I mentioned before that I made a clothes pin holder out of plastic bags. It was supposed to go to Frog for an MDC craft swap, but it turned out crooked and too awkward to send to anyone. However, it works just fine for me.
Sort of an Eh first try. It was going ok until I got to the top there and sort of made the bag smaller than the hanger. I got the directions from This awesome site. She makes all kinds of neat-o cool things out of plastic bags. I usually use my canvas bags for grocery shopping, so it will take me forever to gather up enough bags to try this again.
Friday’s meeting with Timothy’s school went sort of good and sort of bad.
The good; the school psychiatrist said Timothy scored higher than anyone else in the grade on the standardized test and they are going to test him for the gifted class. I had asked them to do that years ago and then dropped it for a few reasons. One being I did not want Timothy to be punished for being smart (they did a pull out thing in grade school and just gave the kids extra work, which seems unfair to me), another reason being that I did not want to appear to be a pushy hot-housing mom and the last reason was that I did not want Timothy to appear any more different. They also said Timothy is very polite, clever and a joy to talk to one on one. They assured me that they would work with us to find a way to help Timothy until the evals all came back. They have set things up so that Timothy will be allowed to doodle when he gets stressed (the act of coloring with a pencil seems to calm him down) and will encourage him to do deep breathing exercises when he starts to get upset. I told them what his triggers seem to be at home and how to quickly identify a melt down to head any incidents off right away. They said they will not push the eye contact issue as he appears to be paying complete attention all the time. Timothy will be going to the mentoring program again this year.
The bad; The school is resistant to testing for learning disabilities based on his test scores. I pointed out that someone can be gifted in one area and LD in another. (I explained that I have dyscalculia and no one caught it for years because my IQ is high enough that I was able to fake my way through school with a D average in all things math related except geometry, which I loved. Had I known I was not stupid all those years, I feel my school experience would have been much, much better. ) They reluctantly agreed to do a complete assessment including the LD screen. They really want me to follow through with the neurobehavioral assessment, and I agreed.
The ugly; I found out that Timothy has been hitting himself more than once a day and experiencing what I can only describe as fugue states. A teacher who has known him for the last two years attended the meeting and said that Timothy had hit himself the last two years too, but only infrequently. I was pretty upset by this; no one had mentioned it in any of the other meetings we had. I feel this behavior is significant enough to have mentioned even if it happened one time.
*sigh*
I have been doing a lot of research on line this weekend and, after some discussion with Aldo, I think we are going to modify our diet to see if Timothy is having a reaction to gluten, casein or salicylic acid. This would be a huge dietary change for all of us. For what it’s worth, I did have Timothy tested for any food allergies. He is not allergic to any foods, but he does have allergies to birch, mold and dust. We already had cut out nitrates and most dyes years ago, which seemed to have a positive effect on Timothy. The first thing we are going to try is magnesium/B complex and fish oil supplements, since that seems to be the easiest. I do have a copy of one of Feingold’s cookbooks, which seems like a good place to start with some recipes. If anyone reading this has any suggestions, please leave a comment!!
9 Comments
September 14, 2008 at 8:41 pm
That is really good news about Timothy scoring so well on the tests but I am disappointed they won’t evaluate him on that basis. So incredibly frustrating for you. I also cannot believe the school didn’t tell you he was hitting himself so frequently. Good God, that is inexcusable. Sometimes I shake my head at the education system the world over. Does this inability to provide adequate assessment just come down to lack of funding? Or is there a bit of apathy thrown in there too?
My son is in 6th grade now. He is very bright. A great reader. A great talker. But his handwriting is shocking. Very laboured, very messy. The school (for the past 7 years) has labelled him as ‘lazy’ and a child who ‘doesn’t apply himself.’ Turns out he has dysgraphia, the writing component of dyslexia. That is why he has so much trouble completing his work on time. Did I get an apology from the school for all the negative things they have written on his reports and said to me in conferences over the years? Not a whit.
I am so sorry you are going through this. I have heard dietary changes do help but I am no expert. You are a great Mum. Remember that!
September 15, 2008 at 1:37 am
We’re trying the fish oil right now, although it hasn’t been the requisite six weeks until improvement is generally seen.
I’ll let you know. I have elected not to do the gluten thing with Jeffrey right now. It’s a big question mark, and I’m not sure if I have the persistence to do it completely.
Still here for you, still rooting you on!
September 15, 2008 at 11:01 am
Hello dear I just got home and was so happy to hear your voice! I’ll try to call tonight but maybe you’ll see this first.
Number 1 – I LOVE that clothespin bag! Lumpy works for me, I’m not really that into perfection anymore
Number 2 – I LOVE you!
(Even more than the lumpy clothespin bag, so check it out, you rate!) So happy for the good news, so sorry and sad for the other two. I agree one time self injuring and you get help. They did do that for us, R used to hit her head against the wall and the very first time the school caught it she scored a lot of extra help and attention, which helped me a lot.
Number 3 – in my experience fish oil helps, but we had to switch to a very specific EPA/DHA ratio in order to get really significant benefits. What R takes now is this http://www.amazon.com/MorEPA-Mini-Highest-Concentration-Omega-3/dp/B000K7P6JS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1221490308&sr=8-2 which is expensive (but not as much as all trh trial and error it took finding it – it is, to my knowledge, the only kid-sized capsule with a high enough EPA content to make a difference for ADHD (most omega-3’s are mostly DHA, which is good for some things – not so much what ADHD kids need. I can’t speak for T’s needs or what the various different components offer the brain.) She takes 3 a day which means she gets 1470 mg EPA a day.
What this does for her is really clear and obvious – I can see changes in her behavior when we forget – it took us about 3 weeks to get the effect and it can take up to a week (less now) to get back when she misses some (in a pinch regular omega-3’s will still help, like if we’re away and can’t find it, but they don’t work as well). When she’s taking it she has a LOT more self control and perspective, her fuse is longer, so to speak, she’s not as sensitive or as agitated or anxious.
She can feel it in herself too – and one of the interesting things to me is that when she’s regular with taking it, she doesn’t mind swallowing the pills, it’s not a big deal. If we forget a few days (ahem when Daddy’s in charge) then resuming taking them is a hassle all of a sudden. When she complains most about taking them, I know she needs them the most. I think she’s beginning to get the connection, too.
September 15, 2008 at 11:15 am
Sorry – I should clarify in case anyone is reading this looking for help for ADHD – the ratio thing I mentioned is the ratio of EPA to DHA, two components of the fish oil mix. This comes from a paper published in Pediatrics, which is commonly called the Oxford-Durham study that showed trackable improvement in behavior for kids with ADHD and autism spectrum disorders who took 558mg EPA and 174 mg DHA daily.
There’s some debate about ratio and exact levels of each needed/body weight, etc etc – you know how parents are. But the consensus seems to be that high EPA to DHA ratios are key – having them be 3:1, 5:1 or even 7:1.
I hope this helps! (I have some bottles of stuff that didn’t work for us, if you want me to send them so you can cut down on some of the expense of trying to find the right mix for you.)
September 15, 2008 at 11:18 am
Also I just recalculated, lol – R gets 735mg EPA to 105 DHA daily, not what I said above. (Maybe I have dyscalculia, yeah, yeah that’s it…)
September 15, 2008 at 4:35 pm
fluorophore, thanks for posting this. It’s been frustrating trying to find a good guideline AND product that gives what the studies suggest.
September 16, 2008 at 1:13 am
Hi,
I can help you with the Feingold diet. We’ve been using it for years. The website of the organization (which I highly encourage you to join) is the best place to get info. When you join, go the message boards. There is a lot of info and support there.
There’s also a Yahoo group for Feingolders:
September 19, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Thank you Markey, I will check that out.
October 11, 2008 at 4:41 pm
If you ever want to talk to other dyscalculics, go to http://www.dyscalculiaforum.com