4KookieKids
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Posts posted by 4KookieKids
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22 hours ago, Moved On said:
Done, from my part.
Thanks. Do you ever PM? I had something I had wanted to share with you, but I don’t see the option to message you on your profile.
also, yes, ds was given a suitcase of erector stuff and Knex from an uncle who was really into it as a kid, and he plays with them very often! The things he builds are amazing! Recently not so much, because he saved for three years for a mindstorm and finally got it, so that has been his focus for the last few weeks. ?
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6 hours ago, Moved On said:
From the moment the OP shared it I wished she hadn't ...
4KookieKids, if you decide to delete that post I will gladly remove any references from my posts.
Yes please... I don’t always anticipate we’ll how others will respond, I guess. I thought I was sharing something slightly humorous and encouraging.
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This thread was really not intended to be a discussion of medication versus not… I’m sorry that I brought it up in the course of discussing evaluations! ? my general feelings are very different when the person in question is mature enough to be able to give appropriate feedback and is a decided part of discussions on how their care is managed and whether or not they want to be medicated. As an adult, DH went on ADD meds for a while, and the differences he described in how he could finally think clearly were nothing short of astonishing. He ended up going off them after a while for his own reasons, but I’m certainly not arguing that meds don’t have a place. There are obvious differences between my husband and my children, however. ?
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Nope, I haven’t... one more to add to the list! ?
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On 9/6/2018 at 10:18 PM, Moved On said:
4KookieKids, you might find this interesting.
- Understanding High Energy Gifted Kids
https://www.byrdseed.com/understanding-high-energy-gifted-kids/
Interesting read. Thanks.
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Thank you all for the input! In summary, we’re happy with our decision to go with the psych over the Ped. ?
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1 hour ago, Moved On said:
Here's another good one to check your library for, also from an OT.
And here's her site:
Also, think of things like... the trampoline doesn't just have to be for jumping. My 9-year-old and I will go out and lie on it and look at the clouds, observe birds and insects flying by (we are rural), etc. The other day I told my oldest, instead of reading his book indoors, to go out and read while lying on the trampoline. I am building on his reading focus with sounds around him. He really enjoyed it and you could tell it had a calming effect on him when he came in. Anyway, again, just some ideas for you to inspire your own ☺️.
All the best,
M
Yes! My ds loves to read on the trampoline in decent weather! He definitely finds it super calming and he’s so much more likely to enjoy his reading and less likely to get distracted. ?
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6 hours ago, Moved On said:
4KookieKids, have you tried nature walks and sensory activities? I can imagine with 4 little ones it must be a challenge, but nature walks is something you could do as a family, if you aren't already. That is what we do and it is really centering, especially for my 9-year-old. Also, we still do sensory activities. I still have a small sandbox outdoors and kinetic sand indoors. I have a ton of art supplies and will be incorporating more art to our school day this year. We are DIYers and love making things with our hands. Another thing to look at is gardening, if you have the space. All these activities are great for centering and it's the way I like to incorporate mindfulness. You can get tons of ideas for sensory activities for your little ones on Pinterest. I would not recommend having them working together at this stage, but you can do small activities with each one and incorporate OT into it.
I was thinking of you with 4 so close in age. I don't know how you do It! You will be in my prayers while I'm gone and I'll come back and let you know if I find the book useful.
Blessings,
M
You know, my initial reaction was to say that yes, we do nature walks and other sensory activities. But I wonder if maybe we don't do them consistently enough. We're part of a local CM group, but we haven't be going consistently, so I feel like some days and even weeks, we do miss it. I'm not sure why we miss it sometimes, since we really love being outdoors and hiking together... Busyness of life? I need to be more mindful. We like to do yoga as a family, since dh has back problems. Yoga with 3 and 4 year olds is pretty funny. ? We do lots of kinetic sand and sandbox play as wells, but now that I'm actually thinking about it, I think ds may disappear to do legos often when we pull out the kinetic sand, so I'm not sure if he actually does it with us.... We have a sensory bin/table of stuff that we put together ourselves, but again, I'm not sure if he actually participates during those play times. Hmmm... I guess I need to think about this more.
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Ha ha. Well now I’ll juat have a shelf full of books to read while you’re gone. ? yes, giftedness is in the mix too, so there’s a lot of 2e stuff to tease apart. And lots to read!!
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2 minutes ago, Moved On said:
I am glad to hear your psych is more interested in trying strategies instead of going the meds route from the start ? .
Yes, she’s never even brought it up. Only DH has so far, and that only to say that he may be willing to consider it at some point. ? which of course begs the question of why were even looking at evals, but oh well. More understanding of the situation can’t hurt, right?!
Our issues do seem to go beyond a need for movement, or I probably wouldn’t bother with the eval. I’m fine with putting trampoline breaks on the schedule every half hour and doing math upside down while practicing head stands, you know? There are just other things that I could use more help managing. ?
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3 hours ago, PeterPan said:
That's baloney on the hyper-focusing meaning not ADHD. ADHD is technically mis-placed focus, not an inability to focus. The meds question though really needs to back up and be asked in light of the genetics. If you put the dc on meds and his methyl levels go up and bring out the bipolar, not so cool. It happens.
Yes, this is something I will need to look into more since we do have a family history of that.
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On 9/4/2018 at 7:37 PM, Moved On said:
I would agree with the psych eval, especially if you are going to go ahead with meds. Some psychologists can prescribe meds, otherwise you can see a psychiatrist for that. I personally would not have a ped administer meds. That's just me!
We have decided against meds (ADHD meds have been recommended for my youngest) for now but that is purely our decision and it is not based on fear of bipolar (or aggression) since there is no mental illness in our family history on either side.
For now, I am glad that the Psych we are seeing is just interested in trying to help us figure things out, and continuing to give us strategies and skills to make our lives more pleasant. ?
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Ps I’m not sure if I want meds or not. DH thinks that if they help, we should try them. Basically, our old psych who retired wanted him evaluated for adhd but the np said no, he has a tendency to hyper focus. But In this last 6-8 months, I’ve asked a lot of unrelated questions on these boards (handwriting, organization, writing out math thoughts, etc, etc) and folks keep asking if adhd has been considered. I don’t see a common thread in these questions I’m asking, so I find it’s odd that adhd is somehow coming up over and over again. So it seemed time to investigate it a bit more thoroughly. But I’m not sure to what end I guess, other than to help ds in half a dozen areas where he’s struggling, possibly?
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Well I omitted lots of info abt might have been relevant, but we did talk with the psych about it today.
He has an ASD2 dx from someone else and she wants to revisit that bc she thinks he may only need level 1 support right now. But she did say that she’s the one to tease apart the ASD, giftedness, and possible anxiety and adhd, and not the Ped. A neuropsych was supposed to evaluate for adhd two years ago but the current psych said that the np didn’t actually do that, based on the report that was written. So the ball is rolling and we’ll see where it goes!
Thanks!
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Title pretty much says it all. I can't really find online a recommendation on which one might be better for evaluating for and diagnosing adhd. A neuropsych report from two years ago when ds was 7 ruled out adhd, but it was solely on the basis of how ds did on one tapping test, and the rest of the report is full comments about how other input (from parents and friends) all point to hyperactivity and inattention... So I'd like to revisit this point.
I have better rapport with our ped, but ds gets on really well with his psych, and she probably knows him better as she sees him more often. Is there any reason to choose one over the other? I see them both this week anyway. ?
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PS it was sort of intended to be a more general thread, but maybe it was also a bit of a rant because life feels lonely sometimes. But also I had just been really checking my own heart when I realized how easily I share dd’s dyslexic struggles, and contrasted that with how unlikely I am to share mykids’ Other struggles. The point made above about how different struggles affect others vs the individual is an interesting one.
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I will look into that book and reactive hypoglycemia and see if our Ped can check it. It would be great if her issues really were as simple as blood sugar. ?
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3 hours ago, PeterPan said:
The other twist is genetics and how your take would change, what labels you identify with, would change if you got genetic information on underlying causes, possible syndromes, etc. Have you done the SPARK study yet?
We did participate in SPARK, but haven’t heard anything back from them, and they said we might not get any information back at all.
To be clear, this isn’t just one kid, and the bipolar label isn’t official (yet?), but it’s the one most of our professional team keeps bringing up for this one child, while our psych flat out won’t evaluate for it because she says it’s too hard to distinguish from adhd at this young age. That’s fine with us- we weren’t looking for a label and are not (currently) interested in meds, though that may change down the road. I have at least three immediate family members and an additional 4-6 extended family members with bipolar, so It’s not completely foreign to me... but we’ve also seen it managed very poorly and want to focus on things besides meds for now is all.
I felt he need to clarify just so I didn’t feel like i was giving a false impression. ?
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Yes, she definitely has sensory issues. Our old psych (we loved her... but she retired... ? ) wanted us to get in to an OT for sensory issues when dd was 3, but insurance wouldn't cover it at the time. Our library does not have the book you linked (the closest library copy is 166 miles away, in fact...), but I'll look into purchasing it once I finish up some of my other reading. So much to read and learn! ?
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4 minutes ago, PeterPan said:
I think this is a really important part of the journey.
Yes, my dh has told me repeatedly that the friends I was closest to while pursuing ds's ASD eval were awful and I needed new friends. But our kids were and remain really good friends... They definitely suggested that it was all in my imagination and that psychologists were of the devil and should never be trusted, anyway. It was a bit traumatic for me at the time (seems dramatic to say, but that's what it felt like, being told this by one of my best friends at a point when I felt like I was completely drowning under the weight of four young kids, with one an infant and at least two with extra needs). After that, I didn't really confide in very many people besides our professional team and my husband and two other good friends that I eventually opened up to. I appreciate the two friends that I can actually talk with. They're not in the same boat at all, but they listen and brainstorm with me and are generally very supportive.
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As in, I don’t really think twice before dropping words like anxiety and sensory processing and dyslexia when I am discussing my children’s challenges with people, but it would be extremely rare for me to mention words like bipolar or autism to folks who weren’t in a need to know sort of position. Is that wrong? Is that me projecting my own biases on to other? I’d like to think that I am protecting my children from other people‘s ignorance and judgment, but I wonder if I am contributing to the culture of stigma By not talking about these things.
In part, I think I’ve just been burned by trying to talk to friends, and having them tell me I’m overreacting or that this is just normal for children. But it’s just so much easier to talk about dyslexia, as it’s understood that it’s not the kids fault, not my fault, and it’s not a behavioral issue. Things like autism and bipolar, I often feel like people assume I have done something wrong, and my parenting skills are just in adequate.
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No tell me about this? I think we are ready for Percision work.
Feingold Diet
in The Learning Challenges Board
Posted
This is really encouraging to me, because we’ve tried a number of diet (eg gfcd) that others raved about that didn’t really help us, so I really haven’t been looking at other diets. Honestly, it got so overwhelming with all the different and conflicting ideas! But this gives me hope that even if we haven’t found one that really fits us yet, it’s still worthwhile to try things that others have had success with. I’m curious if you can recall what other diets were on the list besides gfcf, Feingold, and low phenol? We’ve also tried AIP and a top-8 allergen elimination thing.