Dear all,
I am taking the plunge and moving over to WordPress. I will keep all these posts up on here but have also uploaded them on our new WordPress page. One of the main reasons we are moving over is because I can make some (but don't need to make all) posts private.
Please visit us at http://soniaandjong.wordpress.com/
By the way, I finally posted some pictures from our US trip up on our WordPress page and should be loading up Halloween pictures tomorrow night!
Sonia
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Finally, update re Isaac's appointments in the US
Dear all,
Sorry it took me so long to update. Jet lagged kicked me in the behind all week last week and things have been crazy this week. We are going through some big life changes that will happen towards the end of this year so things have been even more crazy as usual.
Anyway, Isaac's evaluation went quite well. It seems like the occupational therapy and physiotherapy he has received have really helped him. I have put physiotherapy temporary on hold right now as we are still trying to get our insurance company to approve coverage of all of his therapy. I figured he needs occupational therapy more than his physiotherapy right now so we have continued with occupational therapy despite the risk that we may not get reimbursed for those sessions. In any case, I digress. His fine and motor skills are slowly catching up. As expected, he is very, very behind in speech as he is still basically non verbal. He was rated at 12 months for speech.
We also checked his eyes out and were relieved to receive confirmation that his myopia is still mild so he probably won't need glasses for a year or two.
We were, however, a bit surprised to find out that he has suffered most likely permanent hearing loss. We actually didn't think he needed his hearing checked as his doctors here didn't think he needed it. However, because his speech has been so delayed, I thought I should get his hearing checked just in case. So thank the Lord we did. However, since Isaac wouldn't keep headphones on, we were not able to get precise results so the pediatric audiologist recommended that Isaac gets ABR testing done before he gets fitted with hearing aids. We are still trying to figure out whether we can go back to the US to get this done or not. If anyone has any experience with ABR testing and having their toddler fitted with hearing aids, I would love to hear about your experience. I am trying to figure out whether it is possible to do the ABR testing and get Isaac fitted with hearing aids within about a week. This is because if I were to go back to the US to get this done, I would go with Isaac alone (without Abigail) and I don't want to leave her for too long.
So all in all, it was a very good visit for us. Although I was a little sad to find out that our little boy will probably need to use hearing aids for the rest of his life, I am glad to find out perhaps one of the reasons why he is so speech delayed. In addition, as I say all the time, things could have been so much worse for him, this is really don't that big a deal in the scheme of things. One thing I am curious about is when he does need glasses, how we can fit glasses on top of hearing aids (when kids are still growing, the hearing aids will have the plastic tubing on them so that they don't have to get new hearing aids fitted all the time as their ears grow bigger).
Isaac began speech therapy last week after we returned from the US. So far, Isaac has not been cooperative at all during speech therapy as he refuses to make any sounds. So the sessions have seem to be very ineffective to me as a layman. I guess we will see if he makes any progress after a few more sessions.
On another front, Isaac seems to be a teeny little bit more adventurous with what kind of food/texture he is willing to put in his mouth. He ate his first grape this week. He has never been able to chew and swallow grapes. He has put grapes in his mouth but he would spit it back out. This just happened yesterday though today he put it in his mouth and spit it back out but I still think its progress. Plus he is now willing to eat spinach without it being pureed though he likes using his heads and picking up the spinach stems (funny boys doesn't like the leaves) and putting them in his mouth like he is trying to eat noodles with his hands. Unfortunately we also discovered that he is mildly allergic to olive oil. He was eating my spinach yesterday which was stir fried with olive oil. After eating a bunch of them, the skin around his mouth got red and blotchy. Actually, this isn't really a new discovery. He had a skin reaction over a year ago when I added olive oil to his baby food and it got on his face as well. We stopped giving him olive oil after that so now I guess we confirmed the allergy. I think being allergic to olive oil is very, very rare so this was suprising. Jong is now wondering may be Isaac's food aversions might be partly related to allergies we may not have discovered yet. So if Hallie's mom is reading this, how did you discover what Hallie is allergic to? I mean, Isaac doesn't throw up his food. He has been tested for some allergies - some nuts, shellfish, etc. and he didn't seem to be allergic to anything except for peanuts and now olive oil?
Well, unfortunately, my head is killing me right now so I will sign off for now. I will try to put some pictures on later.
Take care,
Sonia
Sorry it took me so long to update. Jet lagged kicked me in the behind all week last week and things have been crazy this week. We are going through some big life changes that will happen towards the end of this year so things have been even more crazy as usual.
Anyway, Isaac's evaluation went quite well. It seems like the occupational therapy and physiotherapy he has received have really helped him. I have put physiotherapy temporary on hold right now as we are still trying to get our insurance company to approve coverage of all of his therapy. I figured he needs occupational therapy more than his physiotherapy right now so we have continued with occupational therapy despite the risk that we may not get reimbursed for those sessions. In any case, I digress. His fine and motor skills are slowly catching up. As expected, he is very, very behind in speech as he is still basically non verbal. He was rated at 12 months for speech.
We also checked his eyes out and were relieved to receive confirmation that his myopia is still mild so he probably won't need glasses for a year or two.
We were, however, a bit surprised to find out that he has suffered most likely permanent hearing loss. We actually didn't think he needed his hearing checked as his doctors here didn't think he needed it. However, because his speech has been so delayed, I thought I should get his hearing checked just in case. So thank the Lord we did. However, since Isaac wouldn't keep headphones on, we were not able to get precise results so the pediatric audiologist recommended that Isaac gets ABR testing done before he gets fitted with hearing aids. We are still trying to figure out whether we can go back to the US to get this done or not. If anyone has any experience with ABR testing and having their toddler fitted with hearing aids, I would love to hear about your experience. I am trying to figure out whether it is possible to do the ABR testing and get Isaac fitted with hearing aids within about a week. This is because if I were to go back to the US to get this done, I would go with Isaac alone (without Abigail) and I don't want to leave her for too long.
So all in all, it was a very good visit for us. Although I was a little sad to find out that our little boy will probably need to use hearing aids for the rest of his life, I am glad to find out perhaps one of the reasons why he is so speech delayed. In addition, as I say all the time, things could have been so much worse for him, this is really don't that big a deal in the scheme of things. One thing I am curious about is when he does need glasses, how we can fit glasses on top of hearing aids (when kids are still growing, the hearing aids will have the plastic tubing on them so that they don't have to get new hearing aids fitted all the time as their ears grow bigger).
Isaac began speech therapy last week after we returned from the US. So far, Isaac has not been cooperative at all during speech therapy as he refuses to make any sounds. So the sessions have seem to be very ineffective to me as a layman. I guess we will see if he makes any progress after a few more sessions.
On another front, Isaac seems to be a teeny little bit more adventurous with what kind of food/texture he is willing to put in his mouth. He ate his first grape this week. He has never been able to chew and swallow grapes. He has put grapes in his mouth but he would spit it back out. This just happened yesterday though today he put it in his mouth and spit it back out but I still think its progress. Plus he is now willing to eat spinach without it being pureed though he likes using his heads and picking up the spinach stems (funny boys doesn't like the leaves) and putting them in his mouth like he is trying to eat noodles with his hands. Unfortunately we also discovered that he is mildly allergic to olive oil. He was eating my spinach yesterday which was stir fried with olive oil. After eating a bunch of them, the skin around his mouth got red and blotchy. Actually, this isn't really a new discovery. He had a skin reaction over a year ago when I added olive oil to his baby food and it got on his face as well. We stopped giving him olive oil after that so now I guess we confirmed the allergy. I think being allergic to olive oil is very, very rare so this was suprising. Jong is now wondering may be Isaac's food aversions might be partly related to allergies we may not have discovered yet. So if Hallie's mom is reading this, how did you discover what Hallie is allergic to? I mean, Isaac doesn't throw up his food. He has been tested for some allergies - some nuts, shellfish, etc. and he didn't seem to be allergic to anything except for peanuts and now olive oil?
Well, unfortunately, my head is killing me right now so I will sign off for now. I will try to put some pictures on later.
Take care,
Sonia
Monday, October 13, 2008
We are back from the US
We went to California for a week and just got back last night. We are all very jet lagged right now so I will write an update in the next few days. Isaac got a full developmental evaluation at CHOC and also got his hearing and his eyes checked out. It was Abigail's first time to meet her paternal grandmother, grandfather and uncle as well.
Anyway, for now, I will post a very cute video of Abigail in the jumperoo today. She LOVES her jumperoo these days and didn't get to be in one for a full week. Both kids are very happy to be home.
Anyway, for now, I will post a very cute video of Abigail in the jumperoo today. She LOVES her jumperoo these days and didn't get to be in one for a full week. Both kids are very happy to be home.
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