Baby Signs

[Anonymous]

As we all know, reflux takes its toll on our kids. Especially those of us with kids with severe reflux. It affects all areas of the body, muscle tone, sleep, swallowing, eating, behavior, sometimes chronic sickness, diarrhea.. the list could go on… Did you know that it can also affect their speech?

When my baby was a newborn and diagnosed with reflux, I was too busy with a screaming baby and juggling formulas medications and hospitalizations to even think that her speech could be delayed. I didn’t think that she wouldn’t sit up on time or that she would suffer from low muscle tone or dysphagia… I didn’t think that she would need therapy or that she would be labeled Failure to Thrive. I just didn’t know that it would be such a struggle. I was under the impression that she would just outgrow it at one year old and we would be through.

When your child turns around one year old, he is looking for a way of communicating with you. If verbal communication is impossible, many times due to the complications of reflux, then you may want to just skip past the temper tantrums and start teaching him baby signs. You just never know if your baby will be one who will not outgrow it or who will suffer from the long term complications and developmental delays that reflux can cause.

I just knew before Quinn was born that I had wanted to teach Quinn baby signs anyways, but little did I know how very much I would NEED it. Reflux, even mild reflux can delay speech. Quinn is 15 months old and still does not know how to say “mama”. But with the baby signs, we can communicate very well. She can tell me what she wants and I can understand her. She can sign many words like: ball, I don’t know, more, please, no, tree, flower, bath, all done, hungry, tired, we are trying to teach her want… and she learns a new one all the time. If it weren’t for baby signs, my reflux baby would have no way of telling me her needs.

So, to all of you parents with Gerdlings… check into it. I’m sure you will find it very useful in the long run.

-Sarah

[Anonymous]

I agree 100%. Using sign language made a HUGE difference with my dd – and she didn’t have any of these extra complications of reflux, food issues, etc. By the time she was starting to talk, she had a vocabulary of about 70 signs – and it REALLY cut down on her frustration level, I think. I am now really concentrating on trying to teach my son sign language. He has become very good at signing “milk” (for mommy milk), “all done”, “more”, “eat”, “cracker” (for his GF version of cheerios), “pear”, “apple”, “potato”, and “sleepy”. He still doesn’t sign “mommy” or “daddy” no matter how hard I try! Food must be far more important to him!

I used a number of different baby sign language videos with my daughter and found that she responded best to the “Signing Time” series. We originally checked them out from the library but then later bought them since I got tired of having to return the videos every few days.

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