Finger lickin' good

People often ask how Caelan is doing on his oral feeds. 
The answer is "he doesn't."

Caelan is still opposed to having food (or a toothbrush) in his mouth.  Actually I think we've come to the realization that this is more about his control than anything else.  By this I mean that if Caelan chooses to put something in his mouth all is good, but if you'd like him to put something in his mouth it's unlikely to happen.  As always, it's still all on his terms.

There are some encouraging aspects of the entire oral feed subject though.  We've always made sure to include Caelan in our family meal times.  He's expected to sit at the table with the rest of his family when they're eating.  (For the record he's often getting his milk too.)  Recently he has insisted on having his own plate with the same food and the same utensils as the rest of the family.  He's very clear in his desires as the plastic 'baby' spoons go flying across the kitchen and he makes the sign for fork repeatedly and pointing towards the cutlery drawer.  Don't even dream of getting him a plastic fork because it will end up beside the spoon.

He also wants to have the same things on his plate as everyone else.  This means that every condiment on the table must be on his plate.  If Darcy puts ketchup on something he needs ketchup.  If Dad uses hot sauce he needs some.  If Ry has plum sauce well he'll take a dab of that too, and a sprinkle of pepper like Mom too!!  It's quite the colourful plate in the end.  The good news is that it's easy to encourage him to dip his fingers in these paint like substances and he's normally good for at least one good finger lick per meal, often more.

On our Occupational Therapist's recommendation I bought some very tiny ice cream cones.  Those who know me well know I would never by those - I'd get the big sugar or waffle cones!!  He's very good at copying what the rest of us are doing, total peer pressure I'm telling you!!  But he'll lick the ice cream, not much but he's doing it.  The other night everyone at the table was licking their dill pickles like they were ice cream cones and he did it twice.  So much for manners but for now we have other priorities!

So all this to say, we're still working on it.  We whoop and hollar like crazies when any food substance goes in his mouth.  He knows what we want...  He likes to kiss his food and just bring it to his lips, with a cheeky little grin on his face, such a teaser!

I was hoping to get a picture to share with this post but haven't captured the moment yet.