Monday, April 30, 2012

Riding the school bus

Today, Tommy rode the school bus for the first time. Before my husband took Tommy to the intersection near by to wait for the school bus with Tommy, he felt he needed more time to get prepared for this moment. I didn't think about it, until the moment my husband called to tell me that they were waiting for the school bus. This make me realized my precious boy is growing up. He is not my little baby I used to hold a few years ago. He did amazing! He took this new change in his life better than us. He was very excited to ride the bus. Enjoy these priceless photos! 




Friday, April 27, 2012

Francis' Big Milestone

Wow! Francis just did his first 3 independent steps a few minutes ago. There are a lot of thing to talk about my amazing little boy. He keeps being ahead of his age, he is already meeting some milestones of a 12 months baby. He is a blessing! God knows everything and he knows how guilty I feel for not being able to dedicate more time to him, but at the same time, Francis' advanced development is allowing me to dedicate time to Tommy. I am so excited for Francis!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Rescuing my son: Checking the spinal cord alignment

"The spine is the route that the majority of the messages from the brain travel to any other part of the body. The brain over sees the operation of all the activities that go on throughout the body. Most of the functions of the brain are carried out without consciously thinking about them. These messages are sent throughout the body using nerves that run from the top of the head to the tips of the toes,  this what is known as the nervous system. The nervous system is responsible for sending messages throughout the body back and forth from the brain. The majority of these messages go through a long bundle of nerves called the spinal cord, which is protected by your spine. If the spine becomes misaligned, the nerves inside the spine can become pinched and may have difficulty relaying vital messages to and from the brain."


Tommy's spinal cord was studied by a Pediatric Chiropractor Specialist, who has experience working with kids with kids with different needs and abilities.  The spinal cord study was done using a thermal scan and a x-ray. Both, the x-ray and the thermal scam showed something wasn't right with Tommy's neck.  The x-ray showed the neck didn't have the cervical curve. The thermal scan showed a severe inflammation in his neck. The neck's misalignment was making the neck muscles very rigid and causing a lot of inflammation in the neck area. This means Tommy had a neck injury. This misalignment resulted in moving his head forward, which caused lost of balance; poor growth due to the pressure over the pituitary gland. When there is an neck injury, as Tommy's, the pressure and misalignment in the neck can also affect the proper performance of the oral and vision muscles, as well as, sensory issues. When the neck get straight is called Cervical Kyphosis.


Misalignment on the spinal cord hasn't been rule out of the possible cause of my son's muscle weakness and worsen of sensory issues. 


What could cause Tommy's neck Cervical Kyphosis?
We won't know, for sure, how it happened. But I made a little research online and the first page that pup-up was About.com which mentioned the causes of Cervical Kyphosis. Those are:

  • The wear and tear of degenerative disks weakens the vertebra whose job it is to hold up the head. Over time this causes the head position to move forward. This in turn causes the normal lordotic curve in the neck to be lost. The result is that the neck begins to straighten.
  • Inherited congenital diseases and conditions
  • Traumatic injury, such as whiplash, compression fracture, or iatrogenic injury.
  • Infection
  • Systemic diseases, such as osteoporosis


The highlighted words called my attention. Tommy has a congenital condition that cause low muscle tone and loose joints. An iatrogenic injury could be possible due to the rough movements during Tommy's fights against the nurses in the hospital to keep the oxygen mask on his nose (they had to do it), this has been the only experience I can recall he had a lot pressure on the area of his head and neck. Tommy was hospitalized because of a respiratory infection. Ironically, three of the fives causes got together while my son was hospitalized.

Care of my son's spinal cord
As soon as, we know Tommy's neck injury we started treatment. But before starting treatment, we talked to Dr. W. Hamed about our concerns of Tommy having AAI (atlanto-axis instability). She was very familiar with AAI and how make the alignment without doing a neck rotation. Many are skeptical about Chiropractors, but I personally didn't have any formed conception about a chiropractor before taking Tommy to see one. According to my personal experience, our chiropractor has helped Tommy to get a better connection between the brain and the nervous system. Our chiropractor found something wrong in the C1, C2 and C3 vertebras in the x-ray that the neurosurgeon didn't. Why? The neurosurgeon just focused on the gap between the vertebras, but not how the vertebras were located on top of each other and the neck cervical curve. 


My son's spinal cord adjustment has required techniques done by a professional Chiropractor, supported by the latest technology in chiropractic treatment, as well as, advanced chiropractic methods based on latest science research. During the treatment, it has been recommended to avoid pressure in his neck and the use of a therapeutic pillow or not pillow at all. So my son's spinal core has been professionally treated with amazing results. 



Tommy's cervical curve before treatment was 11°, 
you can see how straight his neck was.
 After 5 months of intensive treatment, 
Currently, Tommy's neck cervical curve is 35°. 
We will continue treatment twice a months
 for 3 more months. The goal is that Tommy's neck 
will be completely aligned in 3 months. 
And after this, the adjustment will decrease once a months
 to maintain the alignment. 


According to About.com website,"Researchers found that patients with curves of 20 degrees or less experienced neck pain associated with the condition." Ironically,  this is something I was observing. Because Tommy can not express what he feels, his behaviors were telling me he was in pain. I even commented several times he was in pain because he used to lay down on the floor without moving, I think this was helping him to relief the pain.


Talking to one of Tommy's caregivers, she mentioned that she remembers that Tommy used to keep his head forward. And we both remember he used to wiggle while he was in a standing position. I am glad other person noticed what I did. I wasn't crazy, something wasn't right with my son. 


Progress
3 months after treatment, Tommy's balance showed improvement. Tommy began to growth and he began to be happy and silly as he used to be. Currently, the Sensory symptoms are beginning to decrease. But there is a lot of more to do to help him to overcome his sensory processing issues. But we are excited for seeing him happy again.  


Recommendation for parents
If your child has low muscle tone and/or loose joints, you should AVOID to put your child to sleep with PILLOWS. The pillows keep the neck curve to the opposite way of the neck natural curve. If there is not a therapeutic pillow is better that the child sleeps on a flat surface. We chose for sleeping without pillow to help Tommy to get the cervical curve again. 



Friday, April 13, 2012

Clean teeth, Beautiful smile!

Last Tuesday, my husband took Tommy to his 6 month dental cleaning. Tommy didn't cooperate, which is typical for a child of his age. But he enjoyed rising his mouth and spiting the water up on the cuspidor as a big boy.

Our son's dentist was very impressed how clean Tommy's teeth were previous to the cleaning. No caries! This proof to me, fluoride is not necessary for preventing caries.  Our son's dentist doesn't recommended fluoride toothpaste for Tommy because fluoride is poison regardless if the kid sallow a very small amount. Fluoride is not recommended for a child with sensory processing either because it worsens sensory issues.

How we have been done to keep Tommy's dental health?
We have been very consistent in the following:
• Starting healthy toothbrushing habits since he was a baby.
• Eating a healthy diet that includes: fruits, vegetables, fat, carbohydrate, proteins and water, even Tommy doesn't like to drink water.
• Using a powered toothbrush.
• Limiting the intake of refine sugar in every possible way.


Our next step in teaching Tommy to keep his dental health is FLOSSING HIS TEETH! Which I think, it will be challenging, but his dentists has been very persistent we should start doing it. So I came with a plan, I hope it will work. Keep tune for my next post in how Tommy has been doing with learning to floss his teeth.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Rescuing my son: Hugs Therapy


There are behavioral symptoms have been reported for many parents with a child with autism and sensory processing disorder (SPD). These behavioral symptoms affect them to build "relationships"and being social. Parents report their kids do not like to be touched, hugged or held. Many children with autism or SPD dislike affection or don't show affection.


My son is affectionate and one of his favarate person in this world always has been his Daddy. I have even written in this blog about how much attached Tommy has been to his Daddy since he was a newborn. Because my husband built a "relationship" with him since Tommy was in the womb. Well, things began to change since last year. Tommy wasn't the same affective little boy as before. He began to dislike give hugs or kisses, Tommy was getting insulated from us.  When My husband commented to me a couple of weeks ago: "I think Tommy doesn't like me anymore." This broke my heart because I know Tommy is affectionate, but due to his sensory issues he shows this behaviors.

About two weeks after my husband's comment, on March 25, something wonderful happened: Tommy spontaneously began to show affection for us. We went to local store and we sat Francis and him on a double seat shopping cart. He began to hug and kiss his little brother to the point Francis was annoyed. Every time, I took Francis out the shopping cart, he was signing and trying to say 'my turn' -his turn to hold the baby. But the best of old, he spontaneously hugged and kissed his daddy. My husband told me, Did you see that? He hugged me and kissed me! My husband also said: "I think it is the first time after the hospitalization Tommy has spontaneously hug me. He also gave me a kiss and a hug me while we were waiting on line to pay. When we came back home, Tommy was playing in the backyard climbing in a little climber he has, my husband was sitting at the kitchen table and Tommy suddenly yelled "DAD!", my husband wasn't looking at him at that moment, so my husband looked at him right away. It seems he wanted my husband paying attention to what he was doing. After this, I heard Tommy yelling "Daddy" when my husband wasn't looking at him. This warmed our hearts! 


Scientist research support the theory that people with autism and autistic like have lower levels of oxytocin hormone, known as the cuddle hormone or the moral molecule as it is called by  Neuroeconomist Paul Zak, who "shows why he believes oxytocin is responsible for trust, empathy and other feelings that help build a stable society." Please see the video below where Paul Zak explained the founding of his experiments about oxytocin. 

“Oxytocin connects us to other people; oxytocin makes us feel what other people feel.
 And it’s easy to cause people’s brains to release oxytocin. 
Let me show you. Come here. Give me a hug.”
~ Paul Zak

There a lot more research to do to prove oxytocin will be an good treatment for autism or sensory behaviors, but it seems there is hope. Currently, there are some physicians who are already administering oxytocin to children as young as 2 years old. Personally, I am convinced the best ways to realized oxytocin are non-invasive ways such as: hugs, kisses and massages.  Those help me to create a bound with my son, which I don't think I will get it by using the nasal spray. Before watching Dr. Zak video, I increased my dosage of hugs to Tommy because I felt it could help me to build a stronger relationship with my son, which would allow me to teach him as before. In the last two months, Tommy and I has gotten closer. We still have our little fights, but not as before. We are having more fun by just freely playing around and Tommy is staying longer when is time of structure play. I am encouraging Tommy to give hugs to our relatives and friends. I would also like to encourage family members and professional working with Tommy to help me increase the oxytocin dosage, with a simple tight hug to greet or praise him. This simple gesture tells him: YOU ARE LOVED, YOU ARE INCLUDED!