Adira Occupational Therapy

The first month of our son’s life was absolute chaos. Dr. Monica was a calm, collected, knowledgeable resource to help us navigate parenthood, a disregulated newborn with latch issues, and ultimately a tongue and lip tie. She met with us consistently in the comfort of our own home and gave us advice, exercises and products. She was available and willing to answer any questions we had, made us aware of our options, and pointed us in the right direction as we found our footing as parents. She was encouraging and supportive of our decisions every step of the way and she’s a kind and gentle soul who we highly recommend.

We were looking for someone to diagnose a tongue tie and gross motor skill delay. Dr Monica was thorough, transparent and beaming humanity. We felt seen and supported in a fragile phase of early development. I could never thank her enough for getting the ball rolling so quickly, our baby was finely met with the care he needed, and he has been thriving ever since.

My wife and I worked with Monica when our newborn wasn't breastfeeding well and she was incredible! Monica assessed the root causes of our baby's challenges, provided helpful strength exercises for the baby, and gave us valuable guidance on what types of bottles to use. She was kind, supportive and wonderful to work with. Highly recommend!

At three weeks old, our daughter had been syringe-finger feeding since birth. Being first time parents, we didn't realize that she wasn't able to latch or suck properly. With the support of our amazing birth provider, we were able to get connected to a lactation consultant who informed us of our baby's tongue tie. During this same time, our birth provider also referred us to Dr. Monica. We met with her after our daughter's first tongue revision. At four weeks old, we embarked on a journey to not only reach the goal of breastfeeding, but also with Dr. Monica's guidance look at her whole body and whole person-care. She helped us navigate another upper lip revision and occupational therapy to strengthen our daughter's tongue and the rest of her body to latch and suck properly. Dr. Monica brightened up the room with her care and embraced us with a confidence and dedication in her profession that we needed. She is family-oriented and centered around care for both baby and parents. She held both of us at the same time checking in regularly on mother, father, and baby's physical and mental well-being during the week and at our sessions. She is an advocate and a team-player. She listened to our needs/wants/goals. Dr. Monica worked on communicating with our ENT, midwife, and connected us to lactation support at Cottage. She also invited us to her other events to learn more too. These weeks were full of uncertainty and anxiety. My husband's testimony: Dr. Monica is gentle and encouraging. She has emotional intelligence and an awareness that some providers do not have. She was attuned to our feelings, goals, and our family. Dr. Monica is honoring of the environments she steps into and was a big part of our success. She is hopeful and confident in her training. As we approach our last session with Dr. Monica at the end of the month, we look back two weeks ago and see that our daughter truly latched and sucked for the first time. Since then, this week, at the start of week 10, she successfully is starting to nurse with the support of a nipple shield. We are weaning off of it at the moment. We had providers tell us this would not be possible. We are here to tell you it is, and we did it. The journey is still unfolding, and the nights/days were long, trying, and emotional but we had a birth provider and Dr. Monica who never stopped encouraging us. Even when we wanted to give up, they were both in our corner. We continue to work on her body and mouth exercises while nursing. We are grateful for this experience and couldn't recommend Dr. Monica enough.

My little family is forever grateful for Monica! My baby girl started having severe colic at 4 months, horrible symptoms day and night. I was very confused since I was exclusively breastfeeding. Searching for remedies and answers I learned that she was having a lot of oral tie signs and symptoms so decided to reach out to an MD to only have my concerns brushed off, told to “stop googling, it was my anxiety, and baby had no ties”. Baby continued to have severe symptoms, I was sleepless and in distress. I decided to double check and scheduled an appointment with an ENT just to confirm but first available appointment was a month out. I was recommended bodywork for her so began chiropractic, cranial-sacral therapy and through such amazing practitioners I learned about Monica and her services. Inquired online and Monica got on the phone with me within minutes, we scheduled our first session where she confirmed an oral tie and literally prepped me for what I should expect for our ENT appointment, procedure and post-op exercises to best support my baby. I’m super thankful for Monica taking the time to prep me emotionally because that appointment went so FAST, the doctor threw a lot of information at us, did the procedure and we were out the door in less than 10 mins. Check in took longer than pre and post-op education. Thankfully Monica took care of that for us so I felt so prepped, confident and supported going into that appointment. Monica followed us throughout my girl’s recovery with at home sessions until she graduated from OT. Monica was a crucial part of our successful journey of figuring out the root cause of my baby’s HORRIBLE colic and we are forever grateful for her compassionate, loving, and remarkable care.

My husband and I took Dr. Monica’s Intro to Solids class with our baby son, and it was so informative! It made me feel much more confident starting solids and gave me practical tips that really relieved the pressure on all of us (baby included). I so appreciate Dr. Monica’s deep expertise and warm, supportive style! Highly recommend working with her.

Monica’s support has been so crucial to our journey with tongue tie revisions. She also works closely with our dentist which is so awesome to have everyone on the same page. Monica takes the time to validate our feelings and answer all our questions with clarity and expertise, it’s relieving during a time of uncertainty and challenge. And the exercise homework she gives us is digestible and manageable. So happy to be continually working with her.

I am so grateful for the sessions my daughter had with Dr. Monica. Her family centered and holistic approach were just what we were hoping for when getting help for my daughter. Before seeing Dr. Monica, I was so worried that my breastfeeding journey would be cut short due to my daughter’s poor/weak latch (despite her tongue and lip tie release). But after an extremely thorough evaluation, Dr. Monica assured me that with doing some specific “ homework” and having a couple of OT sessions, my daughter’s latch should improve. Well, she was right! Within a week I noticed a difference and by the time I had my 3rd (and final) session, her latch was perfect. I really wish more people knew about the benefits of OT, especially as it relates to breastfeeding/oral restrictions/feeding/etc… It can be a game changer! I have her to thank for keeping my breastfeeding journey alive and thriving (now 11 months postpartum).