Best of luck!

There's some loophole at the FDA where medical devices have a significantly lower research evidence threshold for approval than medications do. I know I read a recent article about the topic that discussed problems caused by devices approved based on highly dubious studies (small sample sizes and short durations). Maybe this article?

There is, however, evidence that Americans of European heritage are genetically more prone to ADHD than Europeans. The hypothesis is that our ancestors who took the risky journey to come to the New World were more novelty-seeking and less risk-averse than those who stayed in the Old World.

Except diabetes has clear diagnostic tests that rely on objective measurements rather than subjective observations & self-reports. No doctor would prescribe insulin without first running urine & blood tests to confirm the patient actually has diabetes. Unfortunately there aren't those kinds of lab tests for ADHD and as a result many kids are misdiagnosed when the real issue is something else.

Our integrative neurodevelopmental pediatrician wrote an entire book on the subject. That said, we exhausted his list of suggestions and my special needs child was still having symptoms severe enough to interfere with daily activities. So the doctor recommended pharmaceutical treatments. He's not anti-medication but feels (and I agree) that they should be a last resort rather than the first thing tried. I don't regret going the natural route first because it allowed me to medicate without feeling any guilt over it.

Narcissists are superficially very charming. They are excellent at manipulating people's emotions to get the other people to do what the narcissist wants.. Someone who is manipulative like that has to be very good at reading the other people's emotions. People with HFA struggle with interpersonal interactions and typically others find them awkward. They struggle with "theory of mind" and recognizing how other people are feeling. Very, very different disorders.

On vaccines, I am still in favor of a selective, delayed schedule. What has changed is that whereas when my older kids were toddlers there were only around 65 measles cases/year in the entire US, now there are several hundred. So while child #3 received the MMR at 3 years, baby #4 will receive the MMR no later than 12 months, and quite possibly at 10 months if we wind up taking him to Europe in August as we are considering (DH is going for sure and the baby & I are most likely going too). I have always felt that there were risks to both getting the vaccine and delaying the vaccine. The greater the number of US cases, the greater the risk to my child in delaying a particular vaccine. I really wish that the Federal government would make proof of immunity to measles a requirement for entering or re-entering the US because that would drastically cut back on the number of cases. Every single outbreak in recent years can be traced back to someone getting infected overseas and then bringing it with them. From a civil liberties perspective, it is FAR less problematic IMHO for the Federal government to say that non-immune people can't get or renew their passports until they get vaccinated than it is for the government to link compulsory education and forced vaccination.

Maybe, and a gynecologist can run tests to help determine that. But because there is a possibility the symptoms could be something serious, the OP needs to go see her doctor and not just assume it's normal perimenopause. No reason to panic, OP, but do go see your doctor if you are still having symptoms and no positive pregnancy test in a week.

Test again in a week, and if it's still negative go see your gynecologist.

Like one of the PP, I have different expectations for different children. My oldest two are absolutely capable of earning a bachelor's degree at minimum. Finances are not an obstacle to the CC-and-transfer-to-a-state school route. Possibly by the time my 7th grader is old enough to attend we might be in a position to afford 4 years at a private college. My 3rd has multiple disabilities and while it's too early to know for sure, there is a very real possibility that she won't be able to do a bachelor's or even associate's degree (as opposed to participating in one of the special programs for adults with developmental disabilities). My 4th is an infant and while we hope he will be typically developing, it's far too soon to tell.

I want to say that one of the We Thinkers (formerly Incredible Flexible You) books deals with this concept. It was definitely covered in the social skills group that used We Thinkers as the "spine". How old is the child in question? We Thinkers is useful IMHO throughout elementary even if Michelle Garcia Winner touts it for ages 4-7. But if the child is older than about 10, he/she would likely find it too juvenile.

Passing Algebra 1 or a 2 year Algebra 1A & 1B should be a requirement for a general ed diploma IMHO. Now I *DO* disagree with the push to require Algebra 2 for graduation.

{{{{hugs}}}} I was dreading the response to our most recent pregnancy so much that I never did a big social media announcement.

With a family history of diabetes, I would do a modified Mediterranean. I would limit carbs more than a standard Mediterranean diet does. Even healthy carbs like sweet potatoes, carrots, fruit, beans, whole grains, etc. can mess with blood sugar too much for someone with pre-diabetes.

FWIW, almost everyone I know my age or younger who started out as a journalist wound up switching to a different profession. The industry never figured out how to successfully transition to the digital age. The one exception is my cousin, who has what sounds like the most boring job in journalism. He used to be a sports journalist but as his undergraduate major was economics, he wound up assigned to the finance news department of The Wall Street Journal. So all those quarterly earnings reports that investor relations professionals like my DH write, my cousin turns into articles for WSJ. ZZZZZZZZZ...

My grandma's cousin was a nun and physician who ran a charity hospital in Guatemala. That kind of devotion to God and living the Gospel by serving the needy is very appealing.

Interesting, but given that these "autistic" mice have been bred with a single particular mutation, I'm not sure how well they are a model for all the other subtypes of autism. What is true for these mice could lead to treatments for children with the same mutation, and that's fantastic. But those treatments may not work for all the other kids whose autism has a different cause.

Kind of. I wish that i had known at 20 that it would turn out to be fairly easy for me to conceive a baby at 41. I gave up a career dream (becoming a physician) because I was afraid that if I spent my 20's in medical school and residency, that would mean I wouldn't be able to have as many children as I hoped. My parents were in their early 40's at the time and several of their friends were going through infertility struggles. I didn't realize that while it's common to have age-related fertility problems, I personally wouldn't. BUT if I had gone to medical school, I wouldn't have my 2 oldest kids. So I can't really say that I wish my life were totally different. I looked into nurse practitioner master's degree programs a few years ago but my science pre-reqs are too old so I'd have to retake all those courses. No thanks.

Are there going to be other mutual friends at the wedding whom you haven't seen in a while?

If you are in the income range for EITC, I believe you should qualify to get free tax assistance. My dad volunteered for the VITA program for years (he didn't this year because he was helping support his sister during her husband's cancer treatment and passing).

We had two rescue dogs that we ended up giving away to a different rescue organization several years later when we had a change in personal circumstances & could no longer keep them. We couldn't take them back to the original organization because it was on the opposite coast. That may have violated some clause in the adoption agreement but I don't feel any guilt over it.

Your district is required under the Child Find law to do a free comprehensive IEP assessment. That includes speech and OT plus I would push for a reading assessment because even though she's young, if she's struggling with phonemic awareness that is a "red flag" for dyslexia. Dyslexia can be diagnosed as young as age 4 and the sooner you start intervention, the easier it is to get caught up. Auditory processing is done through an audiologist and your child has to be 7-8 (depending on the clinic).

Tax cheating would be significantly more of a problem if the government didn't require withholding. There already is a LOT of cheating going on with tips and cash payments but at least the majority of workers do pay their legally required taxes because of withholding.

Someone in my freshman dorm almost died. Fortunately her roommate recognized that something was seriously wrong in time to get her to the ER. She spent several days in the ICU very touch & go. I'm a selective vaccinator but my teens get both the Menactra and the Bexsero shots.

That's because it's becoming clear that what we call "autism" is similar to "fever" in that there are many different underlying disorders causing it. My daughter's autism turned out to be part of a neurological syndrome. I was SOOOO sure it couldn't be genetic because no one else in the family has ASD (not even undiagnosed Asperger's/HFA). Turned out that it was the result of a spontaneous "de novo" mutation. We never even would've gotten a proper diagnosis if I hadn't been pushy enough to fight for whole exome sequencing genetic testing.