As I’ve said before, our daughter is fiercely independent. She personifies if there’s a will, there’s a way. But we have done a few things in the last week or so that have made a big difference in her life and by extension ours.
We have an awesome OT and PT. It’s pretty common to hear other families saying that their OT highly recommends a certain device or prosthetic. Our OT takes a trial and error approach. If something we try works, then awesome. If our daughter does better without, that’s awesome too. This approach has really worked for us and I think is a real confidence builder for anyone in an adaptive situation. It’s probably pretty validating to hear that what you have or what you’ve adapted at age three works better than anything any expert has invented.
Here are the modifications we’ve made recently:
Car Seat - Last week I told the OT that we’ve been having trouble with the car seat. When you only have one arm, and that arm is less than three inches, well, buckling your car seat can be pretty difficult.
The OT put a piece of velcro and a soft pad on the car seat buckle, like so. It’s now much easier to push against the buckle and snap it into place. Problem solved.
Pet steps – Another source of frustration has been the fact that our daughter couldn’t get on and off the couch by herself. She’s tried just sort of hanging off and then dropping but the couch is too high and the floors too heard. Someone suggested we buy pet steps, and this weekend we did. They work perfectly.
Eating in the car - So this is such a small thing, but it was by far the greatest source of frustration. (Aren’t they always?) Up until now, our little girl has been unable to snack in the car. Add to that an older brother who can and now you’ve got a real problem. We’ve tried all sorts of things (including a moratorium on eating in the car) and none worked. Finally, finally, I realized that if I just turned down a plastic baggie so that it was pretty much freestanding and balanced it on her arm, it made a perfect cup because it’s malleable and moveable.
Thankfully she’s at an age that she knows not to eat the plastic, which makes this work. We have had a few car snack casualties, but nothing substantial. I only wish I had thought of it sooner.
All of these are such small changes, yet they’ve given one little girl even greater independence. I’m not sure if these were Duh! or Aha! moments. Either way, they work which makes them happy moments.
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