Michael

Michael 18 month photo

This past week I finally took the time to do a lot of research and reading into stuff for Michael. I am feeling frustrated with a lot of stuff medically and developmentally with him. I am not happy with his GI specialist and his OT doctor at Kaiser. I keep getting dismissed and told he is a picky eater and was sick as an infant for so long he is just delayed and will catch up and I am doing everything right for him. I think his pediatrician is on my side but the people she reefers me to are not. Just before he turned one she refereed us to Kidango for a mental health evaluation. http://www.kidango.org/
 We have been working with Stacie since the beginning of September 2014. She did a 6 week evaluation and noticed a few things and she then refereed us to a program called early start.
Early Start is for O.T., P.T., Speech, and Sensory issues. This program is done through the school distric and took a long time to set up and to get going. They had me fill out endless amounts of paperwork and did a 2 hour evaluation with Michael. http://www.dds.ca.gov/EarlyStart/home.cfm
We then started working with Monica in January. Each of these wonderful women come to our home once a week and work with Michael and show us how to work, help and understand Michael. Both have mentioned concerns about his:

Oral Motor Skills

Sensory Processing

Sleep issues

Talking

Blank Stares

GI issues

I have talked with his SPECIALIST and both have dismissed me. They say he is a picky eater and will catch up soon enough and I have nothing to worry about. I talked to his Pediatrician and reefers me to a new one and I hear the same thing again. His Pediatrician did say that he is really young for him to be diagnosed and help with any of these issues!! But everything I have read says that is they are diagnosed young it is all the better for them. So extremely frustrated I went to Parents helping Parents and started reading anything that seemed to be related to Michael's issues. I found 3 books that have been very helpful but the one I like the most is called:

Food chaining 

By: Cheryl Frank, Mark Fishbein, Sibyl Cox and Laura Walbert 

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Chaining-Feeding-Problems-Child%C2%92s/dp/1600940161/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460486068&sr=8-1&keywords=food+chaining

The best part is that it tells you how to talk to your child's doctor and what is important for you to explain. It helped me start a new log more detailed long book for Michael. I now keep track of his eating, drinking, sleep, moods and what he did in a day. its a lot of work but I am starting to see how much helpful this will be. I have about 2 weeks until his 18 month appointment and I am going prepared! Thanks to both Stacie and Monica I have a list of items to talk about and I am now educated in the basics of all of them. 

Stacie also refereed us to an  Occupational Therapy clinic. At San Jose State. http://www.sjsu.edu/occupationaltherapy/ot_clinics/ Michael is on a waiting list but I am hopeful. it will be nice to get a second opinion other that Kaisers. I will never stop fighting for my child but I never knew how much it took to fight. Michael's spirit is so full of happiness and life I never want it to diminish. He and Kaylee will do so much good for this world and I can't wait to see what they will accomplish!

Being a mother is the best thing that I ever had to do in my life. I knew that it would be a job that I would have to commit to for the rest of my life. I went into motherhood thinking it was going to come easy to me and that I knew pretty much everything I needed to KNOW. Well that was so not true and I am learning all the time and it is much much hared than I thought it every was going to be. But the love and joy is also so much more than I ever thought or even imagined possible. I am so bless to be a mother and even more bless that I am the mother of these to wonderful children.