You just brought home your beautiful baby from the hospital. You have great expectations for what it is going to be like having a newborn in the house. You’ve purchased the perfect outfits, all the right equipment, toys and music. You want to be the perfect parents. But are you prepared for a baby that has been exposed to crack cocaine or heroine or crystal methamphetamine in Utero. Tremors are to be expected and while they can look very scary they are usually part of the withdrawal process. Sometimes the screaming goes on... more

It’s that time of year again. Children are getting bundled up in coats, scarves and hats and heading off to school. Once they arrive in the class room, they throw all of those articles into a closet piled together until recess. If just one of those children happens to have head lice, then this playground of cloth is the perfect spreading ground for those little biting opportunists.

Personally I’ve sworn by Tea Tree Oil for about 12 years now. In the winter time I put a few drops in the shampoo bottle, in the cream rinse bottle,... more

Reading emails about our friend’s daughter’s service dog through 4 Paws for Ability sparked the realization that through no effort of our own we have been sent a service dog, of sorts.

I blogged earlier this month about the tragic loss of our dog, Laser, and about my ambivalent feelings around this loss, since Laser was not meshing with LuLu’s many challenging traits. I also blogged about the coincidental chance we had at helping out one of Kay Kay’s friends by taking their dog since they... more

I have been watching with great interest as a friend of ours whose adopted daughter with severe PTSD has received a service dog through 4 Paws for Ability. This organization was the first service dog training organization to place dogs as autism assistance buddies. They have extended that program to children with other developmental, mental and emotional disorders as well, including ADHD and anxiety disorders.

My friend reports great things about the interaction between her daughter and... more

1. Take it seriously, but don’t freak out. You can do this; get the support you need from family, friends, doctors, blogs, support groups and school or daycare staff. What ever you’re going through, someone else has gone through it too, and that person wants to help you. Don’t be afraid to ask, there are no stupid questions. You are not alone.

2. Create an asthma action plan, write it out and be sure to include: • “Your child’s asthma triggers. • Instructions for asthma medicines. • What to do if your child has an asthma attack. • When to call your doctor. • Emergency telephone numbers. Use this Asthma Action Plan at home, school, and... more

Well it’s that time of year when you you’ve got the house closed up as tight as possible. You’re trying to keep the chill out and that expensive heat in, which means there isn’t any fresh air exchange going on. To top it off, school is in session so everyone is coming down with a cold.

You decide to scrub the house from top to bottom, disinfecting everything to try to kill off all those nasty germs, and restore your family to health. Ironically, if anyone is predisposed to asthma in your home, you may have just caused an asthma episode. So what’s a good parent to do? For those of us without enough hours in the day to keep our houses spotless and the children out of trouble,... more

While searching the internet for Asthma related articles I came across an article for a new treatment for sporadic, recurring asthma that just came out today. How convenient since I had just written an article about my teenage son who suffers from sports or exercise related asthma. I’ve posted an excerpt below.

“Drug Reduces Unscheduled Trips to Doctor for Childhood Asthma Attacks

Science Daily — Young children with attacks of sporadic, recurring asthma who were treated with the prescription drug Montelukast by their parents had fewer unscheduled trips to the doctor, missed less days from school or childcare, and caused their parents to take fewer days off work for their... more

My teenage son has always played floor hockey and soccer. A few years ago he started complaining about chest pains, especially after playing hard. The pediatrician had him where a chest harness for 24 hours to check his heart, and the results came back normal. Then the doctor scheduled an EKG, those results were also normal. So the doctor thought he might be having panic attacks and put him on Luvox, to see if that would help. He tried the medication for several months but continued to struggle with periodic chest pains. We thought that maybe it could even be growing pains.

Please don’t think that I’m completely unsympathetic, but I waited many months to take him back to the... more

The Healing Resources website’s free video on Trauma, Brain and Relationship: Helping Children Heal has a section where Dr. Daniel Seigel uses a dog bite analogy. Dr. Seigel is a psychiatrist and professor at UCLA. His area of expertise is trauma and relationships.

He describes trauma like a dog bite. When a dog bites you, the natural response is to yank your hand away. But, because of the way the dog’s jaw locks his teeth together, pulling away only rips your flesh deeper, creating a bigger wound.... more

One of the big changes we’ve seen as LuLu continues to use the Fast ForWord therapy to help with her auditory processing, reading abilities and other language and processing deficits, is that she is more keenly aware of what she’s not aware of. Before, so much information got by her that she didn’t realize in some instances what she was missing. When she did, she reacted with severe frustration.

While she still reacts with frustration, something... more