Assistance Dog, Meet Yonder

For those not following us over on our  Facebook group I wanted to give a quick update and share our latest addition. Back in November we welcomed this sweet guy to our family.  Yonder is a certified skilled companion dog(assistance dog) who has been amazing for Junior.   Though this post ,over on Junior's regular blog, was written just a week after he joined our family it shares a great deal about what he does and how he has impacted Junior's life.

 

 An assistance dog may not fall under adaptions but he has certainly benefited Junior and changed his life so we wanted to share about him here.  He is a very smart dog who came to us trained in a multitude of commands but for Junior these skills are only a small piece.  Yonder is his bridge to the world, he helps others see past all the medical stuff and the chair and instead see the young man that uses the chair.  We still get the stares but now they are almost always accompanied by a smile, "hello", "cool dog"," whats your name","I like your dog, "whats your dog do", etc.  He is not the disabled boy in the chair he is the boy with the cool dog.  Yonder also knows when Junior is getting stressed out, he helps him calm down and helps him handle things like doctors appointments without going into a panic.  At a recent medical test Junior started to stress and Yonder put his paws up on the edge of the bed and licked Junior's cheek to let him know he was there.  He then laid back down beside the bed so they could finish the test and Junior was able to stay calm.
We have rain here right now and weather changes are hard on Junior, Yonder jumped on his bed and gave him a "hug" when he was having a hard time and Junior was quickly smiling again. 
(these pics are from the past several weeks but a little sample of how Yonder helps Junior stay calm)

 

 

 

 

 

   With Yonder helping Junior stay calmer it means Junior is able to do more.  He has more energy because he is not so stressed and that in turn means he doesn't need as much oxygen. 

With Junior's health issues he often is unable to go out for long periods of time. Yonder is his constant buddy, always ready to hang out with him, watch tv, play a game, help with a craft, etc.
Movie time 

 enjoying a walk and stopping to watch the geese

   

Decorating the tree back at Christmas

  

Helping Junior roll the ball down the ramp. 

  

Also helping him with daily activity like taking off his socks, one of Yonders favorite things to do and now he not only takes them off but has learned to take them to the laundry.  

We joke that he is our laundry dog because he also loves taking folded laundry to the closet for us. Yonder loves to work and especially loves helping Junior when we are out in public.  For example at a recent walk to Hobby Lobby(yes we have a Hobby Lobby in walking distance which can be quite dangerous but is great for morning walks since it is very empty then,low germ risk), Junior found something he wanted to get with some Christmas money.  Yonder got it for him and put it in his lap, then gave it to the cashier, then got the bag from the cashier and put it in Junior's lap. He was able to be Junior's hands and make him feel some independence, I had one very proud boy who grinned the whole time.   

If  you are considering an assistance dog for you or your child be sure to look into Canine Companions for Independence. 

Target Adapted Clothing Line, Our Experience

Target now has a line of adapted clothing which includes items for those with sensory issues as well as items with feeding tube openings and those with more room in the bottom for diapers.  The line is Cat and Jack which has sizes up to XXL which means Junior can even wear them.  Best of all the prices are very reasonable and comparable to their typical clothes prices. Cat and Jack adaptive clothing.  
Way to go Target, I hope more variety will be added to the clothing line and we will definitely be ordering again.

We ordered a few items and Junior tried them today.  After trying on the sweat pants I went back to the Target website today and sweat pants are no longer available. I really hope they are just sold out and will be back again soon.
With the extra room in the tush Junior could easily wear the size XXL youth and could likely also wear the XL youth without an issue.  He also  tried a XL youth size onesie which fit well and we could actually have gone down to a L.
The onesie has two layers, the layer that has the snaps and then a second layer that makes it look like the child is wearing a typical tshirt.  The bottom layer has a g tube opening on each side so you can access the tube easily. We put it over Junior's back brace which worked really well and the sweat pants were big enough to go over his brace.

 Junior trying on the sweat pants, these are over the top of his back brace and as you can see he still has plenty of room in them.  Typically if pants fit him they are much too snug at the top to put over his brace and we have to put the brace over the top of them.

 The onesie, we have the top layer pulled up to show the feeding tube opening.

 Top layer pulled down so it looks like a typical tshirt.

 Sitting up in his wheelchair.  The onesie is keeping his back brace covered which will help keep him warmer in the winter.  Typically when I put him in his wheelchair his shirt comes up on the sides and it is a struggled to keep it pulled down. 

 The top layer pulled up so I can connect his feeding tube. I had been concerned the feeding tube opening would be too small to make it really accessible but it worked perfectly.

  Someone likes their new sweat pants and t-shirt. 

  I did wash the clothes before he tried them on and they still looked new after washing.  Time will tell on how they hold up to repeated wash and wear.
We also ordered a sweatshirt which has a feeding tube opening but haven't tried it yet.  

Swing/Lounge Chair

Junior received this great lounge/swing for his birthday and it has been a huge hit with him.  Very comfortable and with a noodle pillow and small pillow behind his head it provides plenty of support.  We could add a strap around him if needed but for Junior he is quite secure as it is.  It is fairly large and heavy but great for on our porch and has an umbrella to keep the sun off.  Here is the Amazon link for the lounge swing, but it can also be found on the Walmart website. Hanging lounge chair.
 

 

 

 We hang his toy boards off the center bar and with the noodle pillow under his arms it works great with his inflatable sensory tray to do some fun, messy, activities.  

Toy Boards

I posted about this on our FB page but since it has become one of Junior's absolute favorite things(possibly his very favorite) I decided to give it its own blog post as well. 

Junior loves his toys but if he his holding a toy in his hands he cannot see it at the same time.  Holding a toy gets boring quickly if you can't see what it is your playing with.
Over the years we have tried using toy bars(the baby type that you hang things on), and a giant pvc toy bar which he enjoyed but never was terribly crazy about.  After a lot of brain storming I thought why not something similar to his sensory trays but that hangs where he can see it. 
With his current  Star Wars obsession we have lots of the characters and space ships in various sizes.
I used a thick piece of foam as the base then cut a piece of fleece and put it over the fleece to get the right size and figure out where to add velcro to secure it.  I marked it so I knew where to come back and stitch on elastic loops(with velcro on the ends).  Along the top edge I stitched a piece of fabric and secured one side.  On the other side I put a strip of velcro.  I then grabbed some spare pvc tubing and made a tube to hang the board on.  I Slid a piece of one inch elastic through the PVC so I could hang the entire thing from Junior's Tripod.

The board hanging on the tripod, you can see how the elastic is inside the pvc(I added velcro along part of the length so the length can be adjusted as need )


Later I was able to find some road tape to add to the board so it looks like the cars are on a road.
  

Now Junior can hold toys in his hands and also see what he is playing with.  He absolutely loves it and will spend an hour totally focused on the board, looking from one toy to the other as he talks and plays using his imagination. I will see his arms shake as he tries to move the toys in his hands.   Oh how I wish I knew what story he was playing in his mind.  He typically requests one of his boards the moment he wakes up and any time he is relaxing and watching tv he also wants a toy board. 


You will notice that each toy has a black band around it.  Those are hair elastics and make it so much easier to attach the toys to the elastic and velcro loops that are sewn to the boards.
 

 This Star Wars toy board was the first one I made then I went back and made the car one after figuring out what did and didn't work and adjusting it.

Sometimes you just can't decide what to play with and need all the toys.

The toys can be taken off the boards and others added but we keep a couple boards loaded at all time so he can choose which he wants.  I plan to make a third so he has more to choose from and then swap out all the toys on them once in awhile. 

After watching him play with these I think the reason he loves them and was not ever crazy about the regular toy bars is that these make it much easier for him to focus on the toys.  With his other toy bars he could see everything else as he tried to look at his toy making it harder to focus on the object.  

Here is a short video of him "playing" with his toys.  May not be the typical way but in his mind he is playing with his toys just like every other kid. 

Misc Adaptions

In case you aren't following along on FB here are a few of the things I have posted there. 
Adaptions 4 Kidz fb page
First off we found these cool Cozy Phones head phones for Junior and he will actually wear them.  He refuses to wear others but has done great with these.  The head band is soft fleece and he can hear the sound even if they aren't completely over his ears.

Soaker Pillow covers.  Junior has never struggled with drooling but since his trach he gets very wet around his neck, under the trach, especially during allergy season.  When he is sleeping this ends up getting his pillow wet and he would wake up not happy in the morning because it would then get all over his shirt.  After trying various things which helped a little but didn't fix the problem(having him sleep in one of his bandanas) I decided to make a cover for his pillow that would just soak it up and keep it off of him.  I used a fun, patterned, cotton fabric for the top(so it looks like just a pillow case), added a middle flannel layer and then the bottom layer is terry cloth.  Finally something that works, no more soaked pillows or soaked shirts in the morning which makes for a much happier kid.

 Fun imoji Christmas lights looped over an ipad/switch arm and plugged into the power link make a great switch toy.

 

Plastic test tube holders are just right for putting oral medication syringes in after washing them.
We got these on amazon and the 30mm size hold the 20ml syringes and the 20mm size hold the 10 ml syringes.

We picked up these squishy balls for Junior's Easter basket this year and they were a big hit.  Squishy, kind of sticky feeling, and a great sensory toy. Slime Balls 

  New cover for his Hi/Lo positing chair. 
We have been using Junior's awesome Leckey Hi/Lo positing chair for several years and it is still one of his favorite spots to hang out.  Several years ago we made a cover for it and now it was time to make a larger one.  We discovered many years ago that though he loves this chair he did not like how the cushions and arm rests felt and would complain after being in the chair for just a few minutes.  I tried putting a thick cover on it and now he loves the chair and will sit in it for a normal period of time and stay comfortable. 
I used two layers of thick fleece, then hemmed a piece of cotton, patterned fabric and put on top of the fleece.  We wanted the fleece for its padding/softness but it gets hot here and I knew the cover would be useless much of the year unless it had something else covering where Junior was actually sitting. Considering Junior's current Star Wars obsession we of course went with Star Wars fabric.  After stitching the cotton fabric onto the fleece I laid the whole thing over his chair to figure out where the openings for his hip straps and laterals needed to be.  I then cut the openings for them and put a zig stitch around the edges which I had just cut.  Put the cover back over the chair and figured out where I need to add velcro to hold it snug to the chair so it didn't interfere with the motion or anything else.  Around the legs and middle of the chair and actually attached a snapping clip to pull the fabric snug against the frame and out of the way.


Opening and stitching where the laterals come through the cover 

Odd pic but it is actually showing the bottom of the chair with the clips to hold the fabric snug to the frame.

The back, you can't see it in the pic but there is velcro securing everything 

Junior in his chair. 

 Junior's in the chair with his foam tray.  We used very thick 5" foam and cut it in the shape of a tray then covered it in fabric.  We have two of them, one with thinner areas where it goes around him under the elbows so the tray edges can actually squeeze between him and the chair edge and help support him and one with wider edges for when he is in his transport chair or recliner. 

  

Using one of the foam trays with his transport chair

 

Boppy Pillows are great for positioning and support but have very baby looking covers on them.  Junior refused to use the pillow if he spotted me grabbing it and would give me his "totally insulted" look if I suggested he use it.  

Some Star Wars fabric took care of the problem.  I used the cover that had come with the boppy as a pattern then added velcro to the end to hold it on the boppy since I didn't have a zipper like the original has.  

  

 Feeding tube holder.  Junior doesn't grab his feeding tube or pull on it but often will accidentally catch his hand on it and open the med port or disconnect the tube making a huge mess.  I decided to try making him a little cover just to prevent this from happening.  For those who have kids who actually grab the tube and open it this won't work but for our needs it is perfect.
I hemmed a piece of fabric to the length I wanted then added three straps.  A thinner strap on each end and a thick one in the middle.  The outside straps are around 1 inch wide and the middle one is 3-4 inches wide. 
Junior has a gj tube so there are 2 connectors connected to his feeding tube at all times.

 The straps on the end I lined with velcro so the tubes are secured

 The middle strap just has velcro on the edge since and keeps the med ports and area where the tubes are connected covered.
 
I also made a similar cover for his exhaust port on his ventilator circuit but it has just a top and bottom strap.  This keeps the moisture from the exhaust port off his shirt and sheets/chair but doesn't interfere with air flow. 

 With Junior we often have a few minutes here and there to do activities and if I don't have things already prepared and organized by the time I get something together it is time to move on to the next medical thing.  We have 3 Ikea kitchen carts which we keep loaded with activities and things that are ready for him to do with no prep time.  One cart is sensory and craft activities, one is toys, and the last is school activities.  It makes such a difference to just grab a cart and be ready to do something(there is also a 4th cart that is all things switches so he can play with his switch toys)