Progress!

After a difficult few days (think meltdowns over the noise of planes and helicopters, music being to loud and meltdown after meltdown when having a friend over, not to mention two tumbles down the stairs) and feeling like we'll never have a positive appointment with a health professional I'm actually feeling pretty good after L's first appointment with the speech and language therapist (not strictly her first - she saw her at 18 months old due to serious and repeated choking episodes).

It looks like we might be getting closer to figuring things out and hopefully then we'll know what to do and how to help L. We're going back next week to start some 'play therapy' to try and desensitise her to textures of food and the extreme response she has to touch /things on her skin. They'll start off slowly with things on her hands (I think she'll be fine with this as we do a LOT of messy play at home, which she enjoys) and then gradually move up her arms, to her shoulders, up her neck and onto her cheeks. Then hopefully we'll be able to get her to accept new textures inside her mouth and then hopefully new foods.

Of course at this stage we're still not entirely sure exactly why she doesn't like eating - it could be the texture of food, the taste or even temperature. Or it may be painful for L or not a pleasant experience to eat.

We don't have all the answers yet but as the S & L therapist said today, it's obvious that she has sensory issues from head to toe. We just need to figure out if there's another reason for this (this is where the CAMHS assessment will come in) or whether it's a standalone sensory disorder.

Either way I feel like, at last, we're moving forward - someone is DOING SOMETHING and not just waiting for someone else to make a decision.