Topic : Raising a Special Needs Child

Quote From: james0077

HI my mother had her first son at the age of eighteen. His name was danny and he was born autistic. she later divorced and married my father. including me they had three healthy children. me and my girlfriend are having our first child due june 28th of this year. we recently found out the baby is a boy. we are worried because recearch shows that it now may be herditary and is commonly found among males more than females. Can anyone relate or point us in the right direction to good information?

Quote From: lucille56

I watched a rerun the other day on Dr. Phil about children out of control. I was so stunned by some of the things I heard an saw that I had to post my view on it.  Let me give a little insight as to why. My son is now 25yrs old. Great young man, works 2 jobs, went 2yrs of college. He has a good life, he is having fun. He has not always been a good kid, you would never know now at 25 that he was such a awful child. When our son was about 2 he became so unruly we would not even go out to eat. We never had a sitter, no one would watch him he was so bad. He was out of control. By the time he started school, nothing had changed with him, I was called on a regular basis from school, always in trouble. He couldn't sit still, he had tantrums, just awful, I was wondering at that time what we did wrong,(spoiled to much or what). He got into 2nd grade an things got really bad, got called to the school for meeting an was told by his 2nd grade teacher that he was ADD/Hyper an needed to be put on medication.  I did not agree with her an of course she got mad. I do think that Doctors an Teachers are so quick to say kids are ADD these days, its the easy way, it is an assumption thats the problem due to behavior. Of course a parent never wants to think there is something wrong with there child. Finally after a couple weeks of notes from the teacher of him being in trouble daily my husband an I finally took him to his Doctor to be checked out. Told the Doc what the teacher thought. The Doc said, he is a normal boy, don't worry about it. Nothing changed after that, I think his teacher was mad because of the Doc's diagnosis. To me she took things out on him more,an expected more of him. At the end of the school year  all the kids got there reports to bring home, I was totally shocked at what the teacher wrote on the back in the comment area. She said, my son had major psychological problems that needed attended to. I was so shocked by this that I called the school to speak with the principle. Of course he told me she should have never put that on there an he would speak to her about it. Nothing ever got done about it an the bad thing is that stayed on his record. So you can imagine what the years ahead were. BAD, he was labeled. My husband an I took him to a psychologist during the summer just to verify to us there was no problem an of course we were told he was not ADD. I finally deceided to do some research myself to see if I could find an answer to his unruly behavior, he couldn't sit still, he threw things, he had tantrums, just awful. I went to our local library an started researching, I came across food allergies an behaviors. Very interesting to me. I started changing his diet. I made his lunch everyday an sent to school. Natural peanut butter, celery,carrots, I bought at the health food store candies, Carob choc. (M&M'S), no artifical coloring or flavoring of any kind, no more soda(unless it was a clear soda an that was on occasion, no sugar, no ketcup or mayo(there were receipes in the books telling you how to make it tho) It was a difficult thing to do but we tried it for 1mo. an you would not believe the different child I had. Everyone commented on his behavior an ask what we had done to change him.  One day at school he fell an hurt his ankle an had to take him to ER for x-ray, I picked him up an he was off the wall, I knew right then, he ate something he should not have. The Doc knew it to, the Doc asked him what in the world is wrong with you today, my son said I traded my carrots for cheetos at lunch. We kept him on this program of foods for approx. a yr or so. He finally outgrew what ever it was that affected his little brain when he ate all that junk.  OK, so now back to the beginning, when I saw that show an Dr. Lawson said that sometimes food allergies, I was stunned because I had been saying that for years an no one believed me. Then about 2-3 days later I saw on the new where they were linking artifical favors an colors to food allergies, again stunned. I found all this info out 25yrs ago. I have alot of friends who put there children on ritalin or other meds, to me thats the easy way out, its the easy way for the teacher an the parent.(sorry parents, I know your not going to like that) but its true. It is very hard an a little more costly to eat this way but believe me the outcome is worth it. Try it for a month before you put your child on any meds, go to the library, there are alot of books telling you this an giving examples of foods for them to eat. I know how hard it is but PLEASE,PLEASE do  your research before meds.In alot of cases meds are not the answer just an easy way out. I know there will be alot of people that won't agree with me but if you take a little time to research it you might. It was all worth it for my son an that was 25yrs ago an no meds.

Quote From: badschool

MISSISSIPPI IS ABUSING MY ASPERGER SON. HE HAS BEEN LEFT BEHIND!  ALL THE DOCTORS AND YEARS AND STILL NO SERVICES FOR MY SON. NICK DOCTOR WANTED TO GO INTO THE SCHOOL TO WATCH HIM. SHE WAS NOT ALLOWED INTO THE SCHOOL. THE SCHOOL HAND BOOK TELLS THAT NO ONE IS ALLOWED INTO THE SCHOOL. AT 6'0 AND 190 LBS. THE SCHOOL SENDS HOME A NOTE THAT NICK IS UNDER DESK AND LAYING OUT IN THE FLOOR. THE COACH MADE NICK CRAW ON THE GROUND UNTIL HIS HANDS BLEED. I MADE A POLICE REPORT ON THIS ONE. THE PRINCPAL TOLD THE POLICE IT WAS AN IN HOUSE PUNSHMENT. NO ONE IN THIS STATE WILL HELP GET MY NICK SERVICES. NO ONE WILL STEP ON THE STATES TOES.THE STATE LEAVES THE CHILD BEHIND! I AM HAVING A HARD TIME DEALING WITH ALL OF IT. NEED A STORY ON HOW MOMS DEAL WITH ASPERGER AND PROBLEMS! ROBIN H.