Nathan's needs. I don't quite understand the reasoning, but apparently she had a bad experience in the past and made the decision not to allow outside workers to come in. To me, this makes no sence, Nathan's worker would be the TA. We aren't out to disrupt any programing, just to help Nathan with social queues and instructions.

Advice from the center.. find a new daycare. This sucks. I like Nathan's daycare, he's been there now for 2 seasons, its affordable for me. But, I am also completely aware that Nathan needs this help in social. This is where his holes are. I see it, and the center sees it when Nathan in his programs at the center which ends end of August. I left a message at the YMCA that was recommended and the Autism Center has worked with in the past. That really is my only hope if I am to have a worker go with Nathan to preschool. The other options I tried are way out of my pricerange and not what I am looking for.. If I do that.. I mine as well go back to work full time, and then Nathan would lose more hours of intervention.

Nothing can be done now except for wait until I hear back from the YMCA. Its also late in the season, Mid Aug.. I'm cutting time short for registrations. Hopefully there will even be a space open for him, and it's in my price range.

New fall programming

It's so hard to believe that fall is on it's way. When I book my appointments, we're talking in September. We all had an amazing summer! And thankfully with the early season we were really able to enjoy it earlier then ever.. In May, instead of June. Nathan had a couple weeks off for his therapy, J and I had our vacations, surprise visite from my brother and his family. Time at the cottage and on the beach. I could say that I think this was the best summer ever.. but then again, I think I say that every year.

Nathan is doing really well at his 'off to school' program and social skills. Laura still comes over the afternoons he isn't at the center. And he has his soccer ( when it isn't raining or too hot). Last nights soccer was nice in the fact that there were fewer kids then normal, and the coaches actually took some time with him. Mind you, he gets SO excited that he gets completely foolish and that was the face he wore last night. They played a game that if you hit a pylon with a soccer ball, you have to knock over the pylon. So, that's what he did.. ran around the field knocking over pylons. One of the kids got mad at him cause the game was over and Nathan still ran around knocking over pylons.

Anyways... Last night when I went to pick up Nathan from his program I ran into his clinical supervisor. She sat down with me and started explaining some thoughts she had about his fall programing. Now, Nathan is smart, he has ALOT of acedemic skills. When we go to the dollar store the toy he likes to get are activity books.. or word searches / kids crosswords. Anything to do with letters, dot to dots, and numbers. His reinforcements include these games.. if you do this, you can do a page in 'the' book. So, with fall coming I'll be putting Nathan back into daycare for 3 mornings a week, Nicole wants to include that in his 20 hours a week. His worker would be going to his daycare those 3 mornings, and then to my house the 2 afternoons and keep his social skills 1 afternoon a week. She says that he is way beyond where he should be at 4 and is flying through his programs and has learned to learn, and she is at a lost on what to continue teaching him on a one to one basis.

I understand this is good news... but at the same time, I kinda felt my heart fall. I feel like we just started (in April), the summer has been busy and he's missed quite abit due to strep throat, vacations.. this and that.. He has just started catagorizing and learned the difference of vehicles and furniture. He still doesn't know the differences of breakfast foods to supper foods. And they havent' even touched his eating disorder. I mean, yes, I can work on alot of the catagorizing myself, but sometimes he doesn't even listen to me. I can't get him to draw a picture :(

Having a worker go to his daycare is an awesome idea, as he does need that social help. Alot of behaviors come out in a social setting and with that direction it can help him alot. Especially in a typical daycare that is busy, noisy and full of normal kids. I dont know why I feel like this. Maybe it just takes more out of my hands and into others. I also feel like they haven't met his 'shields' cause they are doing all the things that he loves. I almost dare them to try feeding him something out of his comfort zone. Or, not letting him finish something he really has to finish. But, then again, what if that is what they do at the center? Put a time limit on a craft ( for example) and if he isn't finished, then too bad? Laura is usually really good at filling me on what happens since I can't be there to observe ( stoopid confidentialty rules). Nicole is going to his program Thursday afternoon to observe and will write me out a report, we'll get together next week to talk about it, and how I feel about the new schedule.

Right now, his biggest progression is his language. Answering questions is still hit and miss, depending his mood. I read on another blog an interview she did with her 4 year old, and I am going to write one up and share it. His play skills are still very basic and still plays one way.. although, he has really opened up his Bakugans (no pun intended) that he can play with them without the cards, or have them on different cards. We don't need a map everytime we do something, but every once in awhile he'll ask for one. Sticker charts are an amazing tool. He still gets quite upset when someone else isn't following the rules, or if they are playing the 'wrong' way.

Stay close for that interview, and an update after I meet with his supervisor. When his worker comes over this afternoon, I'll be talking to her too. Isn't it amazing how you can feel so proud and frusterated at the same time?