[tri-med] Re: Weaning from the bottle

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Meierlaw"
>>She doesn't take well to a sippy cup and I am not having much
> luck with a straw, either.  She is going to preschool in the Fall
> (God-willing!) and I would like to start switching her over now because it
> will probably take many months.  Any ideas?

I agree that it will take some time to make the switch and do work with your
therapists. There are safety issues in using a cup with children who have
dysphagia.

However, the squeeze bottle straw is a way to help the straw drinking
process along.

Most of the time kids have the most problems in straw drinking with the
strength of suck needed to get the flow started up the straw and all the way
to the top.
A simple device that you can make at home to help the process is to buy one
of those soft squeeze sauce bottles. Then buy some aquarium tubing
(silicone), the thinner the better (just not so thin that they can't get a
good seal around it).

With a sharp knife cut the top off the sauce dispenser - just far enough
down so that the tubing fits through VERY snuggly. Fill the sauce bottle
with your drink (whatever you are using) and when they go to suck on the
straw you can help by squeezing the bottle. When you squeeze the bottle the
liquid will come up the straw and the person drinking doesn't need to suck
as hard to get a drink. In fact in the arly stages you can do all the work.
As they get better and stronger with the process you can ease off on the
squeeze.

If the child is older, or if you don't like the idea of using a sauce bottle
when out (you can buy some cute ones though and we used to be able to buy
bear shaped honey bottles that worked well) there is a type of sports bottle
that cyclers use which works well. It actually has the same principal for
them except that the bottle has a spout. (designed so multiple people can
use the same water bottle without anyone actually putting their mouth on the
spout)

Suzanne Morris co-authored a great book called Pre-Feeding Skills  which has
heaps of great simple ideas like that one for transitioning to different
feeding stages. It was published by Therapy Skill Builders and I am sure you
will find it on the net. Actually I just had a look on Amazon and you can
buy it there - the link is
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/102-6771206-9524118?mode=blended&keyword=pre-feeding+skills&tag=rainbowsdownunde&Go.x=7&Go.y=12
(you are going to have to cut and paste that one into a browser
sorry...........)

Another great resource is Suzanne Morris's New-Visions website.
http://www.new-vis.com/ She has heaps of great resources available free on
her web site as well as articles and papers she has authored. Suzanne has a
great reputation in the therapy world and she is a nice lady. Well I have
always found her to be - she is a frequent writer on another list that I am
on and she did do a video assessment of Alex's eating for me when the only
decent feeding therapist in Sydney was on maternity leave.

I have not lost my mind - it's backed up on disk somewhere.
-- Unknown

Keep Looking For Rainbows!!
   _--_|\
 /Karen \
 \ _.--._ /
          v Karen, Mum to Alex (8 years, T-18 Mosaic)
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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