Swapna, Updates on the Kids - Page 6

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MahikaL

@MahikaL

Senior Member

Posted: 14 years ago

Hi Swapna and everyone! 😊

Hope you all had a great Dussehra. We had such a blast. I just love all our festivals.

We just got back from taking the little guy for his speech eval. He roared the place down initially, then found a toy to play with and wouldn't participate much. Sigh. He finally did a huge poo, then was all nicey-nice. 😆Anyway, she has recommended therapy, but there is a long waiting list.
One very interesting thing she pointed out was that he makes this very weird sound in his throat, and we cannot even replicate it, it's so gag-inducing. She says that because he is prevented from stimming in other ways, he seems to have developed this throat sound as a way to stim which is unstoppable by any physical means. So it will need to be mentioned to his school therapists, and they can work on stopping it.

We are going to the gastro doc soon.

How is the Rish-man? Is he loving the weather?

Mahika.

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Swapna Munagala

@s.munagala

Groupbie

Posted: 14 years ago

Hello Mahika & Everyone,

How's things going? We are finally moved into our new home as of yesterday, Yipee!!! Now all is left is to unpack and make the place into our own little heaven. Rish is OVER THE MOON to be out of the apartment and into a place with a bigger bedroom, his own bathroom and his own playroom. 😃😆 He is also thrilled to have all his toys out of storage and back with him where they belong. He played and played with them all day yesterday and today (we kept him home from school today since we did not have anything in place to have him ready for a school day)!!! You guys should have seen him, it was like he was greeting long lost friends. 😆 He had not seen these toys for 13 months, and was so happy!

How was your Dussherra friends? Hope you'll all had a great time, we did even though it was moving day for us. We had a bunch of friends/relatives over to help, and made it into a party, it was good.

Take Care Folks!

Swapna

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tulipbaby53

@tulipbaby53

IF-Stunnerz

+ 2

Posted: 14 years ago

Oh wow..Swapna! It's great to hear that Rish has adjusted well! Yeah, I'll bet he was excited to see all his stuff and toys again! When we moved to Texas, our stuff was gone for like a couple of weeks, and I was sooo excited when all my stuff came in! 😆

Congrats on your new house too! 😃

We didn't really do anything for Dussera...I was studying for a test, so my Dussera was spend with my books! 🤓😆

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Swapna Munagala

@s.munagala

Groupbie

Posted: 14 years ago

Hi everyone,

Varsha hope your exam went well, and if it's not yet done, good luck!!!

Mahika, did you ask if there is any way for you to be pushed up the waiting list? Sometimes if the need for the child to have therapy is great enough, they try to accomodate and find a therapist willing to help. I wish that could happen in your case. Did you have the Gastro appt. yet? Were there any issues/answers you got?

Mahika I wanted to ask you, what is your take on the whole vaccine/thimerasol Autism issue?

Take Care All,

Swapna

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MahikaL

@MahikaL

Senior Member

Posted: 14 years ago

Hi Swapna.

I am just a little overwhelmed right now, with my son's food issues. With his tummy obviously bothering him, his repetitive behaviors are also increased, and we are having more trouble redirecting him. Sorry to say, I am worn out and weepy. 😭 Can't wait for the gastro appointment, which is next week.

His toilet training is also going on, both at school and at home. Based on the suggestions of the research study we are in, we are making a folder of pictures for him, each of which shows him doing one of his activities, so when it's time to change the task, we show the picture. It should be fun to see his reaction to a book full of his own pics.

I honestly have no strong opinion about the vaccine theory. I know it has been disproved, but I can't help but remember that when my daughter was a baby, I had taken her back home for several months, and the vaccine schedule is slower there, so she took longer to get all the shots even after we came back. With my son, we were here all the time,and he had the whole battery of shots like how it's done here. So my unscientific observation is that he was more typically exposed to the vaccines, so if the vaccine theory is true, he was certainly in a more vulnerable position.

I heard that they no longer use thimerosal in vaccines, is that true?

I am more inclined to think of autism as a genetic condition which needs enough environmental toxin exposure to become fully developed. NJ has such a high rate of autism, NJ also has a lot of environmental pollution and dumping due to chemical industries.The two appear linked. Plus our food sources are so compromised here, so even if we try to eat organic food, we are still exposed to chemical run offs.

Do you feel more settled in the new house now? How did Rish sleep in a new place?

Mahika.

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Swapna Munagala

@s.munagala

Groupbie

Posted: 14 years ago

Hey Mahika & Everyone,

We are still settling in and unpacking, who knew we had so much stuff!!! Rish did really well, he wanted to sleep in my bed for the first night here, but once his room was set up, and all his toys unpacked, he wanted to sleep in his own room amongst his stuff. It left me a little nostalgic for the days where he would want to stay with me all the time during the night, 😭 but then I'm glad he's getting so independant too. 😊

I hope you are feeling a little better today and not so overwhelmed. All I can say is baby steps... at least he's headed in the right direction and making progress, however little. A close friend once told me to keep in mind that with kids on the spectrum, progress is always like 2 steps forward, one step back, but they are still making progress and to never forget that. Let us know about his reaction to the book with his pics, I think he'll really love it!!!

I'm confused about the vaccine theory too, sometimes I'm convinced that it's all bogus, since they disproved it, but then again as you say "your unscientific opinion" also occurs to me sometimes. The only thing I can say is that we did not really notice that the MMR shot made him lose speech or any developmental milestones, he never really developed much speech to begin with, so we could not notice a great difference afterwards. He gained all his milestones on time, and never lost any of them afterwards as well. But at the same time, what can one say since they cannot give any specific cause for this disorder. They are supposed to have removed Thimerosal from vaccines since the year 2000, but it's still present in the flu vaccine given as a shot. The flu vaccine given as the nasal mist however does not contain it, and that's the one that I typically ask for each time that Rish gets his flu shot.

One can never really discount any cause though for Autism until a reason has conclusively been identified, I guess that is my stand on the issue. I just read an article today stating that the incidence of Autism has gone up to 1 in 100 in the States, of which 1 in 58 occurrences are boys. It's really unbelievable to me, I just wish they could hurry up in finding a cure and creating a vaccine for it.

Here's the link to the article if anyone is interested in reading it: http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/10/kathleen-sibelius-autism-now-hits-1-in-100-children-we-have-no-idea-why.html

Take Care all,

Swapna

Edited by s.munagala - 14 years ago

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376447

Inactive

Posted: 14 years ago

Hi,

Just thought I'd share what happened in class today. Let me first tell you a little of each of the two children involved in the event. One is a young girl of about seven. Born prematurely, she is rather weak physically but extremely large hearted. She has reached her milestones six months late and is a slow learner, with very poor eyesight besides being deaf. The other one is a boy who is about 12 deaf and with a lesion at the base of his brain. It remains benign and the doctors have asked his parents to let him be(i.e. not operate). When he first came to school we as educators were petrified because this child could not control his motor movements. He would just fall while walking fast or hit the wall because he'd walk zig zag. But he's made heaps of progress. Although he still has a poor gait, he no longer falls or bangs against the wall......... but still weeps at the drop of a hat.

Today, their teacher took them to the computer room to make Diwali greeting cards on the pc. He is not gr8 at art but loves to participate in all activities. It was just unfortunate that his pc blinked. The teacher tried to revive the pc but it had collapsed. So she told him to sit in class and await his turn. He thought he was being punished for spoiling the pc. He started to weep and believe me he can beat any Indian actress at shedding tears. His bawling could be heard down the corridor. The teacher told him to first stop crying and tried to explain things . The little children were all looking at what was happening. This little girl got up from her place and went to him. Don't cry she signed to him. The pc went off because the wire broke. His bawling stopped instantly and they started to discuss which wire probably 'broke'. She told him to sit on her pc if he wanted to. But he was gallant and said 'after you'.

We had such a laugh in the staff room. While the teacher was so earnestly trying, this little lass did it in a jiffy. But it was good to know that the children were sharing and showing concern for each other.

Somewhere we felt our day was made......... so all of us added half an extra spoon of sugar to our tea.

When one of us achieves, we all achieve.

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@h&rblock

Goldie

Posted: 14 years ago

As per Skep request, I am posting my PM reply to the above post here:

Skep - what a touching story...you know it is kids who actually teach us these days...they have simple ways but very effective ways of communicating...

My husband always tells me this story whenever my faith wavers:

There was some village in India where it had not rained for months. So the elders decided to have prayers to appease God & thus be blessed with rains. Hundreds of people came to the prayers which were being held in an open courtyard but only one person, a child, came with an umbrella - that is faith. He had faith that the prayers would be effective - no one else did.

It is often said have faith like a child - a child believes whole heartedly, we adults question, have doubts etc...

Thanks for sharing your story...it is heart warming to read such a beautiful story on such a cold morning...

Edited by h&rblock - 14 years ago

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376447

Inactive

Posted: 14 years ago

Kal, I thought you would edit a bit especially the last line..................😳

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@h&rblock

Goldie

Posted: 14 years ago

Originally posted by: skeptical
Kal, I thought you would edit a bit especially the last line..................😳

Sorry about that, in a mad rush to get a presentation done - has been duly edited...my apologies again...

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