Duck, Duck, Juice

Andrew is gross motor delayed - at 13 months old, all he can do is balance in a seated position (that I put him in, he can't get there himself) and roll over. He's basically at a 7 month old level as far as the gross motor skill set goes. He has never attempted to get on all 4s or to a seated position or pull up on anything or step his legs or hold his own bottle. His pediatrician says he has low muscle tone (hypotonia), is "floppy", and that his feet roll under more than they should at this point. Here are a few pictures of his feet to show you what I mean:

Andrew's fine motor skills are great but he's completely immobile and it is causing him trouble in other areas - like pooping (yeah, I know you wanted to know that, lol) and growing (he's only grown about 7.5" since birth and the norm at 1 year is 10"-12"). The frustration he has from his cognitive ability exceeding his physical ability is causing some serious tantrums and attachment issues.

At his 12 month checkup, his pediatrician (Miss J) examined him and listened to our concerns about his development. She decided he should get a Gross Motor Evaluation from Kentucky First Steps (an early intervention center) and put him in for a neuro consult at Vanderbilt Pediatric Neurology. Apparently, all of his symptoms together *could* indicate a neurological issue. Our hope, however, is that Andrew is simply hypotonic and physical therapy will due the trick.

After almost 3 weeks of waiting, the neuro's office called and set up his 1st evaluation for June 08. Yeah, I know, but hopefully he will have had a few months of physical therapy by then and we will have a better idea of whether this is neurologic or just muscular. The next day I received a questionnaire in the mail from KY First Steps (K1st from now on) as a screening tool to see if he really needs early intervention or not. There were sections of Communication, Fine Motor, Gross Motor, Problem Solving, and a few others. As I read the section on gross motor, I just laughed. None of them applied to Andrew bc he isn't even performing the preliminary skills to get to the ones they were asking about! For example, one of the questions was "When supporting your child with one hand, will he take several steps forward?"................................uuuuuuum no. Pretty sure your child has to be able to stand first. "When your child is standing on the floor holding onto a coffee table, or the like - does he or she bend tot he floor to pick up a toy then return to standing?" Again - NOPE. We're not anywhere close to that one. A few days ago the Screener from K1st called and went over the Qs with me and scored him. Needless to say, Andrew scored a zero on gross motor. He did great on everything else! He plays peekaboo without being prompted, his speech is on track, he uses his fingers and thumb to pick up tiny objects, he understands how to get small items out of bigger ones, etc. He is really a smart little bugger, he just can't do for himself physically. Yesterday during lunch, he had a rubber duckie on his tray and a sippy full of juice (that he won't pick up or drink from) and in between bites, he'd grab the duck or touch the sippy. As he would do these things, I'd say "duck" or "juice"........then I realized we were playing duck, duck, juice.

So the Screener told me he passed (ok, failed) on to the next step. Today at 1:00 the Services Coordinator will be coming to the house to explain what will happen next and have us sign paperwork. I know that after today, the physical therapist will be coming to evaluate him. Screener told me that part takes about 2.5 hours and that Tot will not like it. That's going to be a lovely afternoon. From there, Phys Therapist will decide if he needs monitoring and a re-evaluation in a few months or if he needs weekly physical therapy sessions or something in between.

So that's where we are. Believe it or not, this was the short version. I'll update more tonight or tomorrow with what the Services Coordinator says.