Team Luke

"There is no such thing as a self-made man.  You will reach your goals only with the help of others."

-George Shinn

Last week we had Luke's 1 year First Steps evaluation.  Basically it's like an IEP in a regular school setting.  Our coordinator, PT and OT were there.  They are all amazing.  Just amazing.  I am struck again with how very fortunate we were (are) to get Luke's diagnosis so early. He has pretty much met all of the goals that we made at his 6 month appointment.  We are continuing to work on fine motor skills and walking.  He has taken a step or two towards someone but isn't walking independently yet. 
Our PT has been watching his feet carefully because he was walking flat footed with his left foot. She now notices it in both feet.  We met with a man this morning that casted him for these special inserts to put in his shoes to help with that.  He thinks at this point Luke needs moderate support.  When he examined Luke he said that he does have good arches so that is really good.  He was really sweet with Luke and I'm excited to get the shoe inserts.  I believe they will look something like this http://www.dafo.com/products/dafo-4/.  They are less obtrusive than I thought they would be so that's good.
We are sticking with PT weekly and OT every other week.  He's made good progress with swallowing liquids so we're not pursuing the speech avenue.  We were going to have to go to the hospital and get a swallow study done to rule out swallowing issues.  No one that works with him feels like he has any kind of swallowing issues, though, so we decided not to go ahead with one more test....Our OT is going to continue to help with the liquids.  He's doing really well with thicker textures through the straw - smoothies, applesuace, pudding.  We haven't tried a milkshake yet but I'm sure he'll dig it!!
Luke also had his 5th ear infection about 2 weeks ago.  Grrr.  Our pediatrician referred us to an ENT so we can talk about getting tubes.  My fear with his frequent ear infections is that it could be causing him to hear things differently or less.  Since speech could be a problem I DO NOT want him to continue getting ear infections!  That appointment is coming in a couple of weeks. 
Thanks for being a part of Team Luke!!  Happy Easter!
xoxo Mel