Caydee's 1st Therapy visit

This past Wednesday afternoon was Caydence's first therapy visit with her Birth to Three OT (Occupational Therapist) Suzy. She showed me so many things that Josh and I can do with Caydence to help her development. Suzy worked with her for about 45 minutes.

She started with some hand and foot play; clapping Caydee's hands and feet together and getting her to touch/grab at her toes. She showed us how sitting her in the boppy brings her shoulders forward and can help bring her hands together and hold on to toys. To help with her visual tracking she suggested bright/ high contrast toys, shiny reflective toys, or toys that light up. Since Caydence didn't have a lot of toys yet, I found some shiny cat toys we had and some reflective ribbon.

She put Caydence on the boppy on her tummy and showed us how to best position her. She showed us how we can tap on her chest to make her lift her head. She also suggested placing a toy or something interesting to look at in front of her to also motivate her to lift her head and help with her neck muscles.

We've always been told that babies with Down syndrome have such low muscle tone. But I haven't really been around a lot of babies, so I couldn't really tell how Caydence was. Then when Melissa brought her baby Olivia over the other day, I finally understood what they were talking about. Olivia is so much sturdier and stronger than Caydence. Caydence is so floppy.

Since Caydence is starting to develop an aversion to things being in her mouth, Suzy showed us how we can massage her cheeks and tap around her lips to stimulate the muscles. She also suggested trying to put things like teethers and other toys in her mouth so she gets used to it more.

The next day Josh and I went to Babies R Us and Target and bought some toys for Caydence. The therapist suggested getting some links that Caydence could easily hold on to and put in her mouth, so we got a package of those. And we got an Eric Carle lion mirror toy, a Baby Einstein cow teether/vibrator toy, some Infantino tag along chimes, and some teether keys.

Later that night when we got home, Caydence got to try out her new toys. I gave her one of the links. It was her first time grabbing anything with both hands! Here's a pic!



I remembered that our friends Angie and Bob let us have one of their kids play gyms so I set that up and hooked all her toys on it.



I hung the tag along chimes by her feet so every time she kicked her feet they would make noise.



Over the past couple days I've noticed that she has started playing with the toys and hitting them, realizing she can make them move. Then I looked over and she had grabbed one of the links! I was so proud of her!



Way to go Caydence! <3