Various Updates

Yesterday morning I decided to call and make an appointment for Ryder to see the pediatrician because he is still battling a snotty nose. He started the last few days we were in FL and then it has been on and off since then. I am more paranoid right now since I was just told his body does not have the antibodies to prevent or fight off sinus infections, pneumonia or ear infections. So I took him in at 1pm and the pediatrician decided to put him on an antibiotic just in case it is a sinus infection. She said at this age they can't really diagnose a sinus infection since kids can't really describe what they are feeling as far as pain and pressure in the face/head. She explained if kids have cold symptoms for more than 5-7 days they usually assume it is a sinus infection and medicate for it. He has no fever, no real cough other than his normal "asthma cough", he is still active and playing along with eating and drinking pretty much his normal. He just has a nose full of snot! The nurse practitioner that we saw also took time to talk to me about his lack of antibodies and said that it is not a common thing, but kids who do have a lack of antibodies generally have the same issue Ryder has with this particular vaccine. She also said until we figure out the cause and get those antibodies in his body he will probably need antibiotics more frequently to help prevent colds from turning into a bacterial infection so we will keep an eye on him for now. She also said usually having the extra booster shot (which he just got) works well in building up those antibodies so I am hoping that is the case for Ryder.

We have had some great days for potty training this week. Zak has been doing so good about peeing on the potty during the day. He will sometimes even tell me when he needs to go potty so that is a step in the right direction although I still have to ask him throughout the day. He still poops in the Pull-Up, but I am happy with the progress so far.

The other big news about potty training is that Ryder sat and peed on the potty twice yesterday! When ever Zak goes on the potty Ryder follows us to watch and he asked himself if he could sit too.

Today Ryder's OT came to the house to do his re-evaluation testing for the upcoming IEP meeting. She did all kinds of tasks with the boys such as building towers, watching then put clothes on and take them off, string beads, drawing, folding paper and cutting with scissors along with asking me a ton of questions about feeding and other skills. After completing all of the tasks and questions she showed me where he is performing on the age scale for the skills...

Fine Motor: solid at 27 months with scattered skills in the 28-31 month range

Self-Help/Adaptive Skills: scattered skills in the 24-30 month range (potty training skills are 18-24 month range so he is lower in that one area)

Her recommendations for Ryder's IEP will be to focus on the feeding concerns and self-help skills. He is delayed in fine motor, but those skills are built into most of the activities he will be doing at the pre-school.

At the end of the session the OT mentioned something about Ryder's IEP meeting date and time being changed which caught me off guard. She said that she received an e-mail about 2 weeks ago saying the date and time had been changed, but I have not heard anything about it yet. So I called and left a message for Ryder's case manager to find out what is going on. I have just figured out plans for the boys during the meeting for the original time and date so I will be pretty annoyed if they did change it on me!