ABA, Eating, and Weighted Blanket's!

I am very excited for ABA to start tomorrow! Both therapist who have been scheduled to start with Jo Jo this week have both called and introduced themselves and confirmed time and place. They both sounded very nice over the phone, and maybe sounded kinda young too, but that's okay. I just can't wait to work on some thing's with Jo Jo that need improvement.

Jo Jo has been regressing with eating which is kinda freaking me out. He suddenly has issues with using a fork and spoon, he is having complete tantrums if you give him any food that will involve using a fork or spoon. The tantrum's are so hard to watch, he throws himself on the floor and kicks, cry's, and screams. He will sometime's start with just pushing the food away, or pushing my hand away while shaking his head no, and then it turns to crying on the floor. Our Developmental specialist at first thought it could be just be his age, first thought maybe he is just getting picky with food as toddler's do get that way. He typically has no problem with finger food's at the moment. He will still eat but only with his finger's. I have been doing mostly finger foods for the past week, I'm hoping tomorrow ABA can help us figure out why he is doing this.

Yesterday our Developmental Specialist Nicole was over for a visit with Jo Jo, He was in a extremely good mood, and had Nicole laughing the whole time. We also had out Speech Therapist Jenn over at the same time and she even said I have never seen him this happy. This is Great!!! He said a lot of words yesterday, and did a lot of great mimicking!

I'm not sure how many people have heard of this, but I was considering buying Jo Jo a weighted blanket. He has had success with a weighted vest in his play group so I really do think a weighted blanket would really help. I asked Nicole about it because I wanted to make sure it would be right for him before we made such a large purchase. Weighted blankets have been known to help calm you down, they help promote more restful sleep, and helps decrease anxiety. Jo Jo has had some issues lately with bed time. He is tired but fighting to stay awake. He won't stay in bed most night's when I put him to bed. He also sometimes wakes up around 4 am and will wake me up, or he will fall asleep on his bedroom floor. I occasionally will wake up in the morning and he is sound asleep on his bedroom floor. He stopped napping a long time ago when we switched to his toddler bed. I am wondering if the weighted blanket will help him sleep better and then maybe he will have less tantrums and hopefully we will have better success at dinner time too!

Nicole told us that she is going to contact our Service Coordinator and refer us to a Occupational Therapist, and the therapist will then come out to our home and evaluate Jo Jo and decide if a weighted blanket will be right for him. She told me if I can wait through this process which does take a little time to set up we can get a weighted blanket for free!!! Nicole told me that BAMSI (Early Intervention) has a lady who hand makes the blankets and that our insurance will pay for the blanket! It is well worth the wait! Weighted Blanket's start at around $75 and up!!!