Hey There,
A Day late on my Day 7 blog. It's 9:00am here in Orlando and we start our very last day, day 8 at 9:30am! Only trouble is...we have a...DUn DUn Dunnnn...sick boy on our hands!! Eeeekkk! Not Good! Our poor little fighter has been spiking a fever since yesterday and we are trying our hardest to control it with meds but the beast of the fever is fighting back hard! I don't know wether he is sick because of he intensive work and maybe his body is run down, or if possibly he may have aspirated when he was throwing up during detox. So hard to tell. Either way, he will still be treated today, it may be in our room away from the other kiddos instead of down in the therapy rooms, we shall see. I have been giving breathing treatments, suctioning, venting, the whole ordeal, but you can just tell Silas feels like crap...he is so out of it, and is grinding his time like it's his job, it's like nails on a chalkboard! Poor kiddo! Since Si has been under the weather day 7 was very mellow, but still very exciting. Silas slept through almost every session, peeping at us every now and again and still tolerating the work like a champ despite his condition. Today was a big learning day for us. Preparing us to go home with the correct technique for our home program. Learning the benefit of each technique and why it is or is not a high priority on his home program. It can be very overwhelming when you get your home program, scary looking almost, a bunch of numbers and words that look so foreign until you become familiarized with them. Thankfully I already have a very organized system at home and will be able to apply our updated home program to it. My home system was actually shared at a team meeting with all the therapists and they loved it. A couple of Mom's have asked me about it and I will be helping them organize theirs for home. We are very fortunate to have 4 MNRI therapists in the Portland, ME area and will have that support when we go home, where as some families have no one in their state to help with continuing therapy. Three of the Maine therapists even worked this conference! We are so lucky, and we are so thankful for that! I was able to learn a little more about certain terms and techniques today as I mentioned. I have a much clearer understanding of ATNR. This is the asymmetric tonic neck reflex. I had always thought of ATNR as a bad thing. It was presented to us as a bad thing by our child development company. "He's going into ATNR" they would say. I didn't understand why or what it meant, I just knew it wasn't good. Yes in some cases it isn't good, but thats only because it is not properly integrated. One of the achievements from yesterday was when we noticed Silas' ATNR is becoming properly integrated! This is huge. This will help with auditory and visual, etc. During Silas' archetype lesson I participated hands on and helped do Silas' "6 point star" and other exercises. I feel very confident in this work with him once I learn it properly. Silas' therapists, Sarah and I all noticed how present Silas is during his sessions now. His body is listening and responding to the work, where as Day 1 his body was so much in fear and crisis and he needed constant stimulus as a distraction from his therapies. His body and mind are finally connecting and he is really soaking up the work being done. We saw Svetlana (she floats around from room to room) and he had an awesome assessment! She called him a "champion boy" meaning that Silas responds so fast and so well to this work. She was so very impressed with his flexibility and spasticity decrease. Also his mind body alertness! She asked towards the end what the plans were for his feeding tube. I had explained the diet he was on and how he was recently switched to a soy formula and she says "no, no, no, soy bad for brain!" I knew it was, we have to correct this mistake the company made!!! I mentioned we would like to start feeding him orally soon and explained that usually kids are on the keto diet for three years until they start weaning them from it. She told me he could possibly be eating by mouth with intensive therapy far before three years from now and we explained that on keto you are able to eat orally and she was very happy about that. She believes in our kiddo! We will try oral feeding little by little when Silas' body heals from whatever has got him down. Svetlana gave a talk in the afternoon about preparing for home after the conference. Here is some really cool information. You are not supposed to touch the child with the MNRI technique anywhere from 5-10 days after conference. Their bodies need to rest and digest the information. She says "we do not promise you convenient child" and what she means by this is that Silas will be going through a ton of changes when he gets home, he will go through behavioral changes, physical, and it will not be easy at first. They are processing. Something really neat is that if you were not to apply any technique for 4 months after leaving conference, the work will continue for four months minimum! Obviously we will continue as that is best for Silas, but it just goes to show how incredible and intensive this works is! Svetlana tells us, "get ready" because Silas is not convenient child anymore! Meaning, do not leave him unattended, he will roll off couches, beds, and he is going to be on the move. Watch him carefully! I love that! So exciting!!! A really big tip Svetlana gives us is to be positive to our kiddos. To tell them they are safe with us, they are our friends, they are strong and amazing, and bravo to them!!! Always be positive. The moment you are negative, they will pick up on that. But at the same time do not allow them to whine, whine, whine. Joke with them and teach them to be present in this world. There will be tough times, but we need to teach our children how to get through those times with laughter and love, and hard work. She told us to let them work their bodies. For example if we are picking Silas up let him do the work. Do not always be there to support his head every time he is coming up from the laying position, or he will depend on that and will not learn to engage. Svetlana gave us a lot of nice technique to use during the transition period that will not harm the integration process. It is so interesting what the different reflexes and different parts of you body can do for you. For instance pulling on the thumb activates breathing. How do you know this!? I would have never even guessed. This work is so interesting and so smart! It is amazing the changes we have seen in Silas and despite his illness I cannot wait to see what our last day brings! They will be working on him up in our room today so we do not have to lug him around from room to room. He obviously needs his rest, and MNRi work is very well received when sleeping so that is a plus! Stay tuned for our Day 8 blog and continuing blogs about how he is doing after conference! Thank you all for reading! Here's to our last day of the MNRI family conference! Cheers, Mama Brown
A Day late on my Day 7 blog. It's 9:00am here in Orlando and we start our very last day, day 8 at 9:30am! Only trouble is...we have a...DUn DUn Dunnnn...sick boy on our hands!! Eeeekkk! Not Good! Our poor little fighter has been spiking a fever since yesterday and we are trying our hardest to control it with meds but the beast of the fever is fighting back hard! I don't know wether he is sick because of he intensive work and maybe his body is run down, or if possibly he may have aspirated when he was throwing up during detox. So hard to tell. Either way, he will still be treated today, it may be in our room away from the other kiddos instead of down in the therapy rooms, we shall see. I have been giving breathing treatments, suctioning, venting, the whole ordeal, but you can just tell Silas feels like crap...he is so out of it, and is grinding his time like it's his job, it's like nails on a chalkboard! Poor kiddo! Since Si has been under the weather day 7 was very mellow, but still very exciting. Silas slept through almost every session, peeping at us every now and again and still tolerating the work like a champ despite his condition. Today was a big learning day for us. Preparing us to go home with the correct technique for our home program. Learning the benefit of each technique and why it is or is not a high priority on his home program. It can be very overwhelming when you get your home program, scary looking almost, a bunch of numbers and words that look so foreign until you become familiarized with them. Thankfully I already have a very organized system at home and will be able to apply our updated home program to it. My home system was actually shared at a team meeting with all the therapists and they loved it. A couple of Mom's have asked me about it and I will be helping them organize theirs for home. We are very fortunate to have 4 MNRI therapists in the Portland, ME area and will have that support when we go home, where as some families have no one in their state to help with continuing therapy. Three of the Maine therapists even worked this conference! We are so lucky, and we are so thankful for that! I was able to learn a little more about certain terms and techniques today as I mentioned. I have a much clearer understanding of ATNR. This is the asymmetric tonic neck reflex. I had always thought of ATNR as a bad thing. It was presented to us as a bad thing by our child development company. "He's going into ATNR" they would say. I didn't understand why or what it meant, I just knew it wasn't good. Yes in some cases it isn't good, but thats only because it is not properly integrated. One of the achievements from yesterday was when we noticed Silas' ATNR is becoming properly integrated! This is huge. This will help with auditory and visual, etc. During Silas' archetype lesson I participated hands on and helped do Silas' "6 point star" and other exercises. I feel very confident in this work with him once I learn it properly. Silas' therapists, Sarah and I all noticed how present Silas is during his sessions now. His body is listening and responding to the work, where as Day 1 his body was so much in fear and crisis and he needed constant stimulus as a distraction from his therapies. His body and mind are finally connecting and he is really soaking up the work being done. We saw Svetlana (she floats around from room to room) and he had an awesome assessment! She called him a "champion boy" meaning that Silas responds so fast and so well to this work. She was so very impressed with his flexibility and spasticity decrease. Also his mind body alertness! She asked towards the end what the plans were for his feeding tube. I had explained the diet he was on and how he was recently switched to a soy formula and she says "no, no, no, soy bad for brain!" I knew it was, we have to correct this mistake the company made!!! I mentioned we would like to start feeding him orally soon and explained that usually kids are on the keto diet for three years until they start weaning them from it. She told me he could possibly be eating by mouth with intensive therapy far before three years from now and we explained that on keto you are able to eat orally and she was very happy about that. She believes in our kiddo! We will try oral feeding little by little when Silas' body heals from whatever has got him down. Svetlana gave a talk in the afternoon about preparing for home after the conference. Here is some really cool information. You are not supposed to touch the child with the MNRI technique anywhere from 5-10 days after conference. Their bodies need to rest and digest the information. She says "we do not promise you convenient child" and what she means by this is that Silas will be going through a ton of changes when he gets home, he will go through behavioral changes, physical, and it will not be easy at first. They are processing. Something really neat is that if you were not to apply any technique for 4 months after leaving conference, the work will continue for four months minimum! Obviously we will continue as that is best for Silas, but it just goes to show how incredible and intensive this works is! Svetlana tells us, "get ready" because Silas is not convenient child anymore! Meaning, do not leave him unattended, he will roll off couches, beds, and he is going to be on the move. Watch him carefully! I love that! So exciting!!! A really big tip Svetlana gives us is to be positive to our kiddos. To tell them they are safe with us, they are our friends, they are strong and amazing, and bravo to them!!! Always be positive. The moment you are negative, they will pick up on that. But at the same time do not allow them to whine, whine, whine. Joke with them and teach them to be present in this world. There will be tough times, but we need to teach our children how to get through those times with laughter and love, and hard work. She told us to let them work their bodies. For example if we are picking Silas up let him do the work. Do not always be there to support his head every time he is coming up from the laying position, or he will depend on that and will not learn to engage. Svetlana gave us a lot of nice technique to use during the transition period that will not harm the integration process. It is so interesting what the different reflexes and different parts of you body can do for you. For instance pulling on the thumb activates breathing. How do you know this!? I would have never even guessed. This work is so interesting and so smart! It is amazing the changes we have seen in Silas and despite his illness I cannot wait to see what our last day brings! They will be working on him up in our room today so we do not have to lug him around from room to room. He obviously needs his rest, and MNRi work is very well received when sleeping so that is a plus! Stay tuned for our Day 8 blog and continuing blogs about how he is doing after conference! Thank you all for reading! Here's to our last day of the MNRI family conference! Cheers, Mama Brown
RSS Feed
