Re: [SPAM] Re: introduction

[Guest guest]

Hi Trish!!! Welcome.

I am so thrilled to have someone here with an older child with DS. What makes this all work, and support each other is that we all have experiences that we draw on, and this sure widens our field to draw from. If you get what I mean.

Looking forward to getting to know you

Hugs,

-- [sPAM] Re: introduction

Hello Kathy. This is Trish whom you met with my son Andy at Target some time back. I don't think anyone in this group has a DS child my son's age who is 34. I hope I can connect with someone with a DS adult child because I feel I can be of little help to those who have young DS children. I know the road I have walked and I know that we continue to help Andy accomplish in all he wants to do. I hope you were able to contact my Daughter who lives in Plymouth. She has been tutoring Andy, as I told you before, in his reading. He is doing great and the book is: "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfired Engelmann for all you parents who want your child to read and may be told like we were that they can't. Yes they can! has proved with her own Brother just how well our DS kids can and do learn to read. I hope to hear back from you. Take care. Trish PS Andy's album is on the mishawakadownsyndrome! sight if anyone cares to see it.Kathy Ratkiewicz <Kathy_R@...> wrote:

Hi everyone-

I know many of you from other listservs, and am very happy to have you hereJ I have seen names from people I haven’t heard from in years, and that is very cool, too. It will be ni! ce to catch up with what has been happening with all of you.

For those of you that I haven’t “met”, my name is Kathy-my husband, , and I have 7 kids whose ages range from 23 yrs to almost 8 yrs. Danny, our youngest, has Ds, hypothyroidism, and a repaired AV canal heart defect. He is a complete ham, loves dressing up, and is a budding practical jokester(thanks to intensive training from his sibs)

His website is here: http://mypage.iusb.edu/~jratkiew/

In my other life (B4KIDS;-) I was a pediatrics nurse for many years. Even though I had nursing experience, when Danny was born, I found that I knew virtually nothing about Ds. Certainly nothing very encouraging. I listened to the Ds ‘experts’ for several months, but basically all they gave me were worst case scenario info. When I finally got so depressed that I couldn’t stand it anymore, I connected with other parents, and that was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Instead of gloom and doom, I finally found hope. Parents on the listservs were incredibly giving of their time in their efforts to help me understand the basics of Ds……Ginger Houston Ludlam and Romero were especially helpful to me in those early days. Once we got Danny on the ‘right track’ as far as his health went, (nutrivene D and med for his thyroid when he was 16 months old made a HUGE difference in his health) I decided that I wanted to learn everything that I could about Ds so that I could be an informed advocate for him. And somewhere along the way I turned into an information junkie;-)

I am very pro-life and strongly believe that the right to life should not be tied in to a person’s IQ or level of function.

Thanks for joining us here. I look forward to getting to kno! w all of you better.

KathyR (wife to , and mom to (23)(21) (19) (16) (13) Sam (almost 11) and Danny(almost 8)

[Guest guest]

Has anyone heard of or toured Pace Morehouse of Cupertino? We are considering out of home placement for our 10 year old son. On Nov 4, 2010, at 2:29 PM, mother wrote:, Ciara has sib that is different from anything that I have dealt with. Karac would just bite himself when he was frustrated, and I gave him something else to bite. Would boxing gloves keep her from injuring her face or could she be redirected to punching a pillow instead of her face? Hopefully the Rispiridone will help calm her down. I have been praying for you daily. blessings, Pat K Introduction Wow, I joined just in time to read the put your child in jail thread. Must say that one scared me. Right now we are facing more issues with significant self-abuse. My 5yr old daughter punches her face almost as a habit anymore. It worsens whenever she is stressed (which is a good deal of the time). She will draw blood, leave bruises, split her lips without being bothered. She has also started using her heels to bruise her legs from midthigh down to her feet. Once in a long while, if she is really upset, she will go for the face of the nearest caretaker with her nails. She was finally started on rispiridone recently. Ciara is nonverbal, just learning a bit of sign language, MR and has multiple physical problems which have led to a trach, a ventilator at night and a feeding tube. She can walk with a walker but hasn't got the balance to stand on her own and has never pulled herself to a stand without help. We have only been working on the behavioral issues for the past year even though they have been present in a milder form since she came to our home at age 34months. The first few years were just devoted to keeping her alive. I feel like this has put her so far behind in everything. Consider me a beginner and tell me what I don't know that I don't know. Thanks.