Is it just me, or do any of you take your baby’s nebulizer along to Hockey practices and games? When you have several children, all going in different directions everyday, sometimes everyone has to go along for the ride. Usually wherever mom goes, baby goes. It just seems natural to me that if I’m at a game or practice and the baby starts wheezing to find the nearest electrical outlet and plug the nebulizer in.

Well, a couple of weeks ago this happened at a hockey practice. Several parents and siblings of young hockey players were sitting in the gym bleachers of a local elementary school watching practice. The baby had a cold and I had been giving her breathing treatments every... more

You just brought home the most beautiful infant the world has ever seen. But when you strip off her onsies she has a bulbous, discolored herniated belly button. It doesn’t seem to bother her any and the pediatrician probably told you to ignore it and it should heal on its own. Then as an afterthought the pediatrician might say, or if it doesn’t we can always do surgery in a few years.

Upon close observation you’ll notice that every time the infant coughs, sneezes or bears down the navel pops way out. Well then, if you have the average infant, that navel is being pushed almost all day long. Won’t it take longer to heal if it is constantly being stressed? Apparently,... more

I was digging through some of my archived ideas for blogs today – trying to shake off a “Monday Blog Fog” and came across a flagged website: www.healingresources.info. On that site, one particular video is of great interest to me -- Trauma, Brain and Relationship: Helping Children Heal. And I’ll come back to that for future blogs.

But today, an interview with Dr. Bruce Perry that the video clips were based on caught my eye. A transcript... more

There are four types/areas of therapies that are emerging as important for treating traumatized children, those with PTSD or C-PTSD.

1. EMDR. The EMDRIA website defines it as: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements... more

If the diagnosis of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) makes it into the DSM-V (due out in 2010) or even if it doesn’t, the next logical question after learning about C-PTSD is “what can be done to treat it?”

Well, there are some treatments that are successful with addressing trauma in children. The problem with traditional therapeutic approaches is that many of them require extensive talk therapy. And that doesn’t work with traumatized children for... more

I’m guessing you’ve seen the movie…with Susan Sarandon…years ago. Me too, long before I ever dreamed I’d be parenting a child with special needs, let alone writing a blog about myelination. It was by googling “myelin” that I was reminded of Lorenzo’s Oil.

That’s because the organization that Lorenzo’s mom, Michaela, founded is called The Myelin Project. Talk about a tireless mom! This woman gave up all existence except the quest for answers... more

Feeling way out of my league biochemically, I waded in the research on why some doctors are prescribing Actos, a popular medication for treating Type II diabetes, to patients with autoimmune disorders. And ultimately, why our DAN! Doctor prescribed this for LuLu (and why we are seeing improvements.)

If you understand the rest of this blog, it means I’ve figured it out…or at least partially.

DAN! Doctors operate from the theory that autism (and other neurologically-based disorders – like ADHD, and perhaps Tourettes and Bipolar) are greatly... more

I’ve been mulling over Cindy Bodie’s blog on Mental Illness in Children. (She posted it a long time ago…see how long I’ve been mulling!) Cindy is a relatively new blogger to adoptionblogs.com and I love so much of what she has to say. She faces life head-on with her large family of older children, many with some very challenging issues. There is much I admire about that. Her level of energy, stamina, commitment and ability to give those kids what they need (to name... more

I’m interested…very interested. So much of what parents are given by professionals in terms of parenting advice for any and all children are reward/consequence based strategies of behavior modification. But what if it doesn’t work? What if there isn’t a consequence out there that will stop your child’s negative behavior? What if there isn’t a reward they care a thing about?

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is different. It focuses on self-regulation of thoughts that trigger... more

An article in last Friday’s New York Times explores the idea of teaching parents behavior modification skills to help manage their children’s mental disorders, especially ADHD. The whole article can be viewed here.

The article cites that many parents of children with ADHD (and other disorders) greatly desire to avoid medicating their children, or to at least lessen the amounts of medication their child needs. It is fairly comprehensive look at... more