Vaccinations and medical issues

For info about vaccinations and all kinds of medical issues check this article out:
http://www.regardingcaroline.com/pubmed

Bet you didn't know I have a son with butterfly powers, now did you?!?!

I just had to share this:

The other day J tells me that God was originally making him to be a butterfly but when I became pregnant God decided that He would give J to me instead...and took almost all the butterfly powers away. I had him repeat this a few times, thinking I had misheard him! LOL
Then I was like "Where do you get this stuff?!?!" Thinking someone (namely big brother) had been putting stories in his head. LOL He said "No one told me it...I just know."
So then I asked him why he thought he use to have butterfly powers. He said “well I am the only one in the family who can curl their tongue like a butterfly so it must be true!” I asked him to show me...He meant curl it so when you look at him his tongue looks like an “o”. Similar to this:

Of course, since he said no one else could do it everyone then had to try- turns out only J and I can curl our tongues “like a butterfly”. LOL

Through all the hard times I will always remember that my son is an original, amazing, creative child. Man, there is no limit to what he can accomplish if he puts his mind to it. :-) I love my butterfly son!

Tagging?

So my son evidently has an issue with “tagging” his name on everything. I guess I should be gratefully he doesn't tag his territory like a dog does!! LOL


Here are some examples:

My bookcase (carved no less!): Guess who will eventually inherit it? LOL

His dresser: (2 separate drawers)

What is up with that? He keeps telling me he isn’t sure why he does it. He also wrote his name in his closet with permanent marker- still haven’t gotten that off, even though I tried stuff that supposedly would take it off (such as that "Eraser" that is suppose to get everything off!).

Anyways, thought I would share my frustration upon finding yet another “tag”! :-)

More Medical Issues...

So yesterday was our yearly check-ups for the younger boys, J & N. I purposely had the appointments back-to-back so I could get it over with. :-)

N is now on the growth chart! LOL Last year he wasn’t even on it. Yea! He is having a urine re-test to be cautious but otherwise his checkup was great.

On to J…so on top of his ADHD, Kindney-reflex, Asthma, IgA Deficiency, Autoimmune disease susceptible, Washed blood only transfusions, Aspergers, Raw Carrot Allergy, Gluten-free self he now has Scoliosis!! Seriously. Can you believe it?!?! I am so P.O.ed that I don’t know what to think, do, or say!! Seriously! This child already has so much to deal with and now this. I completely thought to myself “Are you joking??!! Couldn’t it be one of the other boys? Why him?” I know that is mean to wish it onto another one of my children but he has sooooo much to deal with already!! How is this fair to him? I am soooo MAD!! This was/is me:

So last night I read up on yet another medical issue for my poor middle son… Scoliosis. The experts don’t know why it happens. There are 2 different kinds- C or S curve.


J has an S curve.

There is about a 20% chance that it won’t get worse. If it does get worse (typically happens as a child goes through puberty) then he can wear a brace that will prevent his spine from continuing to curve. Once he is finished growing, if his spine is curved to a certain degree (from what I have been told it is like using a protractor for measuring math angles), then he will have surgery to fuse his spine. If untreated it could cause organ issues…like crushing them. If you “google” scoliosis you will see some pictures that are not that nice to look at.


In the end I am sure I will have to look forward to many years in a brace and then another surgery! On top of everything we already are dealing with!! I am sorry to be a pessimist here but they told me that his kidney reflex had a 90% (or some such high percentage) to naturally reverse itself by the time he was 5…he had surgery when he was 6 1/2 yrs old. So you can see the reason for my bitterness and lack of hope here. In this moment I just cannot look at this as the “glass is half full”. This is just too much on top of everything else.


Even though I am disheartened by the diagnosis I have decided to be pro-active. From the articles I read it seems that people who do certain stretches, see a chiropractor, and/or do karate (I guess because they do a lot of stretching?) tend to not curve as bad. So we visited a chiropractor today- someone we have known for years. He said he has dealt with many children who have scoliosis. Most of the kids he has worked on have not had to have surgery. The stretches/chiropractic visits seem to help. J will see him once a week for the next month and then once a month until he hits puberty. We are also going to start doing back stretches every day. As for the karate- if we had the money I would really consider it but as it is we just can’t afford it. The main issue at the moment is getting him to not do flips, somersaults, bridges, etc. Evidently these are no-nos for people with scoliosis…unfortunately he is determined to work on his flip throw-in for soccer. (See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqIJSzOf7bM)

I am convinced that somehow all his issues are connected, even though supposedly scoliosis is not an autoimmune disease (at least as far as they know). How could one little boy have all these issues and they not be connected??

Gluten-Free Again- Thank God Almighty- Gluten-Free Again!!!

Sorry it has been so long- it seems the days just keep getting shorter!


O.K. So the medical issues…well when we went to the doc for my middle son’s checkup the doc had a lot to say. He was in the room with us for about 1 1/2hrs. I am sure his next patients didn’t like it but I loved it! After our ordeal with the previous doc I was glad that I had found one who would listen to me & was willing to try natural remedies.

Anyways at this appointment he told me a lot of stuff but the main things were that he diagnosed my son with Aspergers (along with ADHD)- I forget the specific terminology (Social something) but it was in part due to his social skills. He also said he thinks J is either sensitive to gluten (if you will remember I had taken him off gluten at this point) or had celiac disease. But in order to prove him right J had to go back on the gluten. I really debated doing this…but if he had celiac disease and we didn’t know it could cause issues later in his life. So we went back to the gluten…For 5 ½ months I have been doing a count-down of when I could take him back off. It was horrible. If I didn’t believe in his behavior change before I sure do now. He only needed to be back on the gluten for about 1 ½ months to do a blood test. Well his blood work came back inconclusive so we had to go to a pediatric gastrologist to have an upper GI done. And of course it is months to get into a specialist’s office! End result- he isn’t allergic to gluten just sensitive to it. Thus he is now gluten-free again.

This time I am trying to make sure he has no gluten whatsoever! Did you know chapstick has gluten in it? A lot of candies do too- and unless it is pure 100% chocolate you can count on it being in your candy bar. Even sunscreen and playdough have gluten in them! Last time he went gluten-free I concentrated more on the breads and pastas. Now that I have that down pat I am going for the hidden gluten.

Here are a couple of websites I have found that seem to have great info for gluten-free people:

http://glutenfreerestaurants.org/index.php


http://www.livingwithout.com/

Medical issues

I haven't written for a while...Sorry...I am in the middle of sorting out medical issues of one of my boys. Once I figure out what is going on I will blog about it.

Vaccinations & Bloodwork

So I just finished reading the book “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations” by Stephanie Cave. It is a very interesting and easy read. You know the saying “Hindsight is 20/20”? Well that definitely applies here. This book goes over the pros and the cons of every vaccination. It even goes into the controversial parts, like vaccinations maybe causing Autism, ADHD, etc. I told my husband that is I have another baby I would not follow the CDC’s recommended vaccination schedule. That is not to say I wouldn’t get him/her vaccinated but I would probably follow the recommended schedule in this book. There is just too many diseases/death incidents associated with the vaccinations.


It got me thinking…Maybe it is my fault that my child is ADHD…because I let the doctors give him vaccinations. From the time he could crawl he was always busier than any other child I had met but I don’t remember him having some of the emotional issues then. He was busy but he was happy. I can’t pinpoint when he changed though…I have been trying to figure it out, since reading this book, if he changed after receiving one of his vaccinations but nothing stands out. Every parent wonders at some point if they caused something in their child. One thing that will be changing is that if the doc wants to give my children a booster shot he is going to have to check his blood titers to see if they even need it. If your blood titers for a certain vaccination are so high then they are immune and they don’t need a booster shot. Most doctors don’t check these though, they just give the shot. I will also make sure that all their shots are mercury-free. Since ADHD kids are known to have high levels of mercury.

This week we go to the doc for J’s appointment. I have a list of blood work that I want the doc to run. Cross your fingers that the appointment goes well!

First week of the 2010-2011 school year...

So we have one more day to complete our first week of homeschooling for the 2010-11 school year….I have to say it has gone pretty good. We did not start slowly- we started with all subjects, just as we will through-out the year. My schedule, which may change later but seems to be working now, requires us to get up around 8am. Chores and breakfast have to be done by 9am when school starts. We have a calendar on the wall with the lesson plans so the kids know what they are to do. The first subject is Spelling, which we do together. K is older and can do some subjects on his own. But we also do science, our last subject of the school day, together - which is usually around lunch time or right after. I know I am going to tweak a few things around. Next week K will not be doing the same spelling as the younger boys and will require a different time. I have already switched K’s history and math times so that I can instruct J in history and then K in history. The math K usually can do mainly on his own. But the structure should remain the same.


Our first day went relativity good. I jokingly told family that we had a great day- J only said he hated school twice! :-) In reality he basically had ½ meltdowns that I was able to corral before they became full meltdowns. But we still were able to get through the work and lunch by about 1pm.

The second day went better for J but not for K, the oldest. He became very frustrated with his mistakes and started saying he was “stupid”. After a break he was better. On a side note J did not want to get up this am. He was very grumpy during our chore time, but eventually got over it. I guess I wore him out on the first day of school!! :-)

The third day (today) we all slept in a little. I didn’t hear the alarm go off at 8am. K woke up around 9am, woke me up, and started his chores. J was definitely in a better mood since I “let” him sleep in! He did, though, have issues with staying on target today.

So every day is a different challenge, and requires different solutions. I am still excited about the school year and think that as long as we can stay on schedule (and get up on time! LOL) we will continue to have a great year

ADHD & Aspergers

So since starting my research I have come across many articles that suggest that my son may have been misdiagnosed as ADHD instead of Aspergers or may have both. I am not sure exactly how I feel about it. Aspergers would explain a majority of his symptoms. I have found some great websites that have lots of info on them: http://www.retrainthebrain.com/autism.html and  http://autism.lovetoknow.com/ADHD_and_Asperger




According to http://www.retrainthebrain.com/autism.html below is a list of characteristics associated with ADHD or Aspergers.



Autism (or Aspergers) Behavioral Checklist



• Difficulty mixing with other children; My son has this.



• No real fear of danger; My son use to have this - now he seems to fear alot of things



• Tantrums: displays extreme distress for no apparent reason, He has this to a degree- he overexagerates.



• Inappropriate giggling or laughing, In preschool he would get in trouble for laughing at another child's injury.



• May not want cuddling or act cuddly, This varies- sometimes he wants to cuddle, sometimes not.



• Noticeable physical overactivity or extreme underactivity; hyper



• Little or no eye contact, When he was little he could not make eye contact and I use to make him look at me when I talked to him. He would fight me on this but I wanted to make sure when I talked to him about safety issues he was listening. To this day he still doesn't usually make eye contact.



• Works impulsively; often makes careless mistakes: work is sloppy, This is him!



• Uneven gross/fine motor skills I am not sure exactly what they are talking about with this one. So I am not sure whether it applies or not.



ADHD Behavioral Checklist



• Cannot talk or play quietly; disrupts others with talk or actions, This varies-sometimes he can play quietly but other times he cannot.



• Difficult awaiting turn in games or activities, yep!



• Engages in potentially dangerous activities, This is accelerated when he has red dye.



• Plays without normal caution or consideration of consequences, definitely!



• Severe temper tantrums, He use to have these all the time. THey went away for a while but now they are back in the form of "You’re hurting me"



• Interrupts, disrupts, talks and acts inappropriately, Yes



• When younger, difficulty accepting soothing or holding, Sometimes



• Always on the move, overactive, even during sleep, especially when he has red dye



• Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly, I have to repeatedly call his name and make him look at me to make sure he is listening. If I don't see his eyes then he probably doesn't hear what I am saying.



• Often does not give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in school work or other activities, Yep!



• Uneven gross/fine motor skills. Again I am not sure what they are referring to...



This site also said that Aspergers/Autism can seem to suddenly develop too. So it seems according to this my son has both ADHD and Aspergers but according to the DSM he doesn't qualify for Aspergers...So confusing!!

ADHD; Food Allergies; Seasonal Allergies; and more

I am sitting here trying to decide where to start...I have learned so much info over the last few weeks it is frightening! I guess let me start with my ADHD son's diet...if you read previous blogs you will find out that he has a red dye and gluten allergy. While researching food allergies in general I learned more than I ever wanted to learn! LOL I met another mom who has an autistic son. She changed his whole diet and he has now improved so much that he would be considered a "high functioning autistic". Then my sil and I were discussing some of the changes in the autistic child's diet and she was telling me what she had learned about certain food items. Then I read this book: "Animal Factory". If you get a chance you should read it. It is an intense book about how America's food is being processed and how bad it now is for you. Anyways so after reading that book and everything else I had learned I took a step back and looked at what my family had been eating...It wasn't a pretty sight. I started incorporating more veggies and fruits (organic and local grown) into our diets. I started cutting out processed foods...I am no saint so believe there is still processed foods in my house but I am hoping to convert my family to all whole cooked foods within the next year. This will be particularly hard for them since they seem to be addicted to Mac&Cheese! I am also slowly changing over to local farm meats, antibiotics and hormone free. I also started my kids on probiotics, Fage (which also has probiotics), and vitamins, particularly the Omega 3s. The probiotics replace your good bacteria that any antibiotics will kill. If you ever have to take an antibiotic you should always take a probiotics. Fage is basically an unsweetened yogurt but much better for you than yogurt. I add honey and fruit to it for the kids. I had read lots of research that said Omega 3s are good for ADHD kids (and any child on the spectrum-Autistic, Aspergers, ADD, ADHD, etc). I want to add fish oil, zinc, magnesium, vitamin K supplements at some point since there is also research on these with the spectrum kids. So over the last 2 weeks or so I have changed our diet and I saw that for my ADHD son this has drastically improved his symptoms. He has been sleeping better, hardly any hyperactivity, and better concentration. While his physical symptoms have improved his emotional have become worse. Some of these emotional symptoms I am not even sure he had before...He acts like he has been mortally wounded when anyone touches him. He is suddenly very afraid of things he didn't fear a month or so ago. For instance: at the beginning of summer I had to constantly watch him when we went swimming because he liked to go into the deeper water (even though he couldn't swim very well). Now he is terrified of going into water above his waist-to the point where he won't even do swimming lessons. Even if I hold him and go in the deeper water he freaks out, afraid I will let go of him. As far as I know he hasn't seen any movies/shows with drownings, etc so I am not sure about this change. And it isn't even just the water -it is other things too. These are not symptoms that I have found to be linked to ADHD in any of my readings...I have seen them linked to Aspergers though...So I have started researching Aspergers. I am lucky to have a friend who has an Aspergers son and I can go to him with my questions. My son does not exhibit the necessary requirements to be diagnosed Aspergers. However I think, given that they are all on the "spectrum", just as Aspergers share some of Autistics traits, ADHD can share some of Aspergers traits. I am just wondering why it seems like these symptoms have appeared all the sudden...

My "Different" child

This short story reminds me of my ADHD child. I hope someone gets some hope/ encouragement from it.

My Son the Warrior

Taken from “The Rest of Us” by Jacquelyn Mitchard

“Until now, we took a fair amount of pride in the fact that we could raise boys we described as sturdy but gently. Boys who could throw straight but also liked to cuddle, and who made guns from their breakfast toast only occasionally, not every day.

Then along out of babyhood came our youngest son, now rounding the curve toward age three, and we have to admit we think this boy is an alien life form.

Martin, who has been raised exactly like his brothers have been raised, sleeps with a plastic scimitar tucked into the band of his training pants. He sidles up to the couch evenings, and with a beseeching look in his almond-shaped brown eyes, says, “Mommy, may you fight me please?” He often carries two swords (spoons will do in a pinch) for this purpose. And so I sit, desultorily whacking away in a moral combat with my toddler, who crows when he lands a direct hit, “You’re dead now, Mommy. Please fall over.”

I know that Martin loves me—after all, he must depend on me to give him food since he is too short to reach the cabinet handles. But when I hear him sing his version of his favorite song, “Ol’ McDonald had no mommy, ee-ay-ee-ay-oh….” I am unsettles. And recently, he performed a Freudian maneuver that was an even greater source of consternation.

We have a children’s wooden crèche next to our Christmas tree, and we had versions of making it work in the style that French families do—you know: The Three Kings (called the “Wise Guys” by our sons) start out a few feet away from the manager and move a little closer every day throughout Advent.

Martin took an interest in the crèche this year, and I noticed immediately that every night at bedtime, Baby Jesus was on the roof of the stable.

“Why is he up there, Marty?” I asked.

“He is hiding from his mommy,” Martin explained with his customary intensity. “She always tells him no, don’t do that. He can’t stand her.”

This, I thought, is an angry young man. And I get further evidence all the time that Martin is the toughest cookie in our jar.

The other night, I was helping him put on his pajamas—an indignity he no longer suffers gladly. Taking pity on his restless cried, I soothed him, “There, there. You’re Mom’s little puppy….”

“No!” he cried. “I’m ling of the wild frontier.”

I suppose it is difficult to be king of the wild frontier and still have someone count out the carrots on your plate. Martin’s nature brings home to me again and again the truth that our sons and daughters are only passing through. At first, they are of you, born to come to your arms. Rapidly, they are with you, pausing only long enough for you to dab a few hurried strokes of paint on the canvas they are becoming—they are on their way to belonging to themselves, and then to the world. If we are lucky, they always will consider our home their harbor, but they are headed out to the open sea, almost from the first.

I sit tonight, looking at Mother Mary, her head softly bowed as she waits inside the stable for her little son to get over his fit of pique and come down from the roof. And I think of thousands of years of mothers of growing children who bowed their heads and hoped for the best, as they wondered, What child is this?”

No More Ridalin Treating ADHD without Drugs

If you haven't read "No More Ridalin Treating ADHD without drugs" by Mary Ann Block please do!! It is a fantastic read!!! The funny thing is that I had bought this book 2 years ago when I had issues with my 7yr old  in preschool but I had never read it! The author became a doctor because her daughter was sick and the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. It is very interesting. I can not stress the importance of reading this book. There is so much medical info that it takes a little bit to digest. Most of what she talks about I have learned over the last almost 8 years of dealing with my son. We learned he has a red dye sensitivity in Oct 08. We recently learned he has a high gluten sensitivity when I started baking my own bread with high gluten bread flour. He also has bad seasonal allergies and recently developed asthma as a reaction to his seasonal allergies. But the book also talks about how most ADHD kids are vitamin deficiency, particularly Vitamin D and magnisium. Another problem with ADHD kids is low blood glucose...which I had never considered. So my search for a doctor who would be willing to run some vitamin deficiency tests and supervise my suppliments. Our regular pediatric doc refused to do this. Needless to say that will most likely be the last time we see her...So my search continues for a "holistic" doctor (as our pediatic doc said).

ADHD

I also deal with a son who has been diagnosed ADHD. We do not medicate him, instead we use behavior modification. This method has worked over the year very well for us. Let me say I have nothing against medicine...but if it is only being used to "calm" the child down I don't like it. A lot of our schools, even though it is against the law for them to even suggest it, really push meds onto the "disruptive" kids. The parents I know, who have had THE meeting, say they really feel pressured to administer meds to their kids; that they feel ganged-up on. I know a teacher who once told me "if your child had diabetes wouldn't you put him on meds? Your child has ADHD the same should apply- he should be on meds". I really took offense to that comment and totally didn't (and don't) agree with that at all. For one, diabetes is a medical condition you can die from and, as far as I know, ADHD has never killed anyone. A child who has ADHD could die due to some of the symptoms (i.e. impulse control resulting in death, depression resulting in suicide, etc) but the actual diagnosis has not, as far as I know, ever killed a child. And while I really liked this teacher, I would NEVER have allowed her to teach my ADHD son, since it was obvious to me that she already had made up her mind and would not be receptive to behavior modification. That said, putting your child on meds is your choose, not mine. I choose not to...


I really did lots of research on ADHD before my son started school. For him, the problems started in preschool. He was unable to control his impulses and was being threatened to be kicked out of preschool! I was shocked!! The child was 4 yrs old!! Having been a preschool teacher I understood the reasons as to why they would think about dismissing him but also due to that same experience I knew that there was an underlying problem to the situation. Come to find out that he wasn't the only child misbehaving and the underlying problem was that there wasn't enough stimulation being offered to the children. The talks at circle time were much too boring to the children. There were no manipulative, pictures, etc. There was not a constant adult in the room. Needless to say this was my first battle in our journey of ADHD. I fought to make the school changes some of the things they did or didn't do. These changes really helped the class as a whole. He did not get expelled and from the preschool on an upbeat note.

I plan to continue writing about this journey so stay toned...



"Why Gender Matters" by Dr Leonard Sax is a good book to read, particularly if you have boys or tom-girls, or if you have a child labeled as ADHD. If you live near me I know that the Samuels Library has a copy of this book. Dr Sax also has a new book out "Boys Adrift". This is also an interesting book to read.