Therapy: Day 2

Here is our feeding group! These are the grad students who are with me this week, Jamie and Rachel. We have identified the kids who need feeding therapy and we now have a schedule to see them. God continues to remind me that he has it all in control and that he knew which babies he needed me to see before I even got here. There are about 7 babies from each house, so we see each group BID, once in the morning and once in the afternoon (BID=twice a day). These groups typically begin with us getting the babies out of bed and changing their drenched towel-diapers. Then we put them in a circle and feed them, play with them for language stim, we work on pacifiers (which they do not use over here), we do lots of oral motor exercises, and work on their movement.

All of them are behind on their gross motor skills because they just don’t have the opportunity. With 5 Aunties and 24ish babies per house, these kids get changed and fed but that’s about it. The fun part is, we have seen improvement already in 2 days of therapy! Some who couldn’t sit are not sitting for 10 seconds on their own. Little Hamilton is starting to support his own head, and he is now taking a passy to develop his sucking skills, or his non-nutritive suck. This has really helped him come to life and he is really starting to realize that there is a world to interact with.

Today, I tried thickening some of the bottles with their meal-meal (their equivalent to rice cereal). It went horribly awry and the Aunties looked at me like I was insane. So though I was frustrated that the different nipples and consistencies didn’t seem to make a huge difference, I was very encouraged once I saw that they are just improving with opportunity and interaction.



This is my pal Choolwee. He had a come to Jesus meeting as well. He does not like to suck from a bottle. He would rather chew on the nipple and then spit all the milk out of his mouth. He is on the line for his life too, so please pray that I will have the wisdom to know what to try next. He did take some cooked cereal today, so that was a plus. I am going to try some more tomorrow. But they don’t offer the babies solid food until they are walking around simply because they don’t have the man power to feed each baby independently. Most don’t walk until they are 16 months at least. So they just stay on milk until then, and the Aunties will prop a bottle on a pillow and the baby will drink it flat on their back. I have not seen any Auntie holding and feeding a baby. The cultural differences are frustrating, but they are what they are and we will just deal with them.

Also, let’s talk about Marja. She’s the other SLP who is here. And she’s pretty amazing. We clicked from the beginning. Marja likes to call me her boo. (She really calls everyone that but I pretend it’s just me). As you can see below, we take our supervising jobs very seriously.

But sometimes we joke around. Here's a typical conversation between the two of us...

Marja: Oh that song has your boy in it.
Me: Who?
Marja: You know, Robert Patenson from Twilight
Me: That’s not my boy.
Marja, in a very proper voice: Caroline, not literally. That’s typically a term we use in the black society.

Oh I love this chica. I mean sista. So. Much. And Africa loves her too.

And that is it for this lovely Tuesday. It is almost 9 p.m., we just finished our Zumba class and showers, and now I am sitting on the front porch listening to the sounds of the evening. The weather is perfect since it is winter here...cool and low 70s in the day, down in the low 60s at night. The Zambian's are bundled in sweaters and we are in short sleeves and loving it.

Mom, don't worry about me sitting on the front porch. Our night guard with a shot gun is sitting right across the porch from me. And of course he is bundled up in a red beanie hat, some serious long sleeves, and a heavy neon green blanket.