Jack Kaden

Jack is a picky eater. At first we thought it was teething. And then we thought maybe he just got it from me. And then, as time went on, it became clear that his picky eating habits can be traced back to his early arrival.

He has a high palate, a consequence of being on the ventilator in the NICU. He hates things that are slimy, cold, or mushy, a possible sensory disorder.

Most disturbingly, he has a problem with food that doesn’t dissolve in his mouth. Protein, like chicken or hamburger he’ll gladly accept, but then it just sits in a little pouch in his mouth, like little baby chewing tobacco. Usually he gets upset after 15 minutes or so of “chawing” and we have to go in and dig it out.

Prematurity strikes again…

Our Occupational Therapist believes he’ll benefit from Speech/Feeding Therapy. He passed his first speech evaluation with flying colors, but that was before he turned 1. Speech Therapist’s in NYC stop adjusting for prematurity at age 1, and our occupational therapist assured us that he should now automatically qualify given his pre-existing issues and the whole not swallowing thing. She submitted our paperwork in August.

Yes. Well. You can guess where I am going with this.

Stay tuned, because if the evaluation doesn’t happen soon we’ve been advised to consider legal action against Early Intervention. I am not a fan of litigation having been bullied by more than my fair share of lawyers in the past – Helloooo $2 million dollar law suit that we settled for less than 4 figures. Oh, Oh or what about the one where I was the first car in a 3 car pile up and I was one the getting sued?! Hrmph. Assholes.

Anyway. Lawsuits and I clearly don’t mix. They annoy me and make me cranky, and then I curse. That said, I am not afraid to sue the pants off the State of NY, not if it will help Jack. Not if might help someone in the future who doesn’t have the resources to take legal action when they are continuously denied the services that they qualify for.

Now. I just have to find the time to call our lawyer.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 7th, 2007 at 11:08 pm and is filed under insanity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.