by Sarah | Oct 25, 2007 | Uncategorized
Over 1 million Bumbo Seats recalled!
Basically these Bumbo seats are being recalled because of a handful of stupid people that put their babies in these seats in high places. Babies, curious in nature, lean over and fall down…several have ended up with skull fractures.
So, in essence…bumbo seat – GOOD…people – BAD.
So, millions of children that have foudn relief from reflux thanks to these seats will be robbed of such goodness because of a few people that didn’t think before placing their Bumbo seats at a height.
by Sarah | Oct 25, 2007 | RSS
RSS is short for Russell-Silver Sydrome. It’s also frequently referred to as Russell-Silver Dwarfism. But, the dwarfism (short stature) aspect of it isn’t a required symptom. Molly is anything but short-statured, but she has 90-95% of the other symptoms. It is almost always connected with SGA (small-gestational-age), or IUGR (intra-uterine-growth-retardation).
RSS is diagnosed by a doctor’s observation. At the moment, there is no lab test that can be run to make a conclusive diagnosis. It is a genetic disorder, but not yet tied to one specific genotype.
Some of the ‘symptoms’ or ‘red flags’ for this disorder:
- Consistently low weight-for-height measurements (FTT)
- Lack of interest in eating
- Body Asymmetry (this one is seen in MOST cases)
- Inadequate ‘catch-up’ growth during first two years
- Broad forehead
- High and narrow palate
- clinodactyly
- syndactyly
- cafe-au-lait spots
- dimples in hips and shoulder blades
- scoliosis
- prominent, low set, or backward rotated ears
- Underdeveloped chin and midface
- small triangular jaw
- Abnormally large head for body size (side effect of FTT)
- Arm span less than height (short arms)
- Poor muscle tone/lack of muscle mass
- Flat-narrow feet
- Short, stubby fingers and toes
- Unusually high-pitched voice in early years
- cryptorchidism
- hypospadius
- Bluish tint to the whites of the eye
- Intestinal movement abnormalities (Reflux, delayed stomach emptying/vomiting, constipation)
- Fasting hypoglycemia
- Metabolic Acidosis
- Delay of Gross and Fine Motor Development
- Kidney abnormalities (Horshoe Kidney, Posterior urethral valves, Renal tubular acidosis, Hydronephrosis)
- Delayed bone age early on, with fast advancement later
- Late closure of anterior fontanel
- Precocious Puberty
- ADD and/or specific Learning Disabilities
- Growth Hormone Deficiency
- Absence of second premolars
- Lack of subcutaneous fat
That is a rundown of the many symptoms that can be present. Tomorrow I will go into more of what it means for a child/their family growing up with RSS. How some of the symptoms can affect your life (night sweats, LD’s)…and how some are just purely physical manifestations that don’t affect your life.
by Sarah | Oct 22, 2007 | Autism
Every once in a while Molly comes out of her little world and stuns us. Tonight was one of those nights. She had a VERY long day, but still managed to amaze us, and her teachers.
She got up about 7:30 AM today (early for her, usual is about 9:30), and we fed them and took them for K’s feeding study (see below). Afterward we had to take Molly directly to preschool, without a nap. I thought I’d pick her up and they’d say she was a horribly unhappy child. I got told the OPPOSITE!! They said she was talking up a storm…even a couple of full sentences like “read a book” and “shut the door”!!!
Amazed, I took her and K and DC to DC’s parent-teacher conference where she was somewhat reserved. Got her home, laid her down for approx. 1.5 hours, and then got them up to get ready for Molly’s parent-teacher conference.
I don’t know when the aliens came and took my baby and replaced her…but whoever the child I had tonight was…OH MY GOD! She talked…and talked…and talked. And about 25% of it was intelligible!!! Real sentences. Real jabber sentences (involving pointing at me to get her point across)…jabber mixed with real words…”Look! Car!! *jabber jabber jabber* Look! Is wet!”
She stayed like that through her parent teacher conference all the way until we came home…amazing her teachers/threapists…and daddy!!! And ME!! Sometimes she is so amazing, it makes my heart swell!!!
by Sarah | Oct 22, 2007 | Hypotonia
We (finally) have SOME answers with K’s feeding issues! Turns out that what we’ve been told for months is WRONG!! Everyone kept saying her tongue lateralization (chew) was fine…and that something was happening with the swallow. It was how it looked to us all. Well, that was totally wrong. The reason why it looks like things were going down so rough is because…they ARE! K isn’t chewing! She’s sucking on the food, then swallowing. Apparently, her suck looks like a good round chew because she struggles with the suck as well. So, everything she’s been eating, she’s been swallowing whole! So we have to re-focus and re-double our efforts in a totally different way.
1. Don’t feed her a bottle first at actual mealtimes. Have her eat the solids first and finish off with a bottle.
2. Try high calorie yogurts and cottage cheese (with fruit for sweetness), etc.
3. Run our dinner foods through the food processor
4. Back off baby food as much as we can.
5. Work on using “stick” foods (cheeto’s) to try to get her to bite with her back ‘teeth’ (she doesn’t have teeth yet, but using that area).
6. Do NOT let her eat unsupervised (obviously)
7. Be aware that a “safe” bite size for her is the same size as the tip of her pinky…which, with K, is less than a centimeter, more like a millimeter.
8. Make sure that she’s getting at least one pediasure a day (she gave us a TON free…YAY)…but otherwise focus on solid foods so that she learns how to chew/use her oral motor muscles.
So. Those are a light dose of the tips she gave us. I’m SOOO glad we went. We go back in a month for a follow up visit. We’re supposed to have her weight before then (works out that she has her nutritionist visit right before).
It’s nice to have some answers!!!
by Sarah | Oct 20, 2007 | Random
This entire article is exceedingly true for our family. We haven’t started going to the food pantry yet…but it has been in my thoughts. Wal-Mart reducing it’s prices are about the only thing keeping us (somewhat) afloat right now:
Groceries paycheck to paycheck
