I am not going to do it and you can’t make me do it. My 10-year-old daughter did not say that in words, but you could see it in her eyes, in her stance, and by looking at the work, she had finished so far. We had apparently come to an impasse. I was determined that she would finish her schoolwork and turn it in on time. She was determined that she would finish her work when and if she felt like it, and turn it in when and if she felt like it.

It is... more

What did they find in LuLu’s GI scope on Friday?H pylori is a bacterial infection of the stomach lining. These nasty little bugs can neutralize the stomach acid enough to make their way to the lining and burrow their way into the lining. H pylori is believed to be responsible for most peptic ulcers, and it’s estimated that 20-50% of Americans carry it in their GI system.

We’re grateful to have an “answer” to LuLu’s chronic stomach pain. While the doctor doesn’t believe that h pylori is responsible... more

I have been trying to teach my daughter who is now 14 how to write a sentence correctly for the past six years. I suggested that she read her sentences aloud to know if they made sense or not. She informed Super Dad last year that she refused to use that countermeasure because it was just plain stupid. Her refusal to use this countermeasure has increasingly irritated me as she has worked through five copies of the same third grade grammar and language books never showing improvement.

Everyday, I would look at her work and say the same things. What goes at the end of a sentence?... more

You know, we spend a lot of time discussing our special needs adopted children’s bazaar behaviors and our frustration at their inability to modify their behaviors. These adopted children seem unable to eliminate their problem behaviors even after their parents have consistently responded and doled out consequences for years. My friend and peer in parenting, Rachel, recently made a great point. We parents cannot seem to get it through our heads that consequences will not work with these children, so we continue to dole them out and frustrate ourselves. Another of our respected... more

Cocooned at home with LuLu yesterday, we tuned into Oprah once we’d run out of all of LuLu’s favorite flicks. There we saw Priscilla Dunstan, a mom from Australia, who has discovered five sounds that infants make universally to communication with the world. Ms. Dunstan, who has a gift for understanding emotions and feeling behind language, has tested her theory of a universal baby language on over 1000 infants from many cultures, races and languages. She has found that infants from... more

Children who have been adopted at an age older than newborn frequently struggle with self-esteem issues. They may come across as if they are superior to everyone they encounter including family members. Is that really a mask for a fragile self-esteem that is vulnerable to even the slightest criticism? People who suffer from a mental disorder called Narcissistic personality disorder have a deep need for admiration and an inflated sense of their own importance. While initially, you may think that the older adopted child suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder has healthy self-confidence and self-esteem it may soon become obvious that your child has crossed a fine line. People who... more

Does your adopted child have a self-image disorder? Perhaps your adopted child is suffering from a body dysmorphic disorder. People with this condition are convinced that they are ugly. Apparently while processing things that they see which includes their own image, they have some sort of glitch in brain processing. Those with body dysmorphic disorder besides having a dramatically distorted self-image, also have obsessive thoughts about minor, or imagined defects in their appearance. While the exact cause of the disorder is unknown, experts agree that genetics as well as... more

This is a difficult topic to think about and worse to live through for family members. However, death of an adopted child is a reality for some parents of special needs children. Many families have pursued adoptions of children whom they knew were dying so that the child could have family support during the end of life. Others found out after the adoption that their child had a terminal illness. Knowing that a child’s death is imminent because of disease, injury, abuse, or birth defect does not make it any easier to accept. The adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings,... more

In those cases where typical or standard treatments for depression just are not working, a new option for treatment is available. However, the long-term effects of this new treatment are not known because the Food and Drug Administration only approved it in 2005. Brain stimulation is used to improve symptoms with this new procedure called vagus or vagal nerve stimulation.

Apparently, your body has two vagus nerves, one on each side of your body that run from your brainstem through... more

This study, coming out of Michigan State University, points to a growing body of research that says that low level lead exposure could be a factor in the increases in ADHD. This study was of 150 children in the Lansing area, and showed that the children with ADHD had higher levels of lead in their blood than those without ADHD.

Other studies have shown a link between low level lead exposure and lower IQs.

So, maybe we should be on the warpath about banning all toys from China and cleaning... more