November 15, 2010

Charlotte has made significant steps with her feeding. This progress correlates with a decrease in vomiting. Over the past week she has basically stopped throwing up, except for first thing in the morning when she wakes up and even then it's less than we've seen in the past.

This afternoon I met with the representative from Early On and Charlotte's teachers from Little Huskies. Early On reminded me of something I'd nearly forgotten: when we started with the practice feeds back in January we would simply touch a dry spoon to Charlotte's cheeks and lips. Now she takes water like a champ! Little Huskies has had amazing success feeding Charlotte, in large part because Charlotte is a social butterfly and loves doing what the other kids are doing. Last week they took a video of her feeding practice and we're posting it now because we just got permission from the parents of the other kids in the video. They're pretty fun to watch.



During this afternoon's meeting we developed goals for Charlotte. Over the coming months and within a year we want her to:
Walk independently
Start babbling more consonants than the "la" and "da" we hear regularly now
By next November develop a vocabulary of 10-20 words
Eat a cracker (within 3 months)

I'll definitely talk with the specialists in Milwaukee about these goals, but it was fun to set them. During the meeting I was reminded about how lucky we are to have Charlotte at Little Huskies. Not only has the social aspect been great for her development and happiness, the staff are phenomenal.