31 for 21 - Growing like a weed?

Here is a picture of our informal growth chart.  We measure all of the kids on the doorway between our onsuite bathroom & walk in closet.  It's a pretty sophisticated method which seems to work well for us:)

 

The other day I heard K in there & peeked in to see what she was doing.  K had the measuring tape & a marker in her hand & was attempting to measure herself.  I helped our & this is what I discovered:

 

 

Notice how much K grew in the last 6 weeks or so?  She just had quite a growth spurt & I guess kids do have them randomly but the thing that frustrates me is that I often hear parents say that their kids grew when they gave them this supplement or that vitamin. Maybe I shouldn't expect her growth to correlate with her vitamins, I know they should be for general, long term health but it sure would be nice! We were more sporadic than usual with K's vitamins towards the end of the summer as we got busy with several mini holidays.  Then in September I decided to give K a break from her vitamins altogether & to reintroduce them slowly to get a better idea of the effects.  I had only restarted K on any vitamins the day before I took this picture.

 

What are your thoughts & experiences on this?  Do you notice many specific changes when your kids are taking different supplements?

Down Syndrome Options

This is an awesome new website. It is in the beginning stages but watch for a lot more wonderful things to come!

http://downsyndromeoptions.org/

If the link still doesn't work, it can easily be googled (sorry). It was the first on the list when I googled it.

A Quick Miscellaneous Update

We are 3/4 of the way through the skis race season & only have one week left in Jr. High basketball for the next set of playoff games & we seem to be still surviving!  It is a very fun time of year, but I do occasionally long for the summer months because while we still keep busy that time of year, we have no regular practices or obligations.

Anyways, here is a quick update on some miscellaneous things that Miss K has been up to lately.

She has conquered a new kitchen appliance.  K has been using the toaster for a long time,  & the hand mixer for a couple of years now.  I still don't let her plug them in though & I have to admit that this is not because I think she is not capable, but because I didn't let any of my kids do this until they were older because I am nervous about electrical things -  kind of silly, but better safe than sorry!

Anyways, it never really occurred to me to teach her to run any other appliances, until the other day when she "desperately needed" to have popcorn at snack time.  She even used her cutest new technique when she thought that I may say no. "Please can I have popcorn, honey?"  Who can say no to someone who uses the word honey to soften you up & uses please in the same sentence?

I decided that popcorn would be a fine idea for a snack, but as I went to get out the popcorn maker, I realized that there was no reason that she couldn't do it herself & besides me plugging it in & reaching the popcorn kernels in a tall cupboard, she did!  Making popcorn really isn't too difficult, but she did have to remember how all 3 pieces go together & make sure the bowl was lined up properly & be cautious about the hot air as it could burn her.  It was a simple task, but a good one to boost her confidence.

I have noticed some interesting changes in K's reading lately.  Since January she has been reading 3 or 4 books to me each day, as well as several to herself & the improvement is evident.  She is really understanding punctuation & is reading so much more expressively. If she makes a mistake on a word, she will go back & try again.  Sometimes this happens a couple of words later after she has read more of the sentence & she realizes that the word she said does not work in the context of the sentence. This is really proving to me how much of her reading she understands.

The thing that I am most excited about though is that she has grown 3/4 of an inch in exactly one month!  She is constantly asking for snacks, so I suspected she must be growing. Her thyroid was a little on the high side on her last blood test & I have been looking into ways to support it with the help of K's naturopathic doctor, some research & the advice of a friend.  All that I have done so far is to increase her iodine intake & I'm thinking that it is already making a difference.  Here is a link to some information on Andi's blog about stimulating growth in kids with DS.  

That's all for now!

The New Unlimited Potential Forum is Going Strong!

In case you are unaware, there is a new forum dedicated to helping parents who are interested in a neurodevelopmental approach to helping their children achieve their full potential. Other topics include supplements, nutrition, early learning & any other (mostly non mainstream) therapies that parents are interested in.  The forum just got started this fall & already has almost 120 members! It is a public group & a very supportive bunch, so please feel welcome to join.
Hope to see you at the Unlimited Potential forum!

Another Longvida Curcumin Update

I have posted about Longvida Curcumin (LC) before, but I think it is time for an update - I love this stuff!  The last time that I ordered, I purchased 3 bottles to be sure that I did not run out.  I must have put the 2nd two bottles away very carefully, because I still can't find them. Grrrrrrrrrr...............  I kept thinking they would show up, so I put off ordering more.  Finally, a few weeks ago, I gave up & reordered.  K's speech, while still good for her age, was just not where I knew it could be.  She was struggling to find words at times & was not as clear as before.  K was still speaking in sentences just like before, it just didn't seem like speech was flowing as easily as it had been.  She was off of it for at least a couple of months.

K has been back on LC for a couple of weeks now & it is such a relief to here her speech flow easily again.  I had found myself getting frustrated (with myself) at my inability to understand her at times & realized today that her speech clarity has greatly improved. I started writing down some of the things she has said this morning.  These are just the first few quick examples that I wrote down, and she will often speak in longer sentences or say more complex things:

"Can I go to school too please?"

"You stand back & catch me."

"Mommy, you're hair is brown - Wow!"     ( I finally dyed my prematurely gray hair - it was after she went to bed.  It was so cute that she was so surprised that I had brown hair lol!

``Mommy, look, I dropped it, it fell.``

Don't ask me where she got this one from, but this morning while we were doing her BrillKids Little Math program, one of the icons was obviously not grown up enough so K said "This is for babies!" ..........can you tell she has big sisters? lol  

Most of the time K can be understood by anyone, when she can't, it is often because she is speaking too quickly.  She talks well enough that since she was about 3.5, we have been allowing her to order her own meal & drink at a restaurant.

I have read that LC is not recommended for kids under one year due to possible gastrointestinal issues, but  like everything, you should research LC for yourself to be sure it is appropriate for your child.  

I buy the powder because K is too young to swallow capsules.  Many people just open the capsules, but they are packed so tightly that I found it quite difficult to do.  The risk to buying the powder is that is can spill more easily, but it is well worth the risk to me if I don`t have to fight with those pesky capsules! 

K has been off of LC a couple of times since we started last winter. Each time we have put her back on it, we have seen definite changes within a week.  Even my older girls, who had no idea what this supplement was about, all commented on how much better she start to speak.   

It is recommended that LC be given in the evening, however my daughter will be up half the night if I were to do that, so we give it in the morning.  My understanding is that this is not an uncommon reaction.

For more information on LC, here is a link to the website that I buy it from: NuTriVene

Here is a link to all of the posts labelled Longvida on Qadoshyah Fish on her blog Got Down Syndrome: Got Down Syndrome

Here is a link to a very informative post written by Andi Durkin of Down Syndrome: a Day to Day Guide: Andi's blog on Longvida Curcumin