State: Maine
Country: USA
Member since: Jan 06, 2008
Last logged in: Nov 20, 2008
I'm a mom of 4 beautiful children! My 1st.child a boy he's now 21 graduated from high school is in the national guards. Right after graduating he went right to Iraq. He's now home working locally and lives at home.I'm really honored to be his mom and lucky he loves his family enough to go over to Iraq in hopes someday his younger siblins won't have to. My 2nd son is now 17 he's an honor role student and plays football he's a big teddy bear has a heart of gold.Then came Jared he's now 5 he lit up my life. He was born with ashma but we did'nt now it at the time. When he was 4 almost 5 months the dr. he was seeing accidently gave him the MMR shot. They told me he'd be fine no big deal. Well shortly after Jared kept getting sick upper respitoral infecton the croop they'd put him on antibiotics then he'd end up with a raw butt within 24 hrs. They'd put him on steriods for that He'd also get alot of ear infections. Well at around 1yr. we desided to change dr.s when we did that we found out it was ashma. We also showed our concern on the MMR shot cause they said they had to give it to him again because law says he has to have it at a yr. They once again said he'd be fine I believed them. Before all this he was meeting his milestones he even started walking at 8 months he was early with alot of stuff. Then suddenly he was'nt talking right just babbling throwing big tantrums all the time seemed always so stressed which stressed me I didnt know what was wrong. We thought cause my husband alwas worked away (like in states down south Texas and others). Plus I worked for the postal service was a clerk I worked 6 days a week 12 hour days from the time Jared was born til he was almost 4yrs.old. At that time I could'nt handle my own stress and that of Jared's so I quit my job and went on the road with John my husband of 7yrs. We thought if we was together it would help Jared. Well while on our trip we found out we was pregnant Gods will things happen for a reason. Hailey was born March 2007 I'm so proud to be her mom my dream of having a daughter came true. I believe Hailey was ment to come before we found out about Jared cause if I would of known before hand I would of been to scared to get pregnant. Well Jared had to have shots for school which he did the beginning of Aug. as you now one was the MMR shot. At the end of Aug. Jared started school within the first week they called with cocerns for Jared he wasnt sitting still having tantrums and screening showed he was behind cause he wouldnt settle down. I then called his dr. who finally after 5 yrs. told me she thought he was ASD. Thats when my journey began I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make my boy well thats my job to help make him the best man he can be. We have now been on the SCD diet since 10/21/07 it's been the hardest thing I've ever done.I Feel so much like the bad guy always defending myself with the school, people in the family who doesn't understand why I'm doing what I'm doing and how it's gonna help. And most of all myself, I wonder what I could of done to stop what happened ? If I would of only listen to my gut.I do believe God did'nt want me to know til after my little princess was here. And he sent me on this path for a reason I just havent figured that part out yet.
Favorite Compositions (0)
tabaithasteward's Compositions
by tabaithasteward on 08.26.08 - public - 113 visits
It's been a wonderful summer for my family! My husband has always traveled, maybe coming home 4 days a month. But this summer for the first time he was home with us for the most of it. We went to Texas for 10 days, we took a road trip in July from Maine to Florida. We stoped at the White House, Murtle beach, then on to Disney. With jared's diet it was alittle tough. The great part is we did it and made it through the hard parts. We had a blast!!!!My jared is 6 yrs. old and just got his dx. The waiting list for a behavial specialist is 18 months here. Last tuesday they said that Jared has ADHD, Asperges, I've known he was on the specrum since last fall but did'nt know where til now. As soon as we heard the words ASD I went out on my own trying to find ways to help my son. I did'nt want to wait another 1yr. to 18 months. It had already taken the Dr. 5 yr.s to even say they thought he had ASD. Well anyways its documented and its hitting me like a ton of bricks ( guilt,what ifs, and why us) kind of stuff.I've been doing biomed.'s since Oct.2007 seeing a DAN and sometimes I wonder if that is even working I know it is I've seen the changes but I guess my problem is there not quick enough(that must be the woman in me impatient) Well the other thing thats bothering me is the school last year I tried to get them to implament ABA as we all know they say it helps our babys well they wouldnt said he didnt need it. At the Specialist they said they wanted Jared doing ABA well to say the least I was happy cause I've been saying it all along. The real problem is my sons teacher she says she implaments it in her class got mad when I said jared needs it. Then said well I heard Jared's done some improvement over the summer and if he's where they say he is he might do better in another special ed. class. That really made me mad!!!She's mad cause she feels I'm stepping on her toes and does'nt like it and how I look at it is he's my son and I do believe this ABA will help the part I dont understand is why is she not believing it to. Well that kind of sumed up my summer. If anyone has any ideas or imformation on aba that will help please feel free to relay. Oh yah one more thing I missed all of my foggyrock friends I hope summer was wonderful for u all.
Comments(7)
mercurymom
Posted on Wed, 27 Aug 2008
Ok...correction on the rdi link..you have to add the back slash...try this..sorry y'all! http://www.rdiconnect.com/
4muskateers
Posted on Wed, 27 Aug 2008
I pray that they see how this would help your son now...I love the way RDI is done, I have been doing RDI and didn't even know it...I teach Julian like if we were living like little house on the Praire, and it has worked...I have been waiting of 5 years now to have Julian work with CARD, and they are now finally in Fresno, he is now on a waiting list to have an evalutaiton done with them...and then we will see just how well be does...CARD is known all over the world...I started the ball rolling to get them vendorized in Fresno, and I think that is why our regional center is going to pay for the evaluation...but they did say their famous words " he is to old" and I said soooo, he deserves the same opportunities that all these newly Dx. children have now...it isn't his fault he was born in 1997, so now in 2007 someone has to give him the same opportunity to prove that all children can be taught when they are with they are taught by the right people...So now we wait for our appointment date...OH! so yea reality really hurts, and it is not fair, but Julian will climb his Mt. Everst and show them all so that others older than 5 can benefit from all that is avalible now...
carmel66
Posted on Wed, 27 Aug 2008
I don't know why, but even when you suspect ASD, it's still so hard when you get the actual diagnosis. Maybe we hope we were wrong? I don't know...I'm sorry - I remember the feeling like it was yesterday. One of the first things we did, after we came out of our post diagnosis fog was call a meeting of our TEAM in order to make changes to our son's IEP. Now, we could make the changes necessary and get the support we needed. We added home services (10 hours/week - that helped tie in school lessons to home as well as personal care lessons and now social skills) as well as ABA - 5 hours a week - with 1 hour a week being overseen and coordinated by a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) either one on staff or an outside consultant. The addendum to our IEP listed the qualifications of the BCBA, and people conducting the discreet trials. He was already receiving OT, PT and Speech at appropriate levels. I will agree that ABA is hit or miss - depending on the person, but the point is to get ABA or RDI or whatever therapy you want and can back up into the IEP now. You do not have to wait for annual IEP time when you get a diagnosis like this. Good luck you are so obviously already on a good track.
Motherof4
Posted on Tue, 26 Aug 2008
I'm glad the summer went so well. I'm sorry his teacher was so difficult. Sometimes people can be really resistant to change.
PeterPan
Posted on Tue, 26 Aug 2008
Glad you had such a great summer and to spend so much time with your husband as opposed to previous summers. That has to be great for Jared! Sometimes, getting teachers and schools to implement what you think/know is best can be difficult, I know. Keep pressing it, fund out how the therapists working with your son has been trained, and then speak with them about what you know concerning the different methodologies, keep a journal of his progress. Always great to have documentation supporting your side when you want to get a therapist to try the way you want and that Jared responds to, it helps.
frogfoot1969
Posted on Tue, 26 Aug 2008
I am glad you had a great summer and you got to enjoy yourselves as a family. My husband is usually working or sleeping but I can't imagine him being gone that much. The diagnosis does hit hard even when you already know what it is. The good news is you were already heading it off at the pass with the biomed and that it is helping, slowly but surely. It does get frustrating and I wonder too if it is helping. That is when I look back thru my journal and see the progress. Good luck getting the ABA services. Sorry I don't have any advice on how to get it.
mercurymom
Posted on Tue, 26 Aug 2008
The biggest issue I have with ABA is lack of sameness...The program is different depending on who is teaching and how they are trained. I have seen fun ABA look like play time and I have seen ABA look like dog training with a child doing the same task 10 times in a row, to an unsmiling "DO IT" drill sargent kind of person. So when some one says ABA I say "What are you looking for?" I have found RDI to go way beyond ABA and really reach deeper and teach more in less time. It's also parent lead, so you have more control. look at it and see what you think! www.rdiconnections.com





