What I already knew!

Well, Claire qualified for the First Steps program. She doesn't pull the food off the spoon with her lips like she should. She doesn't chew/munch food yet. She can bite food like a cracker, but won't mash it around in her mouth yet. She lets it sit in there until it is wet enough to swallow, then finally eats it. She also will put a lot of food in her mouth like Cheerios, but then will push them back out with her tongue vs. swallowing them. So our next meeting with them is in a couple weeks. She also will not move the food around with her tongue like she should be doing at this age. The 2 evaluators did not think she would qualify because her speech and social skills are so advanced. They basically played for awhile. They brought a shape sorter, a puzzle, blocks for stacking, etc. She just barely qualified. So any therapy we do is up to us. We can quit any time we want, but if there is some sort of program out there to help her eat better...why the heck not take advantage of it!!! I am going to continue to offer her stuff 3-4 times a day, but I'm really looking forward to some advice/tips from them. They again said, she'll probably grow out of it, some kids just start eating at different rates, but I'm ready for her to start eating a little more regularly than she does!