Happy/ Sad Birthday

 Greetings from enchanting Omaha feed camp!

I know most of you are wondering, “what does feeding camp look like...and…..can I go?”  In my visions it always looked like a Sleepaway camp with food related activities and doctors that handed out merit badges.  A paddleboat float on the rootbeer river, archery where you shot baked apples and counselors who actively helped you hide Snickers bars from the canteen under your pillow.   At night we would make high calorie Smore’s and I would gain ten pounds on the pancake-eat-off alone.  I even expected an organized food raid one night where we would wake up by flashlight and plunder the cook’s storeroom waking the next day with bellies full of butter.  There was also ball pit like the ones at Chuck E Cheese’s filled with gravy and assorted donuts.

It is sort of like that only not at all.   

OK…there are doctors here.  Our days start at 9am for the first of five feedings.  They take place in a white room with a mirrored monitoring room attached (that’s where we hang out).  I think of all the psychology studies I have shown in classes and I can’t help but feel like at any moment they will check to see if she will pass the marshmallow test (which, by the way, Mabel would ace right now given that she doesn’t eat anything...she has amaaazing self control) or that they will ask her to turn up the voltage on a knob to discover the roots of evil in humans.  It’s super surreal watching your daughter from the eyes of a behaviorist and then look at the data and graphs after each session.  It’s both weirdly fascinating and alienating at the same time.

Right now we are getting a bunch of baselines to set some goals.  No joke….yesterday, we spent the ENTIRE DAY trying to find her toy preferences so we could optimize rewards for eating (and there were a lot of toy options).  It consisted of the therapist team presenting her with choices of toys (the Barbie dream cash register….or the Elmo head crunch toy).  She would reach for one and they would repeat the process with another toy.  It was like some never ending eye exam:  "This one or this one"..."OK...this one or this one".

They finally narrowed her favorite rewards down to….wait for it….a Backyardigans guitar that plays the exact same song over and over and over, a gender-boxing Barbie cash register that electronically asks “what would you like to buy today, princess” and the researchers singing her songs (which is actually pretty funny to watch from behind the mirror…..the lead researcher is actually a legit beatboxer and did a happy birthday remix for her today).  But that is what feeding camp looks like.  No regatta or relay races.  But there are timed toy preference choices, timed bite opportunities, and timed drinking opportunities. At least she gets to compete at something.

On the plus side, we have scientifically narrowed down the perfect birthday present for Mabel.  A cashtar…guitar/ cash register combo.   I will be drawing up the plans and making a prototype beginning today.  When I mentioned that to the therapist he frowned…..not a good idea to introduce a new highly preferred toy when they were working on her eating for rewards.

Sad birthday…. :(

Don't worry.  We supplemented last night by blowing out candles, watching birthday greetings over and over and over on facebook (thanks everyone who did that!  She looooooved it!) and having an epic session with her Madeline books.

Happy birthday! : )