Not A Wordless Wednesday

I originally took this picture for a Wordless Wednesday quick post, but have too much to share about this little guy.

I have really great news, and really bad news.

Lets start with the bad and then move to the good so as to end on a high note, shall we?

Bad news: We've been battling diarrhea for a few months now (like since Oct/Nov), and thought we had it under control when we took him off of all dairy products. It did clear up for the most part. We switched to soy milk and life seemed good. After our move (it has been nearly a month now, can you believe it?) it started up again, and has been awful the past few days. His little bottom is blistered and bleeding and he is in lots of pain quite often. We are thinking he has either developed a soy allergy, there is something that doesn't agree with him in the water here, or he is allergic to something else. A year ago when he was hospitalized, they ran an array of food allergy tests, but found nothing. However, we know that kids can develop allergies, and even though it looks as if milk is an intolerance, soy may be a real allergy. He didn't do well on soy formula (bad reaction) when he was in the hospital.

I am making phone calls to doctors today, and have put him on a rice/water/banana diet. He is just loving that (um, no). We weighed him today because he looked a bit thin in the tub and he's lost 2.5 lbs since he was last weighed.

Great News: Our IFSP needed to be updated (like an IEP, but for younger than school age children) and he has met SO SO many of the old goals. He is no longer seeing a physical therapist for large or small motor skills. He is down to speech therapy and a sign language specialist. We are so happy! He has come so so so so so far in the last year.

He continues to learn more and more signs, and is not as resistant to using them. He says (out loud) something that sounds to us like "up" and "look" and "ought-oh" with meaning. He does say "mamamamama" and sometimes "daddadadada" but they are not with meaning, just babbling that this point. His sound system is developing and that is so important.

Because he is signing with much more meaning than any of his speech, that is the avenue all professionals he sees think is his best bet. He won't sign forever, but needs to be signing and gesturing instead of screaming and tantruming (yes, that is still about 50% of his communication on a typical day). He actually does better in public with not having meltdowns because he loves new stimulation due to his sensory processing. It is a blessing that most of his huge meltdowns are not in public :o)


Yeah for you little man!