I just found out today Pinesol works really well. The cat pee enzyme things work, too, but Pinesol is way cheaper!

My grandma has gotten Scabies from doctors offices before. :( Might want to rule that out!

I used to do Shotokan karate. It was like 30 or 40 a month for three trainings a week. I honestly can't remember if there was a testing fee! They did tests a few times a year and you'd also go to a clinic with one of the big sinseis before the testing. I'm wondering if maybe there was a clinic fee. You didn't have to go to the clinic, it just looked better, probably. :) If there is a bigger fee for a black belt, I have no clue. It took a LONG time to get there. (I wasn't even close) I never heard of anything like that, but it's possible. I honestly doubt it, though.

I loved that until you said that. :) Haha! I know what the first thing my boys would think of....."Let's play Wipeout!" My boys are 4 and 5 and do great in bunk beds. They've never fallen out of beds and are so into rules. There are "rules" stuck to the bed (came that way) and my 4 year old tells everyone who comes over what they say. They have been really good so far about not climbing around or doing things they aren't supposed to. However, they rarely sleep in their own beds. They're either both on top or both on bottom.

I was going to suggest adrenal fatigue, too. Stress and lack of sleep do not do good things for your adrenals. And the effects will last for a LONG time after the stress is gone. And adrenal fatigue can affect your thyroid, immune system...all sorts of things. Get on a B complex asap and then start doing some research....get those adrenals back in working order!

I don't mean to hijack, but maybe this would be helpful to you, too, OP.... Sandy - Do you know anything about heavy metal toxicity being related to these things? It's something that was suggested to me (not by a dr.) because of my 4 year old's dye issues. And he was exposed to drugs and cigarettes before birth, which contain so many awful heavy metals. I am wondering if I should take that route.

This is who helps me with my hormone issues: http://www.happyhormonecottage.com/index.htm I know they have some links/info/resources on their site and probably have some things about this subject on there. I haven't looked around the resources much. I'm 33, so not quite there yet, but dropping weight was the first thing that happened to me when I started getting my hormones straightened out.

Good post. It's amazing what food allergies can do to the immune system. Or things like Celiac.

An ENT decided to take them out. My pediatrician kept telling me "Yeah, they're big, but let's just watch them. He'll probably grow into them." ("them" being his tonsils) We go to the chiropractor once a month and he was always keeping an eye on his breathing (asthma) and looking at his tonsils. He finally said "I know your pediatrician wants to wait, but I think he needs to see an ENT." When a chiropractor tells you to go to a medical doctor you know to jump to it. :) So we went and the ENT said "No, he won't grow into them. Tonsils grow until they are about 6 years old, so they are only going to get bigger." In March of last year when he had his surgery (he was 4) he weighed 36 pounds. Today he weighs 55! After his surgery he started eating like crazy and sleeping SO much better. (he had sleep apnea from his tonsils) I feel awful because I waited so long and he was probably starving because he couldn't eat well and just felt bad all the time. :( So, it might not be the issue with your ds, but it could be something just as simple just keeping his little body run down. :grouphug:

Minus the blood work, my son was sick like that until he had his tonsils and adenoids removed. He was sick every 3 weeks on the mark. Pneumonia one time. He has asthma, but attacks only when he's sick. But he was seriously sick constantly until his surgery. Looking back at photos he really did look sickly....skinny, pale, dark circles under his eyes.

We are in Dayton. :) But it's very possible our church looked to yours when developing a lot of this. I know our staff has visited a lot of other churches for ideas and help!

I say this as an adoptive mommy.... Once my mom and I were talking about foster care (they were foster parents before I was born) and she was saying something about how people her age should be the ones to foster older kids and it had crossed her mind, but she feels too busy with the grandkids (she has six grandkids 5 and under) right now. End of conversation. I was thinking about it later and was thinking how I would be so sad if she did it and it took time away from my kids. And I know how selfish that sounds, but it's really how I felt...feel. I didn't grow up with grandparents and am SO thankful my parents live down the street and have such an amazing relationship with my kids. I don't want anything to take that away.

My boys were adopted a birth, so different situation. We have open adoptions, but they don't have contact with her. They just know her by her first name.

I think China Arnold might have been drunk or high or something when she did it. I can't imagine someone doing that unless something was wrong with them. But I also can't imagine someone being so drunk they'd do something like that, either.

I guess I should ask dh about it. He wouldn't have been a teenager, but older than my kids. I could totally see him being like my 5 year old, though, and completely oblivious...more concerned about what color light saber someone had at the moment or something. :)

I tell my kids it's a swim suit. My four year old is so weird about stuff like this. When he first started talking, the first time he saw someone out in shorts he started pointing and screaming "naked!" He wants his shirts buttoned up to his neck because people will see his chest. And he cried the first time I got shorts out for him this summer because he was afraid people would think he was wearing underwear. But...he really likes girls. He thinks all girls are just beautiful...big, little, any skin tone, any hair style...they are all just beautiful. And he does notice when they are scantily clad. My five year old wouldn't notice if his life depended on it. So, my four year old definitely noticed Leia and talked about that scene a lot. I just told him she was wearing her swim suit and left it at that.

Our church does, fingerprints and all. They do it right at church...they have a machine that does your fingerprints and they scan you license. I even had to do it just to help with check in....standing in the hallway at a computer helping the parents check their kids in. No, it doesn't offend me. All the safety precautions my church takes is one of he reasons I chose this church. Whether I'd go to a church who didn't, I don't know. I guess it would just all depend on the whole thing. If I didn't feel like safety precautions were taken, I wouldn't go. At our church you check your kid in, get a tag, they get name tags with a matching number/letter combo (randomly generated each time) and you have to have that tag to pick up your child. If you don't, they have to get one of the staff to ok the child's release. Which I really like. So, I'd have a hard time dropping my kids off in a room and then picking them up without anyone knowing if they were even my kids!

I didn't realize China Arnold had gotten life in prison. (finally) I'm in Dayton, so it's been on the news for years. It must have happened the year my oldest was born. :( I had a friend who was on the prosecutor team during one of the trials.

Isn't there something about vinegar that is supposed to work?

Never learned a thing about PR in school. I think I figured it out from the Miss America Pageant. :001_huh: I also never learned about WWI, Korean War or Vietnam and I'm still bitter about that.

I saw the video that pink bikini picture is from. If she's 16, she shouldn't be singing or acting like she does in that video!

Both of my boys only did tantrums at 4. Once my oldest turned 5 he stopped. My youngest is 4-1/2 and is getting better, but still does it. I have no idea where the terrible twos or threes came from...it's 4 around here.

I think it's crazy. Her parents are younger than her husband. I watched a couple of her music videos and they are quite disturbing. She doesn't have musical talent (but I'm sure plenty of musicians out there don't), but she just sits there rubbing all over herself and it's just really disturbing. I don't think she looks 16 either.There's something not right about the whole story.