send prayers & replies to either nrainh20@aol.com or the website. Alli From: Jacob's Update List <nrainh20@aol.com> Jacob's Update List - http://members.aol.com/nrainh20/index.html Hi everybody: Just wanted to give you the latest on Jacob. He is quickly recovering from his leg injuries, and is now acting very much like a normal 2 year-old. This means that he has mastered the art of temper tantrums, gets into everything, and we have now discovered just how much 2 siblings really do fight with each other! We are still working on the feeding issue. We are using this month to intensively re-teach him how to eat, as he has totally forgotten. Cheryl spent many hours this week with the occupational therapist and we are seeing slow progress, but at least it is progress. He has some periods where he will eat 2 ounces of yogurt without complaint, then other times where you have to force him to take just one bite. He still has not been re-taught how to chew and swallow yet, so we are stuck with yogurt or baby food. Jacob also had his most informative hearing test ever done today (because he decided to cooperate). It turns out that he has normal hearing in the low frequency sounds, but then has a dramatic drop-off in his hearing in the high frequency sounds (meaning that he is not hearing normal speech sounds like "s" and "th", etc. His hearing aids only correct this to a small degree. He is now going to get a special hearing aid that uses computerized digital technology. Instead of just amplifiying all sounds (like normal hearing aids do), the computer chip can be set to leave the low frequency sounds alone (because he is hearing them normally), and it takes the high frequency sounds and drops them an octave to a low frequency sound that he can hear. They say that his brain will hear a different sound for "s" than we do, but interpret it the same way, and when he talks, he will produce a normal "s" sound. This should help with compliance because there is less tendency for feedback, and it has no effect on sounds he is already hearing. Of interest, these are made by an engineer who decided to devote his time to hearing loss, and set up a Kibbutz in Israel just to make the hearing aids!! We still plan to recheck him for presence of neutralizing antibodies in about 2 weeks. If they are gone, then he will be on his way back to NY for another round of treatment. We will let you know how this test turns out when we know something. Thank you for your continuing prayers and support. Mark, Cheryl, Nicholas and Jacob (stage 4 NB, dx 5/98 at age 16 mo) Jacob's Web Site: http://members.aol.com/nrainh20/jacob.html ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to jacobupdate-unsubscribe@listbot.com Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/