Squeeeeeze!

I've been really busy this last few weeks with soccer, swimming, scouts, school, oh- and Livi.

I'll post a little later about the million activities Landon and Emma have been involved in lately, but for now I wanted to update on Livi. I want to document her therapy and her progress, so this may be a little boring to read, but I think it will be good for me to look back on.

Since she's been diagnosed with SPD, we've changed her course of treatment quite a bit. In addition to the weekly feeding class, she also meets with a therapist in our home. She's introduced us to a lot of techniques to help with Livi's behaviors. For example, Livi will have a physical reaction when putting food in her mouth, and will actually start shaking. Here is an example of how she reacts to any type of food I give her:

Her therapist said that her sensory system is overloaded and that's the way her body reacts. She suggested counter-acting it with pressure to her body. Sometimes holding her tight will work, but the best way is to squeeze her hands together. We've been doing that for a while now and it works so well that now she just does it on her own- whenever she finds herself overloaded, she squeezes her hands together, and she's suddenly better. I'm glad I have a therapist with a lot of SPD experience, because I would never have tried that one on my own.

There's a lot more I want to have documented about her therapy, but I think I'll just write separate posts since this one is getting a little long. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing and strong little girl. I'm also thankful that I was given the patience and perseverance that I needed to deal with this little bump in the road.