Anyone who has a child with autism knows that the playground can be like whatever a place of unagreeable people producing a series of untimely events would be like.
Today on the playground I was informed by a 10-12 year old girl that "your kid is weird."
OK so he was chewing on a low hanging branch. Any parent of a child with autism knows that you just have to pick your battles or you battle all day. So instead of telling him not to, and trying to force him not to, and having him do it anyway, I had fun with it. This particular girl and her friend saw a four year old boy chewing on a branch with his mom nearby asking him if it tasted good.
I saw them laughing and smiled. It was funny, I couldn't blame them. Then came her comment. She had no way of knowing at her age how offensive that was to me, so she got a polite little smile and we were off having our next playground drama adventure.
Maybe I'll save that one for another time, or more likely I'll have a new one by then. It all ended like it sometimes does, me carrying a struggling, screaming boy into the apartment to have a sit on the rocking chair with mom, (AKA "Dads," AKA "Daddys") and blanket.
My relax routine lately after a day like this is a work out routine after he is in bed and a hot bath with my lovely lavender-oatmeal soap bar that I bought from www.dancingmooney.etsy.com Just the thought of bathing with this soap gives me the warm fuzzies. No wonder, I just learned today that lavender is known for its' relaxing aroma therapies. I'm ready to try other applications for this essential oil! I simply love it.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
A Word About Heavy Metals
Here's some things I understand, (or think I do,) about heavy metals. Please consult scholarly sources for more info. (Such as my standard Changing the Course of Autism by Dr. Bryan Jepson.) These are just the types of things I've been finding myself telling my mother about lately as she eases my brother back into biochemical intervention.
Heavy metals get in our kid's systems and they cannot secrete them as easily as other children. There are some everyday things we can do to fight this battle, and more extreme measures we can take. Here are some of the simple everyday ones.
One surprising source of heavy metals is often fish. Yeah. It's because of all the pollution in our oceans. I've heard that canned tuna fish and that top of the food chain predator fish are the worst. My brother actually has a "bad behavior" reaction after eating canned tuna fish. The nutrition of the fish is so important though, so what do you do? Well, I supplement my son's diet with fish oils, according to the advise of his DAN! doctor. They have to be guaranteed contaminate free to be safe for persons with autism. This usually makes them cost 2 to three times more. Don't even be tempted to get the cheap stuff. My brother has the same above said reaction to cheap fish oil supplements.
Another thing we can do everyday that is actually really simple is to filter our kid's water. Surprisingly, regular tap water can quite easily carry heavy metals.
Heavy metals cause our kids to not feel as well as they can. And that is my little sugar coated heavy metal post.
Heavy metals get in our kid's systems and they cannot secrete them as easily as other children. There are some everyday things we can do to fight this battle, and more extreme measures we can take. Here are some of the simple everyday ones.
One surprising source of heavy metals is often fish. Yeah. It's because of all the pollution in our oceans. I've heard that canned tuna fish and that top of the food chain predator fish are the worst. My brother actually has a "bad behavior" reaction after eating canned tuna fish. The nutrition of the fish is so important though, so what do you do? Well, I supplement my son's diet with fish oils, according to the advise of his DAN! doctor. They have to be guaranteed contaminate free to be safe for persons with autism. This usually makes them cost 2 to three times more. Don't even be tempted to get the cheap stuff. My brother has the same above said reaction to cheap fish oil supplements.
Another thing we can do everyday that is actually really simple is to filter our kid's water. Surprisingly, regular tap water can quite easily carry heavy metals.
Heavy metals cause our kids to not feel as well as they can. And that is my little sugar coated heavy metal post.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Recycling and Raising Awareness
Here's my autism awareness head scarf that I made and love. I have some similar ones coming to my etsy shop soon. I use the puzzle piece because it is the most easily generally recognized image for the cause.
Also, since the last post I did regarding the environment, I thought of another idea I wanted to post, and that is reusable shopping bags. I have a collection of these reusable shopping bags from various stores that I always try to use when I shop. My newest and most favorite one is a messenger style bag that I made from two old pairs of pants. Let me tell you, it is a sight, but so comfortable to wear. You can't see it in the picture, but I used the waistband of the tan colored pants for the strap.
Generally we use cloth towels in our home, but once in awhile a paper towel comes in handy for oiling the cast iron. So today the "new" shopping bag carried home Natural Direction 100% recycled paper towels. The two rolls will last us a month or two, and because paper towels are not recyclable, it's at least better that they are made from reused materials.
Also, since the last post I did regarding the environment, I thought of another idea I wanted to post, and that is reusable shopping bags. I have a collection of these reusable shopping bags from various stores that I always try to use when I shop. My newest and most favorite one is a messenger style bag that I made from two old pairs of pants. Let me tell you, it is a sight, but so comfortable to wear. You can't see it in the picture, but I used the waistband of the tan colored pants for the strap.
Generally we use cloth towels in our home, but once in awhile a paper towel comes in handy for oiling the cast iron. So today the "new" shopping bag carried home Natural Direction 100% recycled paper towels. The two rolls will last us a month or two, and because paper towels are not recyclable, it's at least better that they are made from reused materials.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Haircut!
Sensory issues make haircuts an event at our house. I finally got tired of his hair being scraggly in the back and flapping over his ears in the front. I tried the clippers again, just because it had been so long that I thought that for sure he could handle them by now. The minute he saw those things and heard the buzzing sound he hightailed it to the other side of the room and hid under a blanket. So I reached for the scissors.
I don't like cutting his hair with just the scissors because it takes so much longer and I am not trained to do that. I got his baby fine hair pretty choppy looking, but blending scissors helped alot. The only way that I pulled this off was by sitting him in my lap in front of the TV with Blue's Clues on and making it clear by afew trial runs that if he moved too much that it would be turned off. It took two episodes to finish the haircut, but I think we got his best haircut yet.
I don't like cutting his hair with just the scissors because it takes so much longer and I am not trained to do that. I got his baby fine hair pretty choppy looking, but blending scissors helped alot. The only way that I pulled this off was by sitting him in my lap in front of the TV with Blue's Clues on and making it clear by afew trial runs that if he moved too much that it would be turned off. It took two episodes to finish the haircut, but I think we got his best haircut yet.
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