Dietician

"I am a good Montessori child! I wash my own table."


"And then I chew on the sponge! OK, so I have room for improvement."



"But I think sponges are fun! Almost as fun as slippery cold ice cubes!"


We had Olivia's dietitian appointment today. All in all, she was very impressed by Olivia's well rounded diet. We were given number guidelines for calories, fat and protein. We also went round and round about the best "milk" to put Olivia on. After reviewing her biological family histories, and looking at Olivia's history, she settled on Rice Milk. This avoids both dairy and soy, but does create a challenge for us to meet her fat requirements as a young child. Thus we will be using some higher fat foods (oils, nut butters, avocado etc.) to meet the fat requirement. Her protein consumption is really good. She eats really well and likes her legumes.

The other therapists (physical,speech,and occupational) were impressed by how well she is doing. They say keep up the good work with her! Where would we be without the Topics in Down syndrome books!

We are now to start cranking up the solids, as Olivia has some good choppers that have popped recently. But we have to be sure she is chewing well enough to digest what she eats. Back to lots more oral motor exercises before she eats to get her thinking " chew"! She likes the nuk brush dipped in ice water as one tool. No more using our fingers unless we want her to bite them off!

On the way out of the hospital, Olivia caught the eye of an older man who was greeter at the door. We stopped to say hello. He went to bless her, then stopped. I said to please bless her! He got out his holy water from Lourdes and blessed us all! Turns out, he coached at Notre Dame foe many years, is the father of a guy we went to high school with, attends Mass every morning with Father Hesburgh and he gave us each a metal from Father Warner which was blessed by Father Hesburgh. Also, turns out that he knows Peter's dad ( as Peter's dad taught at ND many years ago). So another interesting outing!