At 15 months we learned our daughter was not hitting her milestones, and her primary care physician referred The Kid to Early Intervention. Let’s say, it devastated me because I had been vocal about my concerns and had been ignored until it was ‘too late’. HOWEVER, I did the work to make sure The Kid received all the supports and services that she needs/needed. It was difficult and with the amount of sheer lack of care and resources in my neighborhood, I was overwhelmed. 

For a year we struggled with getting her to gain weight, keep food down and to flourish. I’m not interested in re-hashing a lot of the story of what we went through with The Kid. I’m still in shock and angry about some care she did and didn’t receive. It wasn’t until her hospital stay in August 2018 that we got insight into how we could better care for and support our daughter to ensure she could gain weight, stay hydrated, and hit the milestones she was struggling to meet. December 2018, she had been re-evaluated for another year of early intervention services which we elected to keep because she’s about 3-4 months behind where she “should” be.

I fully understand that each child is different, hence why the former should is quoted. The Kid has shown us that she will grow and share her new skills with us when she’s ready.

All of the specialists noted the progress she’s made and the dietitian had no concerns about her growth and development as she is long for her age but lean and is in the 50th percentile for height and weight. However, the struggle that we had been having was with her and thin liquids. We learned that she had dysphagia. Dysphagia is a medical term used to describe difficulty swallowing. She could not swallow and keep down water consistency liquids. Enter Thicken Up*. She’s been using it for several months and we’ve seen great progress but for a couple months we worked on thinning the liquids but she wasn’t ready for that step because the vomiting would return.  

*who knew nestle had a health sciences division?

This weekend, she has shown me she is ready to move on from thickener and enjoy the drinks and tasty goodness the world has to offer. So instead of a sticker saying how many months we are. Today’s #TrueLifeTuesday post is a celebration of The Kid’s Milestone: 

NO 

MORE 

THICKEN UP! 

I was in disbelief when she had the water with no problem. Experience prepared me to panic, go to the ER and do all the crisis things we’d become accustomed to doing. She showed us she is ready for whatever is next and can do it with regular consistency juice/water/freeze pops/whatever in tow.  

What’s a life upgrade you hadn’t expected but was glad it came?