I can’t think of a better way to end April, Autism Awareness Month than by checking out this video.

This creation from Autism Speaks combines the music of Five for Fighting with images of autistic children. It is a moving testament to the thousands of families and children affected by this disorder.

The band is generously donating $0.49 to AUTISM SPEAKS each time the video is viewed.

Also, with Kleenex in hand, check out... more

Children, including very young children can and do get GERD.

GERD stands for gastroesophageal reflux disease or acid reflux disease. The problem occurs when acid and other contents of the stomach repeatedly flow back up into the esophagus. This happens because the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) either relaxes at the wrong time, or it is weak, so it allows acid and other stomach contents to flow back up into the esophagus.

For this to happen occasionally can be normal; repeated occurrences may be GERD. And if it is allowed to continue... more

Why do so many children in foster care or adopted through older child adoption programs suffer from eating disorders? The psychological factors that have been found to contribute to eating disorders fit the profile of almost every child in the foster care system or residing in an orphanage world wide. Factors that can contribute to an eating disorder include low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, anger, loneliness and feelings of inadequacy or lack of control. These factors can be a result... more

Here is a scary thought; if you are hospitalized in the U.S. or Europe or you work in a hospital you have an estimated 5-10% chance of developing an infection caused by your hospital stay. Patients are more susceptible to acquiring infection if they happen to be in one of the extremes of life, infancy or old age, or have an impaired immune status, an underlying disease, or suffer from malnutrition. The main infections contracted from the hospital environment are urinary tract infections usually associated with an indwelling bladder catheter,... more

By pure accident, LuLu and I tuned into this show, Private Worlds: Kids and Autism, Sunday night. We were both captivated. LuLu, with her quintessential OCD, immediately insisted, “Mom, put the remote down, please. I don’t want you changing channels, even during the commercial.”

She was immediately covered with the feeling of watching kindred spirits on TV. Oddly enough there are many who would say she’s not autistic. But darn if LuLu doesn’t clearly identify with these kids. “He’s flopping like I do,” she commented. “He is making more nonsense noises than I usually do,” she observed.

I... more

It happens every day. Sometimes during her typing practice, sometimes when we’re learning a new math skill, sometimes if the words begin jumping around on the page of her reading book – LuLu gets frustrated. What happens next? Well that depends so much on what LuLu does next.

“You can do it, you can do it,” she sometimes chants to herself. “Don’t make me eat Styrofoam!” she sometimes whines loudly. (I have no explanation for why she says this, but she does, often.)

Sometimes her verbalizations sound... more

Last week I took three of my children to the dentist for routine cleaning and when they were finished one of the dentists asked to speak to me. He said that he noticed that one of the three children had a significant amount of crowding and it looked as though she would need braces. I agreed with him and indicated that she had already been evaluated for orthodontics and we were planning on putting them on this summer. Also, the doctor mentioned that she had quite a bit of calcification which indicates that she is mostly ... more

I know something else that could help to explain how Cho Seung-Hu developed into the totally detached cold-blooded killer he was last Monday. Nancy, over on Reactive Attachment Disorder blog is addressing it as well. And on the listserves of those parenting traumatized children, parents are speculating the way the parents of autistic children are speculating…could it be that Cho had attachment disorder?

Hmmm…the evidence isn’t there, yet. So the theory is just that, a theory. But the one big difference between attachment disorder or borderline personality disorder and other... more

Some news sources are reporting that the Virginia Tech killer, Cho Seung-Hu, was diagnosed with autism. The source of this information appears to be a great-aunt who lives in Korea and hasn’t seen Cho for several years. The thought of all this makes my head spin.

First off, autism doesn’t account for the sociopathic, paranoid behaviors. One thing we as parents of special kids need to make crystal clear…children with autism are NOT killers just by virtue of being autistic. Children with autism have major communication and social impairments as a result... more

We’ve been having quite a bit of difficulty with our nine year old daughter this school year. She’s in fourth grade and apparently the school work load and homework load really begin to increase in this grade. She can’t seem to get her work done at school even though her teacher has been keeping her in during recess to give her a chance to complete her unfinished work. At conferences this month her teacher reported to me that my daughter manages to find other things to do, like organizing her desk during this recess study period. She... more