Only 5 people responded to March's poll question. The question was: How old is your child with CAS? One person has a child under two years of age. One person has a two year old. The other three people who answered have a child who is three years old. No one answered four years or older.
Click in the sidebar to answer this month’s question.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Insurance Coverage - So Intimidating
It’s incredibly depressing. I looked up whether speech therapy is covered by our insurance policy. Essentially the answer is not unless your child has speech and then loses it due to head injury or stroke. They don’t cover developmental delays.
My understanding after doing a bit of research is that I can appeal that. I can argue that Ava does not have a developmental delay. A developmental delay implies that if left alone, she’ll eventually catch up on her own. That is definitely not the case. Ava has a neurological speech disorder. She will only catch up if she has intensive, specific types of therapy.
I’ve read that if you make the right kind of appeals with the appropriate insurance diagnostic codes (neurological disorder, lack of muscle coordination problem, etc.) and you have a lot of persistence and luck you can get some insurance coverage. To be honest, I read a little bit about the process, I get discouraged, and I promise myself I’ll look at it again next week. Well, that was three months ago.
This therapy stuff is expensive and it is putting a significant strain on our family’s budget. I’m already having to fight balancing budget needs with Ava’s need for intensive therapy. I think to myself, “Does she really need to see Ms. E twice a week, or would once a week be enough?” The real answer is that she definitely needs twice a week. Three times would be even better. I hate letting money dictate my decisions about what is best for my daughter, but that is a practical reality.
Having some insurance coverage would make a huge difference, but I don’t know where to start. I’m paying two different therapists out of pocket. Neither therapist submits to insurance for you. I don’t even know how to do it myself. I guess I need to find out. I understand that the appeals process can take months, so I suppose I should get started soon.
My understanding after doing a bit of research is that I can appeal that. I can argue that Ava does not have a developmental delay. A developmental delay implies that if left alone, she’ll eventually catch up on her own. That is definitely not the case. Ava has a neurological speech disorder. She will only catch up if she has intensive, specific types of therapy.
I’ve read that if you make the right kind of appeals with the appropriate insurance diagnostic codes (neurological disorder, lack of muscle coordination problem, etc.) and you have a lot of persistence and luck you can get some insurance coverage. To be honest, I read a little bit about the process, I get discouraged, and I promise myself I’ll look at it again next week. Well, that was three months ago.
This therapy stuff is expensive and it is putting a significant strain on our family’s budget. I’m already having to fight balancing budget needs with Ava’s need for intensive therapy. I think to myself, “Does she really need to see Ms. E twice a week, or would once a week be enough?” The real answer is that she definitely needs twice a week. Three times would be even better. I hate letting money dictate my decisions about what is best for my daughter, but that is a practical reality.
Having some insurance coverage would make a huge difference, but I don’t know where to start. I’m paying two different therapists out of pocket. Neither therapist submits to insurance for you. I don’t even know how to do it myself. I guess I need to find out. I understand that the appeals process can take months, so I suppose I should get started soon.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The endless cycle of feeding
I thought the feeling that you barely finished feeding your child before it’s time to start again would be forever gone after breastfeeding. Not so much.
To be completely honest, I am not a kitchen person. I don’t have a history of enjoying cooking. I have no significant experience or skills or natural inclination to cook. To some extent, necessity is the mother of invention. I am interested in feeding my children healthy food. I made baby food when they were little. Michael ate pretty much everything. Ava not so much. I actually stopped making baby food and switched to finger foods pretty quickly because she just didn’t seem to like the baby food and it was a lot of work.
Now that they’re at the toddler / preschool stage I find myself in a serious rut. For breakfast they eat a banana, baby yogurt (whole fat, supplemented with iron) with some multi-grain baby cereal mixed in, or a relatively healthy cereal (Cheerios, Mini-Wheats, Kashi) dry. This is pretty much every day. Lunch is fish sticks and sweet potato fries, peanut butter crackers and carrots and grapes, and whole grain pasta with peas and parmesan. I’m having trouble thinking of more. Dinner is often some kind of pasta: spaghetti and salad or cheese tortellini and broccoli. If my husband takes over it might be pot roast or chicken from a crock pot. We tried hamburger helper. The kids won’t eat it so that was kind of a fail. Not really a nutritional win anyway.
There must be more simple, picky toddler friendly, quick meal ideas out there right? I came across a website devoted to healthy meals for small children. We found some ideas we like and were inspired to try for a very simple goal. We want to make one week of meals that we can regularly prepare here at home that minimize dependence on pre-packaged material, have some variety in all the food groups, and that the whole family will eat. (Ok. We had to give Ava a pass on three of the dinners. It just wasn’t possible. She'll eat leftovers or just the sides on those nights.) Just one week’s worth of meals. I’m willing to eat the same thing week after week. That’s what I’m doing now anyway really. Maybe we can eventually build up to a Week A and Week B plan, but let’s start small.
Here’s the current rough draft of the meal plan. We’re starting this week. Wish me luck. Tuesday and Thursday have no lunch because they eat at school. Friday’s lunch has a question mark because we usually meet my husband at work and all eat Chick-Fil-A for lunch on Fridays. The arrows to the right on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday breakfasts indicate planning to eat leftovers from the day before.
So, does anyone have other suggestions? What are your “go to” meals? I could really, really use the help.
To be completely honest, I am not a kitchen person. I don’t have a history of enjoying cooking. I have no significant experience or skills or natural inclination to cook. To some extent, necessity is the mother of invention. I am interested in feeding my children healthy food. I made baby food when they were little. Michael ate pretty much everything. Ava not so much. I actually stopped making baby food and switched to finger foods pretty quickly because she just didn’t seem to like the baby food and it was a lot of work.
Now that they’re at the toddler / preschool stage I find myself in a serious rut. For breakfast they eat a banana, baby yogurt (whole fat, supplemented with iron) with some multi-grain baby cereal mixed in, or a relatively healthy cereal (Cheerios, Mini-Wheats, Kashi) dry. This is pretty much every day. Lunch is fish sticks and sweet potato fries, peanut butter crackers and carrots and grapes, and whole grain pasta with peas and parmesan. I’m having trouble thinking of more. Dinner is often some kind of pasta: spaghetti and salad or cheese tortellini and broccoli. If my husband takes over it might be pot roast or chicken from a crock pot. We tried hamburger helper. The kids won’t eat it so that was kind of a fail. Not really a nutritional win anyway.
There must be more simple, picky toddler friendly, quick meal ideas out there right? I came across a website devoted to healthy meals for small children. We found some ideas we like and were inspired to try for a very simple goal. We want to make one week of meals that we can regularly prepare here at home that minimize dependence on pre-packaged material, have some variety in all the food groups, and that the whole family will eat. (Ok. We had to give Ava a pass on three of the dinners. It just wasn’t possible. She'll eat leftovers or just the sides on those nights.) Just one week’s worth of meals. I’m willing to eat the same thing week after week. That’s what I’m doing now anyway really. Maybe we can eventually build up to a Week A and Week B plan, but let’s start small.
Here’s the current rough draft of the meal plan. We’re starting this week. Wish me luck. Tuesday and Thursday have no lunch because they eat at school. Friday’s lunch has a question mark because we usually meet my husband at work and all eat Chick-Fil-A for lunch on Fridays. The arrows to the right on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday breakfasts indicate planning to eat leftovers from the day before.
So, does anyone have other suggestions? What are your “go to” meals? I could really, really use the help.
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