Dreaming of my Garden

I love to garden. I don't have a green thumb, but that doesn't stop me. Between my clay soil, poor drainage and limited space, I'm surprised we have any vegetation whatsoever. Regardless, I still have the gardening bug. It's in the genes. 

Last year I convinced my husband that we needed raised beds to avoid the pitfalls of gardening in heavy clay. He built these. They are quite large and just what I had in mind.

Today was a beautiful day and I started imagining what my currently barren raised beds will look like in a few short months. Last year, I had trouble with the new soil and many of my vegetables didn't produce. The sugar snap peas were fabulous, but the rest of my crop was nothing less than pathetic. I found that the pH and Nitrogen levels in this new soil were not adequate. So I will start amending the soil with some organic fertilizer soon. I'm determined to be more successful this year.

E got involved to a degree last year, but I have plans to get both my girls working hard in the garden this year. Not just helping with the watering and maintenance, but with the planning and choosing which vegetables to plant. I have a feeling that growing our own vegetables could be a good way to get J to try a new food. E eats any and all vegetables and she does love to walk out our back door and eat sugar snap peas right off the vine. I'm hoping to get J to do the same. 

Other than our raised beds, I have a separate flower bed that will be full of strawberries and another section for zucchini. I also have two blueberry bushes that are already blooming.

Better get planning...

Progress

J has had physical, speech, occupational and feeding therapy off and on from the time she was 8 weeks old at Mighty Oaks Children's Therapy Center. The therapists are amazing! Heather was J's feeding and speech therapist and we did get very attached. We both looked forward to seeing her each week. Deciding to end our therapy at Mighty Oaks was a very difficult decision. A decision I made in order to take a completely new direction with regard to J's eating. It was time to try something new.

Now here we are...two months later. During the height of J's eating aversion phase, she ate the following...

peanut butter (scraping it off bread to eat it)
milk
strawberries
cheese pizza
macaroni and cheese
crackers (limited to goldfish, ritz)
cookies (that melt in your mouth)
whipped cream
ice cream

I was really in a panic and started following a brand new way of dealing with severe food aversions by following suggestions in the book Just Take A Bite, by Ernsperger and Stegen-Hanson. I've not just taken some suggestions and implemented the changes, but I have been following the book religiously.

The result?  This is what J ate for breakfast this morning...

scrambled eggs
strawberries
milk
string cheese
a whole apple (minus the peel)

And she is no longer scraping the peanut butter and cream cheese off bread. She is eating whole wheat bread!

So just to illustrate the difference further than just what she has eaten today, this is currently her list of acceptable foods.

eggs
cheese (many different kinds)
pasta in a number of forms (not just Kraft Mac N Cheese)
bread
string cheese
yogurt
hot dog in a bun
chicken nuggets (Kirkland brand)
cereal (sugary, but fortified with vitamins!)
pancakes
whole wheat quesadillas
black beans
any cracker or chip
granola bar
strawberries
applesauce and apples (no peel)
mandarin oranges
bananas
grapes
carrots
jello
any cookie (without coconut or nuts)
milk
juice
water

It just excites me to know I can give her some juice or water to drink rather than having her go through huge amounts of milk which contributes to her anemia. And I have fun making jello jigglers, so for selfish reasons, I love that she is eating jello. There is nothing that makes me happier than to see her eat a new food. And it's starting to happen on a more regular basis. Not a daily occurance, but we are making progress.

For most children, feeding therapy works wonders and is absolutely necessary. As an infant, Heather and an occupational therapist at Mighty Oaks were very successful in getting J to eat her very first food, vanilla pudding. J was 15 months old when she ate her first solid food. Therapy was essential at that time. Maybe because of her unique personality or the fact that she is four, we weren't having the same successes. So now I am her therapist which makes sense because I am also the person who feeds her three meals and two snacks per day. Consistency for her is so critical.

Face Picking

Dermatillomania is the compulsive need to pick at skin. The majority of people suffering with this chronic condition pick their skin to relieve stress or anxiety. When severe, this form of OCD can lead to open sores that never heal and scarring.

Dermatillomania

When children are affected with this condition, especially as toddlers, pediatricians encourage parents to "ignore" the behavior. Picking at skin can be a sort of pacifier to young children. Most children will outgrow this habit and are not at risk for a diagnosis of OCD and Dermatillomania as adults. On the other hand, if a child has sores or rashes from picking at skin, a physician may need to address these medical issues.

J picks at her face not to the point of leaving red marks or sores, but she has definitely developed the habit. As a parent, I worry and as much as I trust my pediatrician, I still need to do my own research. I found something really facinating in my google search.

Skin Pick

The article essentially states, children with speech delays are prone to picking due to the frustration of being unable to communicate their feelings and anxieties. Ding! Ding! Ding! That's us!  I know as J increases her vocabulary, she will outgrow this behavior. My pediatrician is right again...watch, but don't call attention to it. Obviously, if her picking was leading to sores or rashes, I would need to treat it differently. Another reasont to treat the condition seriously, if she didn't have an obvious speech delay and I thought there may be another underlying anxiety. Both of these situations would require professional help.

In adults, skin picking can have serious physical consequences. Sores can stay open and lead to infection and future scarring. Adults with any form of clinically relevant OCD will require mental health treatment to find the underlying stress or anxiety causing the compulsive behavior.

That's not us, but I don't want anything to happen to this face!

Playing in the Rain

These pictures are for my mom. She wanted to see pictures of her grandchildren. Here you go, Mom!

Connections

I was almost assaulted in the park today. Another mother came at me after she heard these words out of my mouth..."early intervention".

She went into complete hysterics...

"Oh my God, my daughter is in early intervention. Why is your daughter? What is wrong with her? Is it chromosomes because my daughter has a chromosome deletion? My daughter's condition is rare...is it rare? When was it diagnosed? Who diagnosed it?"

At this point she took a deep breath and then proceeded her line of questioning.

"Have you had full genetic testing? Or just the chromosome blood test? Is she verbal? How old is she? Does she have a feeding tube?"

Not even bothering to get any answers other than my quick yes, no or maybe, she continued even further.

"I need your phone number. What is your name?" 

It was nice of her to ask my name a half hour into the conversation. At this time she whipped out her cell phone and we exchanged phone numbers for what reason I still wasn't sure of. I didn't know what had hit me. But whatever this connection was, I liked it. I liked that she knew the difference between genetic and chromosome testing and when I told her we declined genetic testing she knew immediately why. I loved that when I said J doesn't have a feeding tube, but food aversions, she nodded her head and I knew she understood how serious food aversions can be. Basically, I loved that we spoke a language that no one else at the park could speak. The only way I can explain it...fun! My blood was moving again and I was energized. 

I did confess to her that I didn't have other mothers to talk to. All my friends had typical children and didn't understand. We agreed to get our girls together to play. And...we also discussed team homeschooling after EI. We may have been jumping into that one, but there are so many possibilities when two people make a connection!