I believe that all moms are special and that all moms have a special understanding of what exactly it means to be M.O.M. It is the quiet understanding of knowing just how exhausted each other is. It is knowing that you can be up all night with your sick kid checking on their breathing and their temperature and still feel like it’s not enough. When you see a child crying or throwing a tantrum and you just know how…
Finding a Preschool and obtaining an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) was an important step for us and will be for you, too. We wrestled with trying to find the right environment for our little guy and wondering how he would perform around other typical kids that do not have a facial difference. I had no idea where to start or what I was even looking for. As luck would have it, we met a woman that let us know she…
As part of our son’s growth and progress, reading is yet another challenge we are working towards overcoming. The first step has been to find an Education Specialist for reading therapy. His first grade teacher called us in for our parent/teacher conference and what we already knew was confirmed. He was struggling with his reading. This should not have come as a complete shock but hearing the difficulties he was having and knowing that I did not personally have the…
As you begin your journey through speech therapy you will find more often than not that you are going to go through speech therapists as if you are popping bon bons while sitting at home watching Dr. Oz. Totally do not know what a bon bon is but most people think it’s what I’m doing at home all day so I like to reference it whenever I can. Sorry – off topic. It seems that every time we finally get…
Today was Gavin’s first day with his Education Specialist. Her name is Suzanne and she came highly recommended. Suzanne came to our house for the therapy and worked for one full hour with him. He was responding to her techniques and generally seemed to enjoy the therapy. I quietly folded laundry in the next room listening to the both of them work together and really hearing what it was she was teaching him so that I could mimic her technique…
The first thing you must understand is that you are going to experience an ear infection with your cleft baby. There is a reason for this. Please click on the link and you will be redirected to the Cleft Palate Foundation’s booklet that explains in depth why cleft babies are more prone to ear infections. The first time I noticed something was not right with our little guy’s hearing he was approximately eight weeks old. I had finished feeding him…
My son has been suffering from ear infections since birth at this point and each year his body would force his PE tubes out and another ear infection would set in. We would go through the motions of making yet another appointment with his pediatrician, and get a prescription for antibiotics that initially would work. As the years went by though he continued to need a stronger antibiotic each time. The last time his ear infection became so bad…
Cleft affected children are prone to ear infections due to their anatomy and has been a battle for our family since our son was approximately 2 months old. Now, I will let you know what worked for us and what continues to work for us with regards to our son and preventing ear infections in the first place. We still put in silicone ear plugs and a neoprene headband by Ear Bandit Medium Blue EAR BAND-IT® Physician Developed Swimming Headband that we…
As your child grows and begins to babble you will notice that it is going to be slightly more difficult for them to form the words you and I are used to hearing. This is going to cause a great deal of frustration both on your part and your child’s because they are not going to be able to express themselves in quite the way that they want to. You may experience anxiety of your own because you simply…