More popsicle, please!

In general, my son has good oral motor skills. He had good suck while bottle feeding when he was a newborn, he didn't spill any milk on the side of his mouth. He used to take all the milk until the last drop. He has never had feeding problem. He started to eat baby food when he was 4 month old, which it is the earliest age a baby can star eating baby food. We introduced solid food to him when he was about 10 month and he was completely eating table food when he was 12 month. He eats all kind of food with different textures, such as: asparagus, green beens, beet roots, mangos, prunes, red beens, black beens, lentils, dry meet, sausage, seafood, fish, pork and so on. We introduced the straw training cup when he was about 8-9 month and he took it right away without training, so we use straws since then. He is able to drink from different types of straw cups, zippy cups and small open cups. He blows whistles, bubbles, horns and kazoos. His first bubble was when he was 16 month old. But we did an evaluation when he was 8 month and it shows he has tongue trust, which seems to be mild.

Even although, my son has shown to have good oral motor strength I still feel the need to help him with the tongue trust. Therefore, we keep using the the lipbloks from every drink; while, we are slowly working on the talk tools straw program to help him with the tongue trust. We also gives massages and exercises in and out of his mouth (jaw, tongues, lips and neck to improve sallow pattern). But the most fun of the oral motor therapy are the popsicles. I have bought a new 6-popsicle maker with a longer and narrower shape than the popsicle maker I had first. The long and narrow popsicles work to strength Tommy's lips because the circular shape force the lips get rounded while he sucks the popsicle and retract his tongue. Tommy eats up to two popsicles during snack time. He signs more after he finish and I have lately asked him: "Do you want more popsicle?" and he has verbally responded: "Yeah." They are so easy to make and without thinking of them as a therapy.

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