Vancouver(ish) Tribe: Our children with visual/auditory/sensory issues - Page 6

[tiffani]

Originally Posted by Ksenia

Posture was an issue mentioned for ds -- low muscle tone even though he has lots of energy.That's fantastic

yes, it's amazing how a child who is so strong and has such amazing balance *at times* can also be so incredibly clumsy and floppy and bull-in-a-china-shop at other times...

and also hope you're feeling better soon ksenia, pneumonia can't be helping...

[kdtmom2be]

Was reading about oral habits today and came across this site, thought it might be helpful for people in this thread http://pacificpediatricsupply.com
They have products for kids with sensory processing and sensory integration issues.

[flowmom]

ktd, here's a brochure:
Restless Legs Syndrome and Periodic Limb Movement Disorder in Children and Adolescents
A Guide for Healthcare Providers
A great read!

We just got the results of ds' sleep study. No sleep apnea, but he is a "light sleeper, with frequent spontaneous arousals and perhaps some PLMs [paroxysmal limb movements]". There. Proof of what I could have told you when ds was a week old. The PLM thing seems to indicate a possibility of Restless Legs Syndrome if I am interpreting correctly.

[kdtmom2be]

fantastic, I think our first order of business is going to be iron supplements for myself and DD. I've had low iron most of my adult life and we don't eat a lot (barely any) red meat or other foods rich in iron.

[flowmom]

kdt, there are a lot of factors that affect iron absorption. Calcium-rich foods inhibit iron absorption and vitamin-c containing foods facilitate iron absorption. There are various underlying causes to low iron including lead toxicity, etc. (hope none are the case for you and your little one). I don't think that there's a strong relationship between eating red meat and iron status -- my mom had her worst anemia crisis while she was regularly eating red meat. I wouldn't supplement without a low or low-normal ferritin test result as iron can damage organs if it accumulates in them. Having said that, Floradix is a great iron supplement and we used it when ds had very low ferritin.

[kdtmom2be]

The last time I was anemic was when I was on a strict budget and could not afford meat, I was otherwise very healthy. Eating more red meat (helpfully supplied by my parents) DID bring my iron back up. I was run through a myriad of tests to rule out any other possibilities, including heavy metal testing because I had been working on some research for electroplating metals (Nickel, Cobalt, Zinc) and working daily with lead compounds. bleh, so glad I'm not there any more!

At any rate, if you look at my DD's diet... there aren't many sources of iron. She eats cereal rather sporadically (dairy allergy), pasta occassionally (both are fortified) but mainly prefers to eat rice. And for fruits and veggies, nothing she will eat consistently has any appreciable amount of iron in it (red peppers, tomatoes, blueberries, oranges, mushrooms, etc),

And of course, back to the real problem, she refuses to eat foods high in iron - potatoes, egg yolks, broccoli, spinach, etc. And has even been "off" her beans for the last 6 months or so. I used to be able to get her to at least eat beans! She asked for beans for lunch today, so maybe we'll get back to that. With all the travelling we've been doing in the last 6 months it's been really hard to get decent food into her. Relatives cook what they cook and if she doesn't eat it then too bad and restaurant food is just bleh.

I have to head back to the doc shortly anyways, maybe I'll at the very least have MY iron tested (I hate to put my kid through that) and see where that stands, as MY RLS has been worse lately. Do you happen to know if they'll do a finger prick iron test here in Canada? I know they do in the US and I think it would be less traumatic than having blood taken.

[flowmom]

kdt, we had blood drawn at the Children's Hospital (you can take the lab requisition form there) and it was incredible how much better they were at doing it with children! It was so much less traumatic for me and for ds. I'm not aware of finger prick being an option, and not convinced that it would less painful or traumatic.

[orangatan]

We had DD's blood drawn at Children's last Thursday and they were good with her- it was so much harder on me then anything. She did cry but nothing three mini marshmallows and mama love couldn't fix. We were getting her iron tested too, as well as other stuff to make sure her weight and growth is normal for her. To think of it though, when Dh donates blood they test his iron with a finger prick but that of course (I think) just tell them if it's above a certain amount to safely donate, not iron stores or anything. Don't know if a doc can do that? Im sure the naturopath we have seen could do a non invasive test if your interested.