When it Rains, it Pours

Well, Jack's had five big changes in the last week and something seems to be making a difference in his gross motor skills already. The five big changes are:

1. Jack started school last Thursday at a different school from last year. Though he had summer school in this new building, it was with a completely different group of people. Now he has daily visits from his therapists, a teacher, special ed teacher, and his paraprofessional all working with him throughout the day. I loved his other school but it seems like this school takes a real teamwork approach to getting Jack to work on his goals, which is so amazing. It's as though there's a team of people getting paid to do what I did with Jack for three years. It feels great to have some of that responsibility transferred off of me and onto other people.

2. We started a brush and press program based on the Wilbarger Brushing Protocol. Every two hours during Jack's waking day, we're brushing him with a surgical brush and then doing joint compressions. We've also gotten a hammock and started swinging him in it daily. This is all to try and meet some of his sensory needs that I've come to learn may be playing a big role in his lack of progress.

3. I started forcing Jack to do tummy time every day for at least 45 minutes. To do this I've had to hold down his leg when he 's on the floor or strap him to a roller board I made for him so he can't roll over. He's hated it but we're seeing the beginning of an army crawl when he's on the floor on his tummy. That seems like a lot of progress for one week!

4. I started a trial of a gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free diet for Jack. Other parents of kids with sensory issues have reported an improvement in their general sensory awareness or gross motor progress on this diet. There are no clinical trials of the diet that support this connection but I figured it couldn't hurt to try it, so that's what we're doing. The hardest part has been eliminating cheese from Jack's diet, we love cheese!

5. Jack started taking Trazodone at night to help him sleep, and every night since he's started *knock on wood* he's slept through the night, at least seven hours. Jack NEVER slept this much before.

The other huge improvement I've seen in the past week other than the army crawling is his walking. For the past couple of months I've been holding Jack up by his hands, forcing him to take the standing posture. In the last few weeks he's started moving his feet alternately, but not putting very much weight on them when he does it. He sort of hangs from my hands and moves his feet lightly on the ground. Yesterday, however, he took a lot of weight on his feet while doing this walking practice, even wearing his sandals in which he usually will not take any weight on his feet! I'll post a video of him doing this soon.