Adoption Blogs

When I was shamelessly plugging the ATN Parenting Traumatized Children conference last week, I forgot to tell you about one of the best additions: the Pre-Conference Institute! On Wednesday, August 1, ATN is offering three day-long seminars that will be wonderful opportunities to explore topics in-depth. The one I’m personally excited about is Biomedical Interventions for Traumatized Children, and here’s why: In this 6-hour session, Dr. Phillip DeMio, Dawn Rossi and Lisa Porter will discuss the theory behind biomedical interventions that are proving successful for children from traumatized backgrounds. Dr. DeMio is a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctor. I’ve mentioned Dawn here before, and along with Lisa, they are researchers extraordinaire into the world of supplements, diets and other interventions designed to change our children’s brain chemistry. They… [more]

This was truly the theme song for my day. A bit of bad; a bit of good; and a heaping dose of ugly. First, the bad… My beloved cell phone (palm pilot) is apparently so old that they no longer make accessories for it. I’m discovering this is not an uncommon occurrence in the cell phone world. So, because the charger has quit working (except when held steady in the car), I have less than a battery’s worth of time to figure out what my next move is. Now, on to the ugly… We had an IEP meeting today. Yes, while the rest of the world has “IEP season” in that there’s a rush right before school is out to… [more]

Do you remember the mirror in the first Harry Potter book, the Mirror of Erised? The mirror showed Harry what he wanted to see. It was an enchanted mirror that showed the person looking at it what that person most desired (erised is desire spelled backward). I feel like we have a similar situation with LuLu every time she’s evaluated. She is like this mirror that psychologists and therapists peer into and see whatever they want to see as her diagnosis and problems. And because these folks are human, and have expertise in certain areas and not others, they see what they know the most about. The ones who know about autism see her as autistic… [more]

Dr. Ross Greene’s approach to helping explosive, inflexible children is actually quite different than most behavioral approaches. Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) requires that you truly shift out of the mode of trying to “fix” the behavior through rewards and punishments. The immediate goal of this approach is to lessen and shorten the “meltdowns” these inflexible children so often have. Anyone living with an explosive child knows how totally draining (and often debilitating) these meltdowns can be. The initial way to reduce the meltdowns is to reduce the demands placed on the child, to lessen his frustration and to tolerate some of the behaviors. Dr. Greene calls this a “basket” approach and asks parents to sort types of behaviors… [more]

Here’s LuLu practicing her passion…surgery! From the time she was little, even before she had language, LuLu was interested in all things medical. (She showed it first as an obsession with disposable gloves.) Interested is putting it mildly. She’s OBSESSED! Funny thing about obsessions. They are, as Kelly describes in a recent blog, very difficult behaviors to live with. They are the source of much odd behaviors, many meltdowns, lots of turmoil. But, once you, the parent, realize that they aren’t going away no matter how hard you try, they can be used for good. I have tired of her cutting up her dolls and toys, drawing surgical scars on herself and asking acquaintances very personal questions about… [more]

I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about Quantitative EEGs, a non-invasive way of examining the brain’s ability to function by examining it’s brainwaves. Here’s a more scientific description: In the last decade or so, a more advanced form of EEG has been developed, called quantitative EEG or qEEG, in which the signal is converted to digital form and compared to a database of individuals without any known neurologically based disorder. In this way, we are able to analyze the background activity with sophisticated statistical techniques to reveal patterns invisible to the naked eye. The results of these analyses can then be presented in graphical form, resulting in topographical displays of brain electrical activity - sometimes called “brain maps". LuLu has had three QEEGs… [more]

First off, the parent has to recognize that the disorder is there to begin with. This is part of the conversation that Nancy and I were having about “going deep” with relationships. Some children with attachment “issues” (I personally think it could be classified as a disorder, but many folks get all jumpy about labeling kids), are neurologically healthy enough in other ways that the ONLY sign of problems is within that primary caregiver/child relationship. The outside world sees a sweet, well-adjusted child. Some adoptive parents expect no more than that, perhaps because they have no other parenting experience to compare or because their background in relationships also has some levels of disconnect. Or perhaps the… [more]

I’m always humbled when Nancy thinks I’ve written something “fabulous”, (as she posted in a recent blog) especially when I’m pretty convinced that it’s mediocre at best. I’m not sure this article I’ve written for ADN’s newsletter is that great, but the topic is definitely worthy of discussion. The topic of how much we are responsible for, contribute to, or cause our children’s ability or inability to attach is a hot one for parents whose children have Attachment Disorder. We’ll see how the article is received by the membership of ADN in our upcoming newsletter. I still think there’s so much more that can be said on this topic. In fact, Attachment Disorder itself is such a… [more]

Feeling way out of my league biochemically, I waded in the research on why some doctors are prescribing Actos, a popular medication for treating Type II diabetes, to patients with autoimmune disorders. And ultimately, why our DAN! Doctor prescribed this for LuLu (and why we are seeing improvements.) If you understand the rest of this blog, it means I’ve figured it out…or at least partially. DAN! Doctors operate from the theory that autism (and other neurologically-based disorders – like ADHD, and perhaps Tourettes and Bipolar) are greatly impacted by the brain’s biochemistry. And that biochemistry is greatly impacted by the body’s immune system and its gastro-intestinal system…which is where much of the hormones affecting the brain are actual made. So, if a… [more]

Continuing on with my discussion about the article in Fostering Families magazine... Part One Part Two Part Three When my husband and I discussed this article and the whole “attachment therapy controversy”, he said it reminded him of the story recently where a surgeon cut off a guy’s healthy leg instead of his diseased leg… My husband wondered if we shouldn’t ban all amputations because that doctor made such a huge mistake? Later on in the article, Dr. Delaney quotes researcher Dr. Matthew Speltz as saying that... “‘...intensive attachment therapy’” may place the child at a high risk of emotional or physical injury and thus requires the highest levels of evidence justifying its use. He concludes that until such time that truly scientific study is done… [more]