Speech Problems, Parenting, and Baby Food...

My oldest daughter was 3 yo before we started potty training, and it was like she finially "got it" like a light bulb went off, i'm not sure what it was that worked. but 2 weeks after she was potty trained (daytime- only) she started communicating w/ us really well. I was a huge difference, from numbers to colors to telling us what she wanted she was just a sponge and spitting all the info back out. My husband had bugged me all that pervious year that something was wrong w/ her and I had taken her to the peds and he said she was very normal. So sometimes it is just a time factor.
Research some things on google about potty traing ideas, and knowing your child you just might find a few things that are just the trick to get the ball rolling.

My son in 2.5 yo and will pee on the potty once in a while but i have to initate it and be very patience about it, which is hard when you have a 3 mos old in your arms as well :) I will be soooooo gald to be done w/ the potty training some day!!!
Good luck

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Most likely the two (speech and potty training) are connected, and the sooner you know the cause, the better. My sister is in the same boat. Her son will be four in September, and has yet to speak. They also attempt potty training, and have for over a year, with no results so far. Unfortunately, we still don't know what factors are at play here, but it is important that you insist on finding out. The more you know about what is going on, the better off your son will be in the long run.

Oh, and the rice cereal is definitely the cause. Iron and calcium can both cause constipation, even in adults...and her digestive system is still young...so I'd give the rice cereal a bit more sparingly, and gradually increase it over the next few months.

Good luck! I wish you and my sister could talk! She lives in Houston, not in this circuit, but she might benefit from talking to you, too.

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I'm glad that you're taking your son to the doctor. His level of speech sounds similar to my grandson's at that age. His pediatrician suggested having a speech evaluation and told us about the Multnomah Co Educational Service District. By Federal law all school districts have to provide assistance to any child who has a condition which would cause him to have difficulty in school. I'm sure that you have the same service in Olympia.

They diagnosed my grandson with speech apraxia which in his case means that something doesn't happen when the message is sent from his brain to his mouth. The muscles that he uses to talk have to be trained. Leaving off part of the word is one of the signs. So are excessive drooling as a baby, stuffing their mouth with food instead of taking just one bite, keeping his tongue outside his mouth. There are several more which you can find on the Internet.

My grandson is now nearly 4. He's been in treatment for one year and is getting better with speech but he's still very difficult to understand and he still only uses 1-3 words at a time.

Here are a couple of Internet sites:

www.aafp.org/afp/990600ap/3121.html

www.//tayloredmktg.com/dyspraxia/da.shtml

It is extremely important to find out why he isn't talking and to get appropriate treatment now. Kids who are still having speech difficulties by the time they're in first grade continue to have both social and learning difficulties throughout their school career. Also there is one program available only until the child is 3. By happenstance my grandson got started before he was 3 and as a result a speech therapist came to their home.

Evaluation and treatment thru the Educational Service District is free. Private evaluations and treatment are expensive and not always paid for by insurance.

This process is scary at first. And we all want to think our child is just a late bloomer but frequently there is a physical condition for it.

My grandson is getting much better overall. In addition to speech he is learning how to follow instructions, how to do some activities, such as putting together a puzzle, that he wasn't interested in doing before, and how to get along with other kids.

For a child with muscle or cognition difficulties having the parent clearly say words does not help. He doesn't have the muscle strength to say them or the message isn't getting from his brain to his mouth. This is also true of asking him to repeat after you and/or correcting him. This just makes him more frustrated because he cannot do it.

A suggestion about your daughter's difficulty. Rice is a part of the brat diet used for diarrhea and so I would guess that might be the cause of difficult bowel movements. Be sure that she drinks plenty of water. You could try adding prunes to her diet. And you could thicken her food with dehydrated potatoes.

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I can relate with your speech issues... my oldest and youngest sons both have a speech disorder called Dyspraxia. This not only affects the speech ability but their small motor function too.
My oldest always tested at "borderline" and did fine without the help of a speech pathologist. In fact he improved drastically during 2nd grade and at the end was at a 6th grade reading leve. My youngest however! We just had his IEP (individual education plan) to prepare for his 7th year of speech. He's almost nine. He started speech with ESD (education service district- every school district has one) when he was 3, and it is correct that your school district has to cover it by law! I was lucky that I was able to acquire Caden's services through Head Start so they had set up everything for me. We are still struggling with a reading/ spelling/ writing levels below grade level, but he was also just diagnosed with a learning disorder so he will be receiving additional help during school besides speech. YEAH!!!
The good news... 3 seemed to be the magic age for my oldest son... he potty trained the day my youngest son was born, he was 3 years and 1 week exactly. He still wore diapers at night, and always saved the poop for the diapers (and waited until just before I was able to change him out of it in the morning), but that was a battle I was willing to continue working with, especially with two younger brothers in the house!
Good luck!
D.-- mom of adorable boys: (almost) 12 year old, 10 year old, (almost) 9 and a beautiful baby girl 5 & 1/2 months old!

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about the baby food - my daughter (now 9 months) had a big change in bowel movements when i started with rice cereal... it got better when i started giving her oatmeal and barley cereal too... prunes and plums always help too. :) i wish the best for you with your son - i hope the dr can help figure it out for you.

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Hi C.,

My son was also a late talker (and had frequent ear infections). Because of delayed speech skills, we had his hearing evaluated at 3.5 years and discovered that he was having hearing difficulties and ultimately opted to have tubes put in his ears to assist with drainage. He responded quite well almost immediately and now at 8 years old, has no hearing or vocabulary issues at all.

As for the potty training, it was a challenge and we tried several methods. He didn't respond at all to the bribery method (sticker or m&m for going in the toilet) and got really peeved by the 'stick him on the toiled every hour' method. When he was 3.5 years (a lot happened at 3.5!) we started having him play in the kitchen (linoleum) with no pants/underwear on. He didn't like it, because he knew he didn't want to get messy by peeing on himself, but he was still resisting the potty.

We encouraged him and celebrated when he went on the potty (which was also in the kitchen with him) and it took about 2 days for him to understand that the potty was his friend. There were of course still accidents for a looooong time after, but that's just part of the process of being a kid.

The interesting thing with Jeremiah, is that once he 'got it' he didn't revert. He didn't pee or poop in his pants intentionally, and he never (yes, NEVER) wet his bed at night. We really lucked out on that one!!!

It's true that all kids are ready when they're ready so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I think we may have pressured Jeremiah a bit early on which is why he was stressed about the potty chair. I would wait until you can see that his logic skills are starting to click into place and maybe try the naked all day thing - I think there's a difference mentally between having underwear on and having nothing at all on.

Good luck!
~Tracy

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My son is almost 2 1/2. He had constant ear infections for 8 months before they decided it was time to put tubes in his ears. Shortly after the tubes went in I noticed he started to pick up more words. I also got him in to Little Red School House for an evaluation and they were able to get set up some time for a speech therapist and another teacher (each seperately) to go into his day care to work with him. It is amazing how much his vocabulary has grown. He used to talk just a few words its hard to imagine that when he talks so much now. The tubes and Little Red School House has improved his life (which also improves mine). As far as your daughter goes how old is she??

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My friend's son is also having problems potty training, he's four now. His speech is unrecognizable at times... but he seems completely normal other than that. He was just tested last week and they determined he is autistic. How has your son developed in other areas? On the other hand, my daughter was having problems with her speech when she was two, she had recurring ear infections that had caused her to hear everything as if she were under water. We had tubes put in her ears and we noticed an improvement in her speech right away.
Hope this helps.

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My first child was a genus. Never had a problem with her speech at all. When I was teaching her to talk I over annunciated so that she could grasp the way to pronounce words. Don't know if that had anything to do with it. My two youngest both had a hard time pronouncing words when they were 3. I didn't over annunciate with them and was very busy. But with time it got better and they are fine. I know that as babies and toddlers if you talk to them constantly they catch on better. Talking to them like telling them "Let's go take a bath. See mommy is turning the water on. First the hot now the cold. I am putting soap on the wash cloth so that we can get the dirt off of your body..." Just explaining everything as much as you can stand it. I never had a problem with that because I love talking. Make sure when he is talking that you don't finish his sentences because this slows the process down. I found that out with my son. It takes him a long time to finish a sentence sometimes and we just have to be patient and make sure he knows that we are listening.
On the food, is she getting enough fruits? Fruits could help loosen her bowels. Peaches, raisins, plums almost any fruit except maybe bananas. I'm not saying don't give her bananas but giving them to her to help won't help. As you feed her her food put less and less of the rice cereal in each day. This might take awhile if she is not up for it. But eventually it would probably be good to get rid of the filler and just have rice as a side dish once in awhile. Hope this helps. I know how it is when things are hard to figure out. :-)

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My little brothers in law did this too. It was eventually discovered that they had water on their ear drums and they had tubes put in and once that was done their speech shot up to normal for their age, I think they were around 2 or 3 at the time, and they developed just fine after that. This may be the case with your son. I would have his ears checked to make sure he's hearing correctly. If I recall, just for some comfort maybe, Einstein didn't talk until he was 5 years old and he knew how!

Lots of water on the bowel movements issue is the only thing I can think of for advice. Try taking the rice cereal out and see what happens.

You're not going crazy, it's just life with kids :-).
T.

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About your son: Seeing the doctor is the only way to know for sure BUT my brother didnt start talking more then a word or 2 till he was almost 4 but when he did start he didnt stop. At 15 he is amazingly smart, especially in math (maybe words just dont interest him). Also, boys pottytrain later then girls and even though 3 is the standard its not uncommon to go till 4 or even 5. I just did a test on my 2 yr old (he'll be 3 in september) and he doesnt even care if he is soaking wet (in underwear) runs screaming if I suggest pooping in the toilet when I see him going (even though he occationally will pee in it after a bath) and has little interest in dressing/undressing. Its just not time yet.
About your Daughter: Rice is a binding food. I use the BRAT idea as a guide for every day. The BRAT (Bannanas, rice, applesauce, toast) is for diarea, so if they are consipated you dont want to give them those things and if I have changed one too many diapers that day I add a few in. Maybe blend things with stage 1 pears or some other mild flavored fruit for a meal instead of the rice?

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My son is 3 and a half and is actually going through everything your son is. I went through EC Cares in Eugene and they have him working with a speech therapist. Potty training thing we are having problems with also. We actually had him completly potty trained, but things happend beyond our control and he regressed to the point that he is in diapers. We cannot get him to get it together to tell us he has to go potty. The only thing I can suggest is 1. using a sticker chart with him. Using two different sets of stickers 1 for pee and 1 for poop and everytime he does one he gets to put one on his chart. 2. Find something he really wants to do and use that to get him to go. My son loves baseball and we told him he starts using the toilet and he can play baseball. That worked awesome, the first time. I hope you can find some good ideas to work with your son.

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If your daughter if having bowl troubles give her some pear juice. I swear by the stuff. My son was having probs when i started cereal i would give him about 1-2 oz of pear juice and about 2 hours later he would be back on track. Pear juice is better than apple because it is less acidic.

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My son will be 3 at the end of July and he speaks even less than that. He doesn't normally put too many words together that I understand, although he is getting better. he doesn't use the potty much either..with the exception of he almost always does first thing AM and first thing before bed. I know my son understands things because he responds to what I say to him. Kids learn at their own pace, and boys don't learn as fast as girls. My son is bilingual, which is probably part of the reason for his delayed speach, but there could be other perfectly normal ones. Your son might one day out of the blue start speaking in complete sentences...i've heard of that happening. A lot of 3 year olds are not potty trained...don't push too hard, or he will resist, especially since he is getting a little older. He will do it when he is ready. Perhaps teach him with a stuffed toy and a potty seat, then have him teach his stuffed toy to use it. I've heard of that helping...also, I bought my son Elmo's Potty Time, which REALLY got him interested!

As for you daughter, babies always have a trouble with their bowel movements when they start eating solid food...because they are not soft and squishy anymore, they have to learn how to push them out. If you are too concerned or if she is having too much trouble, you could always reduce the amount of cereal you are putting in her food and give her more fruits and veggies...if you want them thicker, try switching from 1st foods to 2nd foods, the 2nd foods are thicker.

Good luck!

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i don't know much about the speech problems that you are having with your son, but i will pray for you. but with your daughter try switching her to oatmean insead of rice, it helped my son out a lot hope this helps

I'm not sure where you live, but I'd like to recommend the Kindering Center in Bellevue. Our son has been dealing with them for about 2 months now, and his speech has absolutely blossomed! They actually come out to your home to do the sessions. The people there are absolutely wonderful, and they have resources for so many other things as well. In fact, today, Nikolas starts going to preschool there for an hour and a half 2 times a week. It's all included in the services they offer. Their website is http://www.kindering.org/ They do more than just speech therapy, too. Check out the site...they're great.