Sorry it's been a bit, but life's been busy. Ella's got the flu, and I seem to be coming down with it too.
As for the Lemons...
Last Weekend, Ella got together with JP and his mother. Among other things, we all went out to dinner at Applebees. While at dinner, JP was eating the lemon out of his mother's tea. Apparently he likes them, and is rather insistent upon having them if they're on the table...
So, I decided to try to give Ella a taste of mine.. lo and behold, she likes them too. She does make reel back and twisted faces right after biting it, but then she opens her mouth back up, leans forward and takes another bite.
However, in some of my recent reading, I found that giving a child strong-tasting foods, such as lemons, Tabasco sauce, etc , is actually a therapy method used in aiding children with speech delays. The idea is the alarming tastes cause them to focus on their mouth more, aiding oral motor development. This is, of course, presuming the child doesn't over-react to them.
So, shout-outs to JP's mom.. thanks for the free speech therapy :)
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2 comments:
Hey Matt!
Karla's friend Lisa here. Another strong flavor we use for Connor is Sour Spray (one of those candy things). You can target specifc areas of the mouth in order to give the tongue a "workout". Ex: his therapist puts a tiny bit on the top of his lip so that he really has to reach his tongue to get it.
Take care!
Lisa
Thanks Lisa.. I picked it up from Chapter 7 of "The Late Talker" (a good and "parent oriented" book).
There they suggest using strong (spicy, sour, minty, etc) flavors directly, and highly desirable ones around the mouth to encourage tongue motor developent. Of course, if you find one of the strong flavors is really desirable, that works.
Our second experience with lemons was less impressive than the first, but she still had some weird attraction to them.
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