We got our tax refund, and spent way too much money at Ikea (which has been quite a disappointing experience all the way around, requiring 2 trips to Customer Service for returns and I still have to take one more thing back!).

Does it count as stimulating the economy if I send $500 to Sweden?

Shame on Obama. Not only is he the poster boy for demagoguery, going on The Tonight Show, he has to make fun of disabled people, too. He compared his bowling score (129) to being in the Special Olympics. Because, you know, those Special Olympics people are just so pathetic and underpar, right?

Parenting According to Monster Movies
Sums it up nicely, don't you think?

Look! They've cured a spinal cord injury using stem cells! Wait, they are adult stem cells? No big story on how the Feds need to throw more money at dismembering babies for their body parts embryonic stem cell research? Call off the press meeting.

We have a snake. And turtles. And minnows. Remind me why we moved into a house that backs up to a bayou?

After our trip to Ikea, I got several shelves. We've moved the playroom to the room just off the kitchen, and the living room to the front room, and I wanted to set out some Montessori type works.

I made a flower work, a color matching work, a rainbow work, a toothpick and clay work, set out plastic Easter eggs in an egg basket, and arranged our Easter books on the shelf. So the kids ignored all that and chased each other with a spray bottle, instead. Sigh.

Slowly learning sign language. This site has been a big help. Unfortunately, Baby X's favorite things - buses and garbage trucks - have no signs, only finger spelling. But we're doing the best we can.

Check out other Quick Takes over at Jen's!

Labels: 7 Quick Takes, Montessori, politics, Prolife, Special Needs, speech, X

A friend of mine sometimes sends me pictures of a little boy she knows. He's a thanatophoric dwarf, and doctors said he would not survive birth.

He's three now. Sometimes she sends me pics and he is just always full of joy!

Catholic News Agency ran a feature on him - check out the slide show! My favorite picture is when he's sitting in his Bumpo seat.

Life is always worth living. Life is always better than being killed.

Labels: children, In The News, Prolife, Special Needs

A friend passed this website on to me, and I was amazed I hadn't seen it before.

MedHelp mood tracker

It's a free online mood tracker for depression, emotional issues, and mania.

The same site has a ton of other applications available, too, including a pain tracker for chronic pain/fibromyalgia, an ovulation tracker, a thyroid tracker, and more. (Click on the tab "Track Your Health" to see them all.)

Free online help? Did I mention it's IN THE COMPUTER so I won't lose it on my desk? Works for Me!

Check out Shannon for more WFMW fun!

Labels: bipolar, Freebies, health, Special Needs, Works For Me Wednesday

Baby X is 20 months old and does not talk.

He does not babble like normal babies - no buh-buh-buh-buh, no da-da-da-da.

He doesn't wave hi or bye-bye. I have the book Baby Signs, and like I did with all of the children, tried to teach him some signs when he was a few months old. He does not use a single sign. He may, occasionally, point.

Poor little guy. He has a whining noise he makes, with different intonations, and we interpret what he means. He did say "Ha" for hi a few times last week, but doesn't do it consistently and only says it after someone else does.

So we had him evaluated. It took a lot of paperwork. My set is 10 pages long!

They pegged most of his development as right on track 18-21 months. (I think he's more advanced than that, but he got marked down for a lot of speech related things, like "says please and thank you".) He's socialized at a 29 month old level (who says homeschoolers are unsocialized, LOL!)

His receptive speech has always been fabulous. He will hear me talk about going to the store, and bring me my purse and shoes. He'll hear me say to one of the kids that dinner's almost ready, and go get in his high chair.


His expressive speech is at a 4 month old level. He has one consonant sound, which he only makes when he's playing animals.

I was curious as to what a speech evaluation would look like for a baby who isn't talking. They did a lot of motor skills evaluations by providing him with different toys to play with - a ring stacker, a peg board, a shape puzzle. They gave him a pencil to draw with.

Most of the evaluation consisted of questions for me - how does he walk up the stairs? What does he do when he's hungry? How does he greet his father when he comes home from work.

4 months old. Wow. I knew he was behind...but not that far behind. The therapist will come to our home one day per week to work with me (and him, but she's mostly teaching me and the other kids.)

They are going to try to train him to use picture cards, as well, to communicate. Eventually, the goal is to have him give me a card with a picture of milk on it when he wants milk, and so on.

I predict the card for "go outside" will get lots of wear and tear. He's such a funny, sweet little guy!

Oh, my beautiful darling! I love you so! I can't wait until you can tell me what you are thinking about.

Labels: children, special education, Special Needs, speech, X

When we took Mr R off the Risperdal in November 2006, we didn't tell anyone.

His school, you see, defined him by his IEP and his medications. If he had a rough day at school, I'd get a call wondering if he skipped his pill. Occasionally I'd get a helpful note, reminding us of the nurses guidelines for prescription dispensing. It was irritating to know that he was a faceless number tagged with an Rx by his name.

My child is not his medication. Sometimes we all are irritable, annoyed, and short tempered. So is my child.

My child is not his medication. We all feel sad sometimes. Children cry. Some children are more sensitive than others. An occasional melancholy mood does not mean he missed his meds.

If there was a pill available that would deaden his soul, and numb his heart so he would never be sad, I would never give it to him. Tears are necessary, sometimes, to water the garden of life.

My child is not his medication. Children are childish. They can be foolish, impulsive, irresponsible. When my child acts like a child, it does not mean he needs another dose. Sometimes he, like all children, gets overexcited.

My child is fearfully and wonderfully made. I have faith the God knows what he is doing. My child was created just the way he is, for a purpose.

My child's medications are controlled by us, his parents. We love him. We know him.

You are simply a stranger, who sees him at his worst in the toy department. An interloper, here only for a couple of semesters. You may be an extended family member, but you are also an occasional observer of life's most stressful and happy moments. You see him at his most difficult hour; you judge what you do not understand.


Instead of this:



Look at him and see this:



My child is not his medication.

Labels: bipolar, special education, Special Needs, Thoughtful Thursday

I *mostly* stay out of the fray regarding Hollywood movies.

But I feel I must comment on Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller's latest oeuvre rotten egg. The setup of the movie is that Ben Stiller's character played a "Rain Man" type character, but didn't get the Oscar he was hoping for. Fair enough - but the movie goes on and on and on with an offensive and stereotypical showing of the Simple Jack character. The movie doesn't limit itself to a satirical "movie within a movie" use of the word, either.

Mock movie poster:

Note the tagline. I hear that this poster has been pulled by Dreamworks marketing after the Special Olympics joined the protest.

You'll be seeing t-shirts, and hearing lines, and people will be cracking jokes, and you might want to know what it's all about. "Never Go Full On Retard" shirts are about making more money for Ben Stiller.

Here's the scene. Stiller's career mistake was portraying a "full on retard".



A partial transcript of the above scene:
Ben Stiller (who wrote these lines before filming them)-
There were times whne I was doing Jack, that I actually felt retarded, like really retarded. In a weird way I just had to free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid or dumb.

From Growing Up with a Disability.


H/T Barbara at Mommylife for the links.

Labels: Need to Know, Rants and Raves, Special Needs

I've heard that updating the new Mozilla will erase your bookmarks.

I thought I post a few of my "most important" ones here, where I can find them. I've said before that my blog is kind of a public journal for me, so consider this a really boring entry. Plus, I can throw some Linky Love to some of my favorite sites!

Although, many of them I don't even remember bookmarking - often if I am researching something and happen across something else, I bookmark it, and it languishes in my folder gathering cyber dust.

This is like letting your mother-in-law look under the bed or behind the fridge. It's surprisingly personal!

But, I'm really boring so you won't find too many titillating links. Unless you like vintage freebie printables.

Homemaking
Teaparty Girl
Household Notebook Planner
The Family Homestead
Vintage Homekeeper's Planner


School Organization
Starry Sky Ranch HMB forms etc.
Teacher Planning Forms
Unschooling and Planning
Homeschool Curriculum Reviews
Planning the School Year - Footprints on the Fridge
Dawn's File Folder System

Parenting
Small Manual of Civility Manners in the Catholic Home
HealthyToys.org
When Mom/Teacher Role doesn't work


Food
A Little Cookbook for Girls
Frugal Abundance
Practical Pantry everything you ever wanted to know about the staples
Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls
No Fail Pie Crust
Calcium Requirements

Catholic
Finding God liturgy and family life
Where is That in The Bible - essay on Tradition and Sola Scriptura
Sean's Pages - aplogetics
Hear the Gospel at Mass
Why Catholics Have a Pope
Catholic Culture
BibliaClerus Vatican resources, early Fathers, etc.
Women for Faith and Family
John 6 and the Eucharist
Catechism of Catholic Church searchable by keyword
Scriptural Rosary for Children
Amazing Catechists
Sanctifying Halloween

Religious Other
Evangelical Manifesto

Crunchy Granola Mama links
Natural Life Magazine
Healing Power of magnets - legitimate
Managing Post Partum Depression
Microchipping Public School Students
CFL Recycling
Drugs.com side effects, etc.

Self-Reliance
Solar Powered Trailer
Living off the Grid
100 Ft. Diet
Grow potatoes in a garbage can


Blog
Technorati Made Simple
Making Bloggy Buttons
Make Blog Banners totally need to do this. Someday. Eventually.
HTML True Color Chart

Coupons and Deals
Mommy Saves Big
Coupon Chief
Coupon Mom
Organic Grocery Deals
Online Coupons

Special Needs
Autism Evaluation Checklist
Anger Management for Children
Bipolar Complimentary Medicine
Disaboom for people with disabilities

Prolife and Politics
Sen. Obama's Voting Record
CQ Moneyline Campaign Finance, PAC's, etc.
Catholic Mom Framing the Healthcare Debate
REAL ID/ REAL nightmare
Girl Scouts Radicalism
No Room for Contraceptives
Prolife Doctors
Fighting P*rn*graphy
Test Tube Nation (article)

Stuff to Make and Do
Homemade Playdough with pics
3D Papercraft

Just Plain Interesting
Illegal Alien Tracking and crime statistics
Squalor Survivors
Texas Hold'Em Odds
Letterboxing North America

ClipArt and Graphics

Writing
Love Honor Vaccum Write from Home
Houston Writers and Editors
Absolute Write
Writer's Resources
Wordplayer
SimplyScripts

Of Interest Only to Me
SC Lawyer
Harrison Bergeron


If you liked any of these links, leave me note in the comments! (If you're not asleep by now...)

Labels: apologetics, bipolar, Blog, Catholic, children, cooking, education, Freebies, Frugal, homemaking, Linky love, politics, Prolife, special education, Special Needs, therapeutic diet, Working from Home

An autistic two year old was kicked off a plane for acting like, well, a two year old.

Was the airline justified, or did they discriminate against a special needs child?


Talk amongst yourselves.

Labels: In The News, Special Needs

A church has banned a parishioner from attending Mass.

He is autistic.

Read the article before jumping to conclusions. Barbara at Mommylife shared this yesterday, and I commented there. I have more to say, though.

I have been that mom at Mass struggling with an older child throwing a fit. Mr R can sometimes be thrown for a loop, especially if sensory issues are involved. At my church in Colorado, I pretty much would just throw in the towel if we ended up in the back couple of pews, where the air vents blew directly on the backs of people. Last Sunday, the incense made him a little restless and chatty, but not too bad.

If Mr R was disruptive, however, I would take him out.

I do not want to judge the parents in this situation, but my heart aches for this poor boy. He seems unable to handle the stimulation of a public Mass with many people. I don't know why they would not have the priest visit them privately or arrange for a private Mass at home.

Their poor son is not treated with dignity. They bind his hands and feet at church. They allow him to urinate on the floor (they make personal care products for incontinent people, there is no excuse for that).

All are welcome at Mass, but there is also a duty to be charitable to others. We must love our neighbor as ourself, and not put them in danger.

What say you?

Labels: Catholic, Special Needs

My son is hard to get up. His doctors have an official name for it: Sleep Inertia. Yeah, he's inert all right! :)

My other children get up all right. I wake them, they get dressed, eat, catch the bus. We lay all of our clothes out the night before, find all of the shoes, put the backpacks by the front door, and find the hairbrush and that helps tremendously, especially when my daughter thinks she's going to wear her sweat pants with holes. Their clothes are approved and ready to go.

My oldest, age 8 now, is something else. We would struggle with me pulling him from bed, putting ice on him, and physically putting the clothes on him, while he slept or kicked and fought me so he could sleep. Not a pretty sight. I'm not a morning person to begin with, and if you throw in a 45 minute knock down- drag out fight to put shoes on a kindergartner (including interludes of pulling child from under bed, out of closet, and from behind couch), and my whole day was ruined.

So, now he sleeps in his clothes. I know it sounds weird, but the little guy had some sensory issues before we changed his diet, and would often put his clothes on over his pajamas and wear the jammies all day anyway. This basically cuts out the extra laundry, and he doesn't have to worry about putting clothes on in the morning. He changes at night, sleeps in his school clothes, and in the morning, all he has to do is put his shoes on. He might look a little rumpled (although, honestly, he's a first grader. Most of his clothes are wash and wear and don't look any worse for the wear). Plus, it's easier for me to make sure he changes his underwear and socks everyday. Our mornings went from stressful yelling to fairly peaceful. The baby often sleeps right through the prep now.

The other helpful tip - the hair. His hair is kept very short, so he doesn't need to brush it. Plus, we save money because we can cut it ourselves with electric clippers.
Works for me!

***UPDATED***
Here are some links about sleep inertia. Basically, it is the grogginess everyone has for a few minutes after waking up. In some people, though, it is extreme to the point you cannot get them up or it persists for a long time.

The Morning Battleground - from the Bipolar Child
Mood Disorders and Sleep - from about.com

Labels: bipolar, Family Life, Special Needs, Works For Me Wednesday

I would be, anyway, if I had a medical license.

This post has been percolating for a while, but I'm finally going to post it in the hopes that it will help someone else. I'll be including links, so you can read and evaluate for yourself. Remember, use your critical thinking skills and to note the source! Is it an independent study, a nutritional supplement trying to sell vitamins, a pharmaceutical website hoping you don't take vitamins? Some of the studies are very clinical and quite dry reading... take them in small doses!

My son was diagnosed with early-onset bipolar disorder (used to be called Manic Depression). He was on a prescription antipsychotic for
6 months. Now, his illness is managed solely by nutrition and supplements. Here's the story.

He's only been off the meds for 4 weeks, but his behavior scores at school have actually increased.

(Bipolar disorder - wikipedia)
(Bipolar disorder in children)
(Nutrition and biplar disorder)

Before everyone jumps into the comments to flame me about bipolar kids, please know that I am not one of those moms that makes excuses for every little thing her kids do. My discipline is a mix of James Dobson, common sense, and St. John Bosco. With a little Dr. Ray thrown in. I truly, truly believe that many cases of "A.D.H.D." stem from institutionalized education designed for girls and not little boys, for auditory learners, not kinesthetic, and from bright children who are bored while they wait for slower kids, who happen to be the same chronological age and not the same intellectual ability.
I am the second oldest of eight children, the youngest of whom was born when I was in High School. I worked my way through high school babysitting, and taking nanny jobs in the summer. The church I attended was full of large families. I have 6 kids. My dear son acted like no child I've ever seen. Except maybe Linda Blair, when he was really mad. It was not that he was high spirited (he is), strong willed (he is), very creative (yep), with poor impulse control (pre-pubescent boy, what do you expect?). It was way more than that. It was not something that could be cured by a good thrashing, more discipline, or relaxing the rules. It was not a rebellion against authority, or a passing bad attitude. My other children were completely different, and normal parenting things worked with them. Not dear son.

At age 4, I decided there was NO WAY the kid would make it in a public school. There was also no way we could afford to put him in a private school. So I started my doomed attempt at homeschooling him. We started with "This is A. It says /a/."

When he was 5, we removed all of the furniture and the light fixture from his room.

When he was 6, we removed the bed as well. He would sleep underneath it because he liked the closed in spaces and was that terrified of his closet. He still didn't get that A made the /a/ sound, after two intense years of collages and flashcards and letter theme days and "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". This was a big lesson God taught me. I learned to read when I was 4, and thought that children who couldn't read by kindergarten had lazy moms. How I could ever have been that judgemental, I'll never know. But I was a snob in that department.

When he was 7, I sought treatment for an eating disorder - his eating disorder. He would eat everything in the house (raw spaghetti noodles, too). Then, he would say he was so fat he wanted to die. He told me if he saw a car driving down the road, he would jump in front of it so it would squish him. Then he wouldn't have to be fat. The child was small for his age, and you could count his ribs if he did a backbend. We put grates on his windows so he couldn't climb out or break them. We had padlocks on the pantries and a bicycle chain on the fridge. Turns out he didn't have an eating disorder. He has BiPolar disorder (BP). I was glad to finally get his diagnosis, since I had come to that conclusion independently based on my own research.

Also at age 7, he began attending a small private school with his brother. He was in a mixed Kindergarten/First grade classroom. His brother, a newly minted 6 year old, was in Kindergarten - and my son was placed there as well. Brother made progress - his teacher called him a model student. My BP son would have failed Kindergarten, except I withdrew him early because of a lot of complicated politics at the church. He was there on scholarship - my family has been associated with that church for quite a while, and although I didn't attend the parish, my brother, landlord, and several friends did. I cleaned the school twice a month and volunteered as part of tuition, as well. My son's first grade teacher, in her sixties and truly a gifted educator, agreed with me that something was seriously wrong.

Before he started school that year, I took him to our priest for a special blessing. Not quite a full exorcism, which requires an investigation and the approval of the bishop, but one step down from that. I really do think I explored every option. (well, I didn't do past life regression. I said I'm a quack, not stupid and crazy.) I read all manner of books, prayed, slipped Scripture verses under his pillow. Husband annointed the house with oil and rebuked Satan. (He's a Baptist turned non-denominational).

I had him tested by the local school district, who gave him the ironic label of "Significantly Identifiable Emotional Disability". I say ironic, because they did not identify the emotional disability, just called him SIED. But he did qualify for services, which, in that rural district and through the private school, was going to consist of twice weekly sessions with a social worker to work on self esteem issues.

I declined, and was then accused of child abuse. It seems that putting dear son in the shower to help snap him out of his 6 hour rages is abusive. I thought not giving your child a bath was abusive, but I guess I'm not a trained social worker. A child voluntarily taking a bath is ok. Making them do it is not. Go figure. I think it's because the school district, one ofthe less affluent, wasn't going to get their federal funds for my son unless they provided some sort of service for him, and they were trying to pressure me. Ha! I am not easily pressured, swayed, or influenced. I believe I am what people call mule-headed.

Anyway, throughout all of this, I was working 2 jobs, then 1 job, had a baby, and spent several months with my husband working out of state to support us. Still seeking treatment through the medical establishment. Finally getting a diagnosis. My husband and I made the decision to put dear son, age 7, on antipsychotic medication. A dangerous proposition, especially as this was an off-label use (that medication has been approved for use in autistic children over this summer, however). However, bipolar disorder has a 15% fatality rate (from suicide), not counting shortened lifespans from alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and risk taking behaviors, which BP's do at an astronomical rate. He had already talked about killing himself, and we ended up having to lock the knives up for a while, with the food, since I kept finding them in his room. Remember, this kid was a scrawny 7 year old, not a troubled teen!

A few weeks went by. Dear son, always the special one, will not take medicine or pills. Those little Triaminic strips were my lifeline when he's snotty! Unfortunately, they don't come dye free, but then again, he hasn't been sick since we started the supplements and probiotics, so maybe he's finally getting a healthy immune system. He's also the biggest wimp. So, we figured out how to put the pills in a spoonful of applesauce - sometimes several spoonfuls - and tweaked the dose and the timing. The medication made him more normal. Able to stop himself before he got mad- and when he got mad, it was all over. Could be 4-6 hours before he was coherent again, another 2-3 before he was a little boy again. He had those rages several times a week. He is about 18 months to 2 years behind in emotional development, plays better with 6 year olds than 8 or 9 year olds, and I think a large part of this is the time he missed when he was raging. He would rarely remember anything that happened, would express surprise at broken toys, would ask me what happened to the wall... he literally had 15-20 hours a week of his entire life missing.

The medication gave our family a break. It allowed my spirit, as well as his, to heal. I had a heart for my son again. I had been praying for years - literally - to love him the way I do now. So much damage is done, however, when I would spend hours holding him in the basket weave hold while he thrashed and spit and bit and said all manner of nasty things. Everything was on hold all of the time because of him. Property was damaged, meals destroyed, siblings caught in the crossfire, and many trips were not taken. Family relationships were affected as many thought I was too easy, should spank him more, needed to crack down, needed to be consistent. Even though my other children were turning out pretty good. Others in my family thought I needed to lighten up, relax, give the kid a break. I couldn't win for losing. My dear son also developed quite and acrimonious relationship with his grandmother -but a detailed look into her family relationships will probably never appear on this blog!

The meds helped us heal, and allowed us to get on with our lives. I took dear son out of school in April. He turned 8, I quit my job and was home with him, again trying the homeschooling to catch him up. Husband went out of state for 7 weeks, we moved across the country, and dear son started in a wonderful special education program at the public school. His class has 5 students, 2 adults (teacher and assistant), and is designed specifically for children who are behind grade level due to emotional/mood problems. It is truly a godsend! Everything I love about dear sons class, however, I hate about Son #2's. I believe I've ranted previously about Everyday Math and invented spelling, so on with the BP story.

The medication sabbatical, and a training system detailed in "Transforming the Difficult Child: The Nurtured Heart Approach", really helped us get our feet back under us. The credit system from the book has since been dropped, but it allowed him to see he could do better. It allowed me to replace my mental image of him, to see he could do well, even excel, be normal, have a conversation. It was exactly what we needed. However, I wasn't comfortable giving him this medication for life. There are serious side effects, including heart disease, high cholesterol, and long term use can cause diabetes. I kept looking for a better way.

I had been searching for answers for him for years. Through lots of research, I settled on a plan. At first, I banned sugar. Turns out the real problem was the fake food dyes that sugary kid treats contained. Now he can eat sugar - as long as it's in something natural! Lucky for him, his SAHM is taking up baking again.

Now, his diet is no artificial food dyes (Red #40, Yellow #5, Blue Lake, etc.). No MSG. No petroleum based preservatives (BHT/BHA/TBHQ). They put those things in the bag that keeps cereal fresh! Should we really eat these? No artificial sweeteners. I use Equal to kill fire ant mounds in my yard. Again, can this possibly be healthy? I've got a ton of links, and books, that helped me come to this conclusion - you are what you eat, and what you don't eat. I'll try to post them sometime in the future. I also am making my way through my 6th bout of Gestational Diabetes, so nutrition and health is very interesting to me.

(Side effects of food additives)
(Links to studies on apartame)
(Links to studies on MSG)
(More on MSG)
(Anecdotal evidence, plus recipes and resources)
(The Straight Dope on MSG) (this is like Snopes.com)
(Studies on BHA/BHT/TBHQ)

Next, I treated him for a condition known as Pyroluria. It's standard to treat BP people in the Netherlands for this, but in America, big Pharma would never allow that! I'm down on the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA, and my skepticism grows everyday - again, that's another story (did you know a major sponsor of the American Diabetic Association is Hershey? And Cadbury-Schweppes, the creme egg people?). Now, pyroluria is a vitamin deficiency - like scurvy or rickets. Specifically, it is a B vitamin deficiency, and usually zinc too (B vitamins and zinc are linked in their metabolizing process). Often, there is a copper toxicity. Too much copper displaces the zinc. There is a simple urine test for this, but it costs $70 and I haven't had it done. In one study, interestingly, almost 7o% of schizophrenic patients, and 80% of alcoholics were diagnosed with pyroluria, and their symptoms improved or disappeared once they started taking the vitamins! Alcoholism and bipolar are well known to be co-morbid, that is, appearing together, and the current theory is that many bipolar people use alcohol to self medicate.

(Pyroluria)
(Treatment history and results)
(Natural treatments for pyroluria)

We also supplement with omega-3 fatty acids. Even American studies have shown that in addition to heart health, these important nutrients increase focus, help alleviate depression, and stabilize mood.
Throw in some acidophilus - yeah, the stuff in yogurt that you take so you don't get a yeast infection - to cure his burpy/fart problem. That's it.

Now, the kid, as I mentioned, would probably die before swallowing a pill, so I searched high and low and found chewables without food dyes in them for the B vitamins and Zinc, and he takes Coromega, which is like a spoonful of orange pudding in a little packet. Acidophilus is naturally chewable.

That's the story of our journey into, and out of psych meds. I'll try to keep this updated with links to my other, future posts where I detail my sources, research, and anecdotes.

We are successfully treating bipolar disorder through nutrition. Dear son can read at grade level now, and is in a mainstream classroom for math and science. He loves school and gets good reports and progress reports. He knows many sounds for A - apple, father, ate, and the silent one - read (past tense). He is teaching himself cursive (so he can read my notes to his teacher, I suspect!) and also teaching himself to draw from books and online tutorials.

He's a regular kid again! Thanks be to God.

Books that helped tremendously: (plug it into my Amazon link on the right side to be taken to ordering info and reviews)

No Greater Love, by Mother Teresa

The Explosive Child, by Dr. Ross Greene

The Myth of the ADD Child (and 50 ways to help them), by Thomas Armstrong

Eating Well for Optimum Health, Dr. Andrew Weil

The Strong Willed Child, Dr. James Dobson (didn't help with dear son, but sure did for brother #2 and sister #3!); The Difficult Child, by Stanley Turecki

The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas A Kempis

The Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer. (The old one, not the new 2006 one. The new one uses things like cream of mushroom soup - can't do that if you're avoiding MSG! The old one tells you how to make everything from scratch. I got mine new in 1997.

Transforming the Difficult Child, The Nurtured Heart Approach by Howard Glasser I was truly desperate to try this approach, but something had to give. I thought it was a miracle short term, we used it for 3 months when I was home alone and husband was out of state. It helped us "reset" our expectations, and our other discipline works very well now.


Tags: Family Life, Nutrition, Special Needs, Bipolar, Mama Says

Labels: bipolar, Family Life, health, special education, Special Needs, therapeutic diet