[~*max*~]

After reading the threads about SID, I thought I'd ask you experienced mamas about this one. My ds, age 3 1/2, has a (now) mild speech delay and is *extremely* particular about what he will eat. I am wondering if the two could be connected, and perhaps relate to SID.

As for his speech, he has some delay in engaging in conversation - asking & answering questions in particular. He speaks clearly & is well understood. He has a good vocabulary. He has made huge progress in this area over the past year, and we see improvements daily. (He was in speech & occupational tx. for 6 months through the school dept., a very negative experience unfortunately, so we decided to take some time off & see how he does on his own & w/the start of preschool.)

Regarding his eating, when he started solids at 6 months and onward, he would only eat totally pureed food. If it had the least amount of texture he would literally gag. When he finally began to eat finger food, all he wanted was carb-type of foods. Now, he subsists on wheat toast w/butter, rice cakes, french fries, carrots, apples & bananas. He will eat a little yogurt, cheese, chicken nugget. He loves snack foods like cookies & chips, which I limit to once a day. He drinks mainly milk, water & orange juice. Other mouth-related issues - up until around age 2 he continued to teethe/chew on things, i.e. books, furniture, toys; he had great difficulty w/me brushing his teeth for a long time, but now does fine.

I have read The Out of Sync Child, but the only area he seemed to fit into related to the oral sensory component and they do not provide too much info on this area.

Any thoughts, experiences, insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[khrisday]

It does sound like it could be sensory related- and it is possible that he only has these issues with his mouth However, it coudl also be a more physical issue with his oral muscle tone as well. The language issues that you mentioned don't sound related to sensory. I woudl recommend getting another speech eval (hopefully with a better SLP) that can give you some better insight and ways to work with it.

 

[Stacie]

Sounds like to me he is highly addicted to the morphines in the wheats & Milk. Also really seems to like Phenols.

You may wish to learn about the GF/CF diet.

http://www.danasview.net/parent3.htm#diet

 

[amma]

HRM~
Your ds sounds alot like mine, in fact my ds whom happens to be 4 1/2, is in a public school preschool program right now, which he seems to in joy a lot. Its only been a 2 weeks since he started which he goes three days a week. What kind of negitive experience did you have at ds school? I'm wondering...
Maybe you could find a private speech teacher/ot to work with him. Depending on the experience at the school maybe the school district could even fund private sessions instead.

 

[~*max*~]

Amma, could you tell me about your son? Any insights into his behavior? Diagnosis? Treatment?

In a nutshell, we enrolled ds in the special ed. public preschool at age 3 after a very brief Early Intervention eval. Ds was definately too young to attend preschool alone at the time and the class was not a good match. The other children were significantly more delayed and thus, ds was treated at their level as opposed to his own. We left the preschool & attended weekly speech/ot sessions. After 6 months the therapists still did not have a good read on him, they continued to treat him below his abilities (which he began to mimic), were inconsistent, canceled often, etc. It was very stressful for both ds & myself. we decided o take the summer off & then re-evaluate in the fall.

Currently he is in a community preschool & doing very well. His speech is dramatically improving. I am looking into other options for speech tx, but want to avoid the school system. I am "gunshy" at this point.

 

[khrisday]

see if there is a Scottish Rites Masons speech/language clininc near you- they provide services on a sliding scale, or else a University that has a speech therapy program. Many times you can have your child work with students for a lot less money than regular private, or your health insurance may cover it.

 

[amma]

HRM, ds has not been diagnosed with anything. Where we live (alaska) there is only one doctor that comes up from lower 48 to do any tests/diagnosis, which is only twice a year, and ds hasn't been seen by he/or she yet. I'v read alot about SID and my ds fits some of the characteristics. He will only wear soft clothes with short slieves. He won't eat anything thats soft and mushy in his mouth. He dosn't like loud higher frequency nose. Like your ds chews on stuff, mine ds still does alot. He has shirts have holes in them from bitting and sucking on them. The main reasons he was excepted to the preschool program was because of his speech delay and some sensory issues. So, I'm thinking, that you maybe right about the speech and the SID connection, but I'm not real sure...yet... It seems reasonable that the two go hand in hand. The main thing, I think, is that they both can be worked on and improved. I work on ds at home alot with both sensory and his speech. I think, since I understand him better than anyone else, I'm going to do what my intuition tells me to help him succed. He also has one main focus...dinosaurs...he's loves them...his first words at 1 1/2 were mama, daddy, and dinosaur. So I try to teach him through his main focus, everything, from, sensory, speech physical activity, colors, and counting, which is almost everything any other four year learns, it just happens throught ...dinosaurs, my ds passion. I don't know how long the school system will work for us since it's only been a few weeks, but if things go like the way as they did for you and ds, HRM, then I would also take ds out. Alaska seems to have a good school system, but I could be wrong.

 

[khrisday]

I'm not suggesting that this is the case with your child, because you didn't mention it, but I just want to add here that the combination of sensory issues and language issues is many times what sets off alarms of parenst of kids who end up with a diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder. So if anyon e reading this has a child with has sensory issues, labguage issues, and social issues or obsessive tendancies- please look into Autism to see if it may be an answer to your questions.

 

[amma]

khrisday~ I think your right about the autism spectrum. I won't know for sure about my ds untill the doctor comes up but I have some feelings. I also think the serverity of autism can be worked on at home/school or where else and still improve on the childs success throughout their life.