Monthly Archives: September 2009
Ian’s Voice
Parents – Can you remember exactly what you were doing with your child when they were 47 days old? Seems to be a random question to ask, and one that I wouldn’t be surprised if you 
were not able to accurately answer. Scott and Deanna Gromowski will certainly not forget that they were saying goodbye to their newborn baby son, Ian on his 47th day of life.
Ian was born 2 weeks premature. Weighing in at an impressive 8 lbs, 1.5 oz and 20 1/2 inches tall, he seemed to be as healthy as any baby should be. Soon after he was born, the doctor’s decided to move Ian to the NICU due to fear of Meconium Aspiration (MAS), which is the inhalation of meconium and amniotic fluid. This can occur before, during or after birth and is very common. In the most extreme of cases, the infant is placed in ICU for 2 weeks while the fluid drains from the lungs.
After being in the NICU for 24 hours, it was confirmed that Ian had MAS along with a fever and rapid breathing. He had to be fed via a stomach tube. Despite his condition, the doctors remained confident that Ian would be released to go home that day. Scott and Deanna were overjoyed and started preparing to go home with their new baby boy.
Despite the doctor’s confidence of Ian’s expected release, Deanna had something eating away at her – Mommy Instinct. She noticed that Ian seemed to be constantly in pain and wincing at it. The nurses were called and Ian was transferred again to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Mom and Dad waited patiently for news on his condition.
On day 4 of his most recent trip to…
The Gluten-Casein Free Diet for Autistic Children
A few weeks back, I discussed how gluten can cause behavioral disorders in children who are incapable of digesting it. Many parents have also found that removing Gluten from their Autistic child’s diet has been very beneficial. The same goes for Casein (dairy).
How does one go about removing this from a child’s diet? It’s unfortunately not as simple as cutting out just bread and milk. Carol Ann Brannon, who focuses on specialized diets for Autistic children notes that gluten can not only be consumed via food, but also through the skin:
- “Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, and any derivatives of these grains, including, but not limited to malt grain-starches, malt wash, hydrolyzed vegetable/plant proteins, grain vinegar, soy sauce, and natural flavorings. Casein is found in milk and milk products from mammals….Gluten is in even in Play-Doh, adhesive on stamps and stickers, and many hygiene products. Soy, another common food allergen, is in many foods and hand lotions, make-up, etc.”
Starting the diet is always the toughest part. Should you go cold-turkey; cutting out all bread and dairy products all at once? Or should you slowly omit these foods from your child’s diet? Some parents choose to completely cut out all Gluten and Casein all at once. It is also common that parents and other non-autistic children in the family will feel the benefits of the diet as well. Other parents choose to cut the gluten out of their diets first, and then move on the milk products.
If your child is on the GFCF (Gluten-Free Casein-Free) diet, what CAN they eat? It seems that living without bread and milk takes the majority of food choices away.
“Children can eat a wide variety of meat, chicken, eggs, fruits, and vegetables -– anything that does not…
Healthy Smile Worth the Risk?
Tuesday mornings were always “Fluoride Day” when I was in elementary school. We’d all pile into the cafeteria and wait anxiously to see which flavor of the often used teeth treatment would be distributed. Some days, parents would be invited to come in and take part in the fluoride festivities. Why shouldn’t they have? Clean
teeth are important in both children and adults.
Could it be that this weekly ritual does more harm than good? Could too much of a good thing actually be detrimental and cause neurological disorders in children?
It’s possible – according to researchers investigating fluoride and its effects. Too much fluoride consumed by women who are pregnant lowers their thyroid levels and this may affect the brain and neurological development of the unborn child. Such disturbance in development can cause ADD, Autism and decreased IQ levels.
This raises the question: “How much is too much?” and “If I stop doing fluoride treatments will this put me in the clear?” Not so fast. Fluoride is found not only in toothpaste and other dental products but in drinking water and some foods as well. Exposure to fluoride from these multiple sources could be enough to cause the lower Thyroid levels that can lead to neurological deficiencies.
As much as 2/3 of the nation’s water sources contain fluoride. There are organizations such as the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation whose goal is to omit fluoride from public water sources.
The Voice of Autism
Every time I watch the scene from Rain Man when Dustin Hoffmann’s Autistic character, Raymond has a meltdown, I cannot help but to feel sorry for his new-found brother and caretaker, Charlie (played by Tom Cruise). As Charlie stands by and watches his brother have a meltdown in a crowded airport, he looks helpless, confused and scared.
We often sympathize with the parents and guardians of autistic children and people because its difficult to imagine being in the overwhelming position of caretaker. We put focus on advocates of Autism, giving them thanks for raising awareness and funding for the cause. We praise the doctors and researchers who are studying this neurological disorder in hopes to find new causes, links and treatments that can help us to better understand Autism. We often wonder how all of these life-changing individuals get through each and every stressful day.
Parents. Caregivers. Advocates. Doctors. Researchers.
We’re forgetting someone. Actually, we’re forgetting thousands of people; those who are living with Autism. Of course, I say this more figuratively than literally as we all know that the people who are suffering from this disorder are never forgotten. However, they are often overlooked on the list of people who we wonder “how they have the strength to do it.”
In the years that Autism has been under the microscope, we’ve discovered how it affects the brain, what types of medications help to treat it, what types of things are linked to it, etc. It’s generally known what the symptoms are and what they look like as these are things that can be researched and proven. There are some things that you unfortunately cannot put under a microscope, particularly emotions and feelings. So, we’re left with the often unanswered question: What does it feel like to be autistic?
14 year old Carly Fleischmann was once assumed to be mentally retarded because she…
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