Valiant_Skylark

Awww, that's lovely! Eldest son still gets his vest on back to front (aged 11) but swears he does it on purpose. Yeah, right... VS xx

Ceecee, Bless, I'll join you...! VS xx

Because of Ian Jordan I can read this computer screen for long enough, without a headache and feeling sick, to type out the answers that I do. Thanks, Ian, VS xx PS The boys are doing better too.

Just browsing Medline, came across this... and thought of you. Any help? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...8364&query_hl=1 VS xx

Just for your interest (don't know if the link will work) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...9642&query_hl=1 VS xx

Trust your instincts. You are the evaluator here and you certainly should be wary if you feel at all "bullied" into such an important decision. As you are not dogmatic, one way or the other, could you ask for more time to research options and come to a decision that leaves you feeling more comfortable? I think I'd be like you... check everything else out first and leave medication as a last option. Medication clearly is appreciated by many of the parents and children that I come across, but I, personally, can't help but be concerned about the long-term effects of these drugs eg down-regulation of receptors for the chemicals, drug/food interactions, child vs adult recipient, effects on other body/brain systems etc. Also, I've been made pretty sick, in the past, by drugs that I was assured would help me, or at the least, not harm me. I'm a lot more wary these days. Having said that, there does come a point where the quality of life becomes so low that it is, arguably, worth the risk that taking medication incurs. I take thyroxine, for example, because without it my quality of life was, in my own opinion, too poor to tolerate. The point I'd make is that only you know what is tolerable for you, and I don't believe any "expert" should be putting pressure on you to go against your gut instinct. Be strong, whatever decision you come to will be the right one... for you. VS xx

Didn't mince his words, did he?! Well done, Stewart, for taking the words right out of my mouth. Thanks for posting that, Brook. VS xx

Just brilliant! VS xx

Hi Pim, Looking at the (miniscule) print on the container, MorEPA does not appear to contain any Evening Primrose Oil. Suggest you phone "Healthy and Essential" on 08700 53 6000 or e-mail on info@healthyandessential.com to confirm though... don't just take my word for it... just in case. VS xx ps I'd always suggest checking with your healthcare provider before starting any supplement, especially as your child might be affected in a way that you would not wish. Then do remember to tell anyone involved with the child exactly which supplements and how much he is on. This may be important when considering things like drug interactions, pre-op info etc etc. Better to be conservative in treating these "supplements" with respect? I, for example, even tell the dentist that my boys are on x, y and z... Sometimes, too, you'd be surprised what these people have to "add" to the story.

Jools, Do go on about dyspraxia... any tips gratefully received (from one whose son did the "Write from the Start programme" TWICE... and never got much better)! VS xx

Darky, Could you have "confounded" your experiment? If a child is, potentially, "made worse" by anything with casein in it (ie dairy products) then buying products with considerable amounts of casin in might well cause ill effects, despite supposedly being "good" because of their EFA content? Perhaps you could try again with a more "pure" product for the fish oils? I use MorEPA from "Healthy and Essential". We too saw improvements within the first two weeks of using these products, particularly in attention, and notice, even now, a difference if we drop them. VS xx

I currently use Ariel liquitabs coz: 1. powders (any) give us eczema, even with extra rinsing 2. Ariel liquid sets my skin off occasionally if I spill it 3. Many "sensitive skin" products still make us sore and simply don't get the stains out of clothes (Are we unusually grubby?!) 4.wash balls didn't get the job done either (We do change our clothes daily... Honest!!! ) The Ariel liquitabs get the job done and wash out really well (although I do have a super-duper washing machine nowadays) and I can handle them with bare (dry) hands without reacting at all. I use all formulae available, depending on what wash I'm doing eg colour or non-bio etc The worst offender for us is "Fairy"... in any form. I also react to most (dish)washing up liquids, even if I wear protective gloves, which is a bit inconvenient! I now use "Galaxy washing up liquid" which was, until I looked recently, stocked by Sainsbury. Goodness knows what I'll use if it is no longer made/stocked. I can't get on with the "sensitive skin" ones that might be substitutes. Also in my cupboards are supplies of a product called "Dermashield", a barrier cream, which is great for applying before any job like handling oil/paint etc. I buy 3 at a time from Goldshield Healthcare (mail order) and it lasts me for ages. When the time comes, I'll give the TAs a supply for applying pre science (esp chemistry) lessons for eldest son as a "precaution". Now that I've been off the dairy foods for some time, it's clear that the dairy was making me even more sensitive to all the above products in some way. I've been clear of hand rashes for ages now. VS xx

Safest thing might be to go back to the person who wrote the report and ask them to clarify exactly what they mean. There is so much confusion in these fields, with the same words having differing meanings (wider, narrower... or completely different...) that to lay one's own interpretation might be tricky and inaccurate! Very roughly, for "semantic" I usually read "relating to the meaning of words". Good luck, VS xx ps My son did not have "normal" language development but he still got the AS rather than HFA label. I don't think my Paed. differentiated between HFA and AS on the basis of early language development quite so literally. My son still has differences in his language use even now, but it shows up more in his use of written language these days.

Love reading the "good" news that gets posted! Well done Auriel. (I'd have been dead chuffed too, Bid ) Valiant_Skylark xx

OK so I'm a grown-up, but one reason I'm wary of being praised is the pressure I feel to be able to replicate the acheivement. For a person who suffers a sense of fluctuating abliities from day to day, it can be quite a "burden" if the "praise" implies a sense of "future expectations". This fluctuation in ability level is, I believe, quite common in dyspraxia for one. Anyone else react the same as me? Having said that, I also need praise for soul-growth, just like anybody else, I suppose? Hubby often despairs of me, saying I never listen to anything he says that's good about me... and, in contrast, I positively soak up criticism like a sponge. I must be really hard to live with!!! Actually, I do take in the praise on one level - if I feel it is genuine - but the sense of "not ok" is never far away. All I can suggest, from my own experience, is to keep praise totally genuine, as increasing confidence without increasing competence is heading for a fall anyway? My boys seem to believe positive comments far more readily if they see them written down by somebody else - Then it MUST be true!!! Good luck with this one - It's a toughie. Valiant_Skylark xx

Don't feel bad, Jonathan. My Dad put our first car in a ditch - with us in it - trying to learn to drive. His vision wasn't really reliable enough and his co-ordination worries sound very like yours, although his fine motor skills were excellent and he did "precision" work. Eventually he gave up trying and my Mum drove us all around instead. I've never, ever considered my father "gutless". I think he was "before his time" in recognising his limitations and I think his decision not to drive was a very courageous one. He knew himself best. I passed my driving test first time, although I had loads of lessons, and the driving instructor was always telling me to "go faster". I was a very cautious learner!!! I started driving in manual Mini and enjoyed it. The roads were far quieter than they are today. All I noticed was that I needed to drive carefully within the speed limit and did little motorway driving anyway. I did notice that I had a problem with night driving and was "blinded" by the oncoming lights. I avoided driving after dusk and stuck to lit roads. I also drove tractors with trailers and found I was fine with these as I could see all four corners easily. Even reversing trailers was mastered spatially. But I found the constant tooing and froing on tractors made me get motion sickness and gave me headaches. I also found I had difficulty swapping from being on tractors all day to driving a car again. It was hard to adjust to the correct pressure on the pedals qv proprioception difficulties? Similarly I used to dread having to use "pool cars" as I took a lot longer to find the right pressure for the pedals than other people. Being short,I often found the pool cars were "too big" and I had difficulty reaching the pedals etc anyway, which always un-nerved me as I was told to "just get on with it". Help! (I hope this wouldn't be allowed to happen at work in this day and age?!) Later, in much bigger cars, I noticed I had subtle problems with depth perception. Parking the car in a crowded car park was tricky. If someone parked up too close to me I would have to sit and wait until the owner returned before I could drive off. I wondered if it was because I was driving a car with no power steering, because, these days, people assume you can corkscrew your motor out of the tiniest gaps... just because their car has this capability. I changed to a car with power steering. It was far easier, but I still found I had to actually get out of the car to see just how far away I was from an obstacle in parking. I began to think carefully about where I parked... so no-one could park up close. I got to events early and left late... to avoid the crush of cars. OH has to back my car on to "tight" driveway... (Oh and thanks to those who post on KRISM who have seen me out of "tight spots" in my car on occasions... They know who they are - you wonderful people you) I also noticed that I had difficulties driving on motorways in that it is more difficult to change lanes if you can't rely on your vision to be totally accurate about what is coming up on either side. I very rarely drive on motorways anymore although my driving instructor certainly considered me to be safe to do so when I passed my test. My night vision was a problem, it turns out, because of an uncorrected very mild astigmatism - it causes blurring of on-coming lights. However, when I went on MorEPA my night vision improved quite noticably, and I can now drive at night with little problem. I've often had to drive with the sun visor down. I've been assessed and told I have light sensitivity. A different assessment told me that the fact that the mild astigmatism was never picked up and treated has led to my having these subtle problems with depth and distance perception (amblyopia). It was agreed that my driving had been affected but that by being so ultra-careful and thinking of every strategy in the book I had remained accident-free for 25 years. I am, therefore, able to continue driving. OH changed all our cars to automatics as he has hip problems. WOW! Why didn't I do this before??? It is great! So easy. Now other NT people we know are changing to automatics and no-one wants to go back to a manual. Eldest son will, I think, struggle with taking everything into account on the roads in terms of attention and vision (together with co-ordination difficulties), although he can already drive tractors, mowers and quad bikes on private farm land under close supervision. I have warned him that learning to drive on the roads could be tricky for him, as it was for my father. We have agreed that, when the time comes, we will book him in for an assessment (�60 in today's prices) with MAVIS in Crowthorne and get an objective measure of his ability to cope with learning to drive. Hopefully this will mean that it is not me, personally, making the decision on whether he can learn to drive or not. I don't want to be shot as the messenger! We agreed between us that this is the fairest way of dealing with the situation as his own and other people's lives are ultimately at risk if we get it wrong. Eldest son seems happy with this at the mo. Valiant-Skylark xx

Be aware that AbilityNet exists. http://www.abilitynet.co.uk/ This is a charity which can advise on computer software and hardware which might be suitable for a person with disabilities. I went on two of their courses geared to dyslexia/dyspraxia and the handouts and demonstrations were excellent. I believe the website has downloadable factsheets these days? Valiant_Skylark xx

Our OT suggested buying short lengths of non-toxic fish pond tubing for the boys to chew on as part of their "ALERT programme". This works the jaw and joint muscles ie proprioceptive input, leading to a calming or alerting effect if their "engine" is running too high or too low. Youngest son is chewing his Beaver's necker furiously at the mo... Valiant_Skylark xx

Denise, Poor you, big hug. Gutted for you. I had cats too (burmese) who meant the world to me. I still miss them 10 years on. Cats may be "independent spirits" but we miss them dreadfully all the same. Sorry you have had to go through such a distressing incident. Take care, Valiant_Skylark xx

I remember "acne" coming up on the Paul Shattock questionnaire (before doing the urinary analysis) so there must be some sort of rationale for him asking this question! Anybody know what the link is??? Could anybody ask him if they bump into him? Or is it that our bodies are poor at detoxifying generally? I remember reading somewhere that a detox diet supposedly made autistics "feel better" but I can't remember exactly where I got that little gem. Valiat_Skylark xx

Brill Great to hear your good news! Valiant_Skylark xx

Youngest son carries round stones with him. Try handing him his coat and you'd think he had bricklaying at school that morning! And yes, I do have the washing machine man coming on wednesday to find out why said machine has an ominous grinding noise coming from it right now. Methinks youngest son will be a geologist. And what did eldest AS son bring back for younger son from the Yr6 trip? Well, having spent all his money on souvenirs for himself (sigh) he brought his brother back... a stone! Youngest son didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It's a start, we supposed. Valiant_Skylark xx

Youngest son, 7, (commenting dryly on a "Keep Shut, Fire Door" notice): "Well that's a bit stupid; How am I supposed to go through it and keep it shut at the same time?!" And... Mum: "You're getting too big for your boots." (To small son who is getting a might cocky as a Year 2...) Youngest son: "Well that's a bit silly. Of course I'll get too big for my boots; I'm too big for my slippers already!" Valiant_Skylark xx

I take a very similar stance to BADDAD. Valiant_Skylark xx

A link here to the "Food and Behaviour Research" pages. http://www.fabresearch.org/ This is a charitable organisation dedicated to both advancing scientific research into the links between nutrition and human behaviour and to making the findings from such research available to the largest possible audience. Founded by Dr Alex Richardson (Senior Research Fellow) and research biochemist, Marion Ross, both of Oxford University. Loads of really interesting stuff for all "info junkies" to overdose on!!! Discusses, for example, whether cod liver oil is "ok" to use for our sorts of kids. And tons more... Valiant_Skylark xx