Does OT really help with sensory issues for a 13.5 month old?

[Anonymous]

I am looking for advice. So ds is 13.5 months (12 adjusted) and has numerous sensory issues such as aversions to certain foods and vestibular issues like head shaking and body rocking. We are already doing PT and ST both two times per week, and we just had an OT evaluation. We both work full-time and we are also hiring a therapist to work with ds a few hours a day while at daycare using ABA style (he doesn't have autism, but our develop ped recommended this to us).

So, with so much therapy already in place and our schedules being as nutty as they are, I want to know what other people did or did not get out of OT at this age. It's totally worth it to us if it works, but I have doubts and wonder if he will just outgrow these things over time. We just want whatever is best, not too little, but not too much also.

[Anonymous]

From what you posted OT sounds like a great idea. Children don't "outgrow" sensory issues. With a crazy schedule you may want to cut back on PT but from what you wrote i would strongly encourage OT. Besides prematurity does your child have a diagnosis?

[Anonymous]

Has the OT or the dev ped given you an idea as to how long they think you'll need this kind of intervention? Are there other issues the dev ped has raised? The reason I ask is that, in my experience, the schedule you've got is probably going to burn you out. If there's a good possiblity that an intense burst of therapy will get your DC where he/she needs to be, then you can do it. If it looks like there will be issues for a longer period, you're going to need to pace yourself. Are you in a sprint or a marathon?

[Anonymous]

OP again--Thanks for the input. Our neurologist says he'll outgrow the head shaking, but he's a big sensory seeker so it affects him in many other ways too. As for whether we are in for a sprint or a marathon, I have no idea. We just want to do whatever we need to in order to help him the best we can. We've been in PT twice per week for 6 month now and only now are we about to add in the others. My husband and I can switch off with PT and ST so that we are both doing 2 per week, which will make it feel the same as now since we have both been going to all PT appts. Squeezing in OT might be more of a challenge, but we can make it happen if it is worth it.

[Anonymous]

While you are to be commended for jumping on this and getting early intervention, it's really impossible to say what a 13 month old baby will outgrow. I agree that this schedule = burnout. And nothing is set in stone at this age. You can decide in a year whether to add OT.

[Anonymous]

OP, sounds like we have a similar situation with our 11 month old DD. She also does a lot of head shaking and body rocking, and some wrist twirling too. She has severe, severe separation anxiety and has a very difficult time self soothing. She's in PT right now because she has low tone and is delayed with gross motor skills, but her PT (and our pediatrician and my older DD's developmental pediatrician) all think my 11 month old has sensory issues and could really benefit from OT. We've been hesitant to get her going with it because I keep wondering whether it will really make a difference this young, but the "experts" keep encouraging us to try. Burnout is also a big concern for us, especially since we're juggling work and therapy for two kids. It's not easy--good luck with whatever you decide!

[Anonymous]

We started OT at about 18-24 months. We'd been doing ST until then. I still have mixed feelings about whether it was worth it to start that young. In general I am all for very early intervention and I'm glad we have done it, no doubt about it. I'm more concerned about OT specifically. Sometimes I feel as though the OT has been all a waste of money. I think with OTs you really need someone who is excellent and knows her limits. When we met a few OTs to get things started I was struck by some of the sweeping generalizations I heard them make and I felt they can really jump the gun on things. Our dev ped did recommend OT but specifically cautioned that we should look for some very specific therapies and avoid others (like arm brushing and some other trendy but unproven things). As he said, with many OTs, they only have a few hammers and the world is their nail. Work with your dev ped to have a plan of therapy so any OT you get is worth it. In your place (and I appreciate your position of doing whatever you can now), I don't think I'd do OT yet unless your dev ped really think's it's key. If you have good PT and ST, they should be doing some things that will help with the sensory stuff.

[Anonymous]

20:29 again. Thanks for the additional information. I agree with the PPs that it's difficult to tell at such a young age what your child will outgrow and what she won't. My youngest started PT through EI at 15 months for gross motor delay greater than 25% about 9 months later, we added ST and then dropped PT because we (and the PT) felt that he was on the right track and we had learned enough to help him with what he needed. That allowed us to increase the amount of ST he had. The summer before kindergarten, we added private OT. Our oldest was getting OT and ST about the same time our youngest was started ST. I think if you add OT to the ST and PT, you're going to burn yourself out before too long. My experience is that there are enough overlaps between OT/ST/PT that unless there's something really significant you'd be okay to chose two out of the three. Both my kids have hypotonia and motor planning/coordination issues. They have OT goals addressing both of those.

My bottom line advice would be to do no more than 2 therapies and make your choice based on what your DC's biggest challenges are. You should also feel free to cut back when you feel overwhelmed. I know how much you want to attack this and do as much as you can with everything you've got but it sounds like this is NOT a sprint and you really need to find a schedule that you can sustain. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

OT did nothing for our food aversed child. Waste of time.

[Anonymous]

OP again--Thanks everyone. I think we're going to give it a shot for a bit and reevaluate to see if we are seeing tangible evidence of progress. This OT is excellent, so if it will help I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Even though it's a lot, in many ways just focusing on therapy feels so much easier since up until a few weeks back we've been in a constant whirlwind of medical appointments seeing so many specialists and had a few surgeries to contend with. We have finally started moving beyond that and can just focus our efforts on therapy. By sprint versus marathon, the reason I am unsure is because we see so much progress once we focus on the therapy, so it's entirely possible ds will catch up, especially with PT, though it's more likely that we will need to keep up some therapies. Once he's walking we will drop PT to once per week which will feel easier. My husband and I work from home quite a bit, so that helps a lot with schedules.