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Monday, November 26, 2012
Trip To The Dentist
This was started Tuesday but I had trouble uploading the video.
Well Mitchell had his bi-annual trip to the dentist this morning. We missed our original appointment last week at the New Lenox office - can't imagine how that happened - so today we went to the Flossmoor office. Thought I'd trick him into thinking it would be fun, no such luck but we survived.
I need to take a moment and RAVE about Dr. Algenio at Pediatric Dental Specialty Associates . I cannot get over how patient and caring he is. At our very first appt he took the time to explain the process and address any concerns I had about Mitchell. He welcomed my input and offered suggestions for other aspects of our life as well. He sings ABC's to Mitchell during the exam which really seems to calm him down. He cracks jokes about Mitchell's yelling meaning he's just so happy to be there and see Dr. Algenio. He is an amazing dentist and would recommend him and his office to anyone, special needs or not!
Today went as expected. We arrived and Mitchell waited patiently for all of the 2 min we had to (AWESOME). As we entered the exam room he realized why were there (remember, it was a different office) and tried to leave but when Dr. Algenio picked him up he just hugged him and clung for dear life. He didn't want to lay on the chair but he did and allowed the papoose to wrap around him and then continued to squirm and scream through the exam, cleaning, filling and flouride treatment. The sounds are what really agitate him. Once everything is done we unwrap him and he jumps off the chair. No tears, no more screaming, just happy to be done.
Luckily, the small cavity he had was able to be filled today so we don't have to come back for 6 months, Dr. Algenio makes special exceptions for Mitchell :). We are back in our car 29 min after our scheduled appt time and on our way.
We also found Mitchell has 4 loose teeth & 4 molars coming in. That explains all the deep pressure he has been wanting on his mouth and the booboo buddy ice packs. It might also explain the spit he constantly plays with these days - hopefully that will go away once the teething is done.
Here is what it's like to bring Mitchell to the dentist. I would have gotten shots of the filling as well but I had to lay across his legs as he was busting out of the papoose. My arms feel like I was weightlifting this morning. He apparently is too strong for the small papoose but too little for the larger one. If I wasn't in the room with him, I would be concerned with what was going with all the carrying on.
Well Mitchell had his bi-annual trip to the dentist this morning. We missed our original appointment last week at the New Lenox office - can't imagine how that happened - so today we went to the Flossmoor office. Thought I'd trick him into thinking it would be fun, no such luck but we survived.
I need to take a moment and RAVE about Dr. Algenio at Pediatric Dental Specialty Associates . I cannot get over how patient and caring he is. At our very first appt he took the time to explain the process and address any concerns I had about Mitchell. He welcomed my input and offered suggestions for other aspects of our life as well. He sings ABC's to Mitchell during the exam which really seems to calm him down. He cracks jokes about Mitchell's yelling meaning he's just so happy to be there and see Dr. Algenio. He is an amazing dentist and would recommend him and his office to anyone, special needs or not!
Today went as expected. We arrived and Mitchell waited patiently for all of the 2 min we had to (AWESOME). As we entered the exam room he realized why were there (remember, it was a different office) and tried to leave but when Dr. Algenio picked him up he just hugged him and clung for dear life. He didn't want to lay on the chair but he did and allowed the papoose to wrap around him and then continued to squirm and scream through the exam, cleaning, filling and flouride treatment. The sounds are what really agitate him. Once everything is done we unwrap him and he jumps off the chair. No tears, no more screaming, just happy to be done.
Luckily, the small cavity he had was able to be filled today so we don't have to come back for 6 months, Dr. Algenio makes special exceptions for Mitchell :). We are back in our car 29 min after our scheduled appt time and on our way.
We also found Mitchell has 4 loose teeth & 4 molars coming in. That explains all the deep pressure he has been wanting on his mouth and the booboo buddy ice packs. It might also explain the spit he constantly plays with these days - hopefully that will go away once the teething is done.
Here is what it's like to bring Mitchell to the dentist. I would have gotten shots of the filling as well but I had to lay across his legs as he was busting out of the papoose. My arms feel like I was weightlifting this morning. He apparently is too strong for the small papoose but too little for the larger one. If I wasn't in the room with him, I would be concerned with what was going with all the carrying on.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Sleep VS Flip Outs
After a little more than a week of giving Melatonin to Mitchell at night we decided to call it quits. The first night (a Friday) was great, he drank his juice with the Melatonin in it and put himself to bed roughly 30 minutes later. The next night it took a little longer so the 3rd night we upped the dose a bit and he became weepy just sitting in his chair crying but didn't want to go to bed.
That week Mitchell started melting down about the tiniest thing and was getting out of control. Hind sight is 20/20 as the saying goes and it always takes us a while to see patterns in things. By the following Sat we had new holes in our walls (and furniture) and Steve's sister who was watching Mitchell called to say he was walking around throwing things, everything, and she couldn't keep up with him and didn't know what he was upset about. Ding Ding. The bell goes off and we realize it could be the Melatonin, nothing else in his routine or diet had changed. Looking back we saw the behavior started after we started giving it to him.
A started looking into side effects of Melatonin and found this on www.livestrong.com
"Significant changes in mood and behavior can also develop in people taking melatonin. Your child may seem extremely happy or sad or experience paranoia, delusions or hallucinations, according to MedlinePlus. These symptons are more common in people using high doses of melatonin. However, because of these risks, Melatonin should never be goven to children with mental illnesses such as depression or psychotic conditions unless under the watch of a medical professional."
It really would have been nice to see something like this on ANY of the sights I visited regarding the use of melatonin for kids with Autism. To me it now seems obvious this was not going to work out well, Autism is a form of mental illness (not very PC, I know) and Autistic kids are known to have hallucinations and trouble dealing with emotions. All the Autism blogs and "advice" sights just raved about it's use and how safe it is. Unfortunately that's all there is on Melatonin, no medical sights talk about it in kids because it is homeopathic and not FDA approved. As for the high doses being a factor, the adult dose on the bottle is 4ML. Mitchell weighs 41 lbs, he is 13% for weight and 3% for height in his age group. The .5 ML we started with seems like it would be OK when compared to 4ML for a 150 lb adult, but when we had to start increasing that dose because it wasn't working, I was not comfortable with that.
That Sunday night we discontinued it's use. Mitchell was up until almost midnight and remains up til almost then every night since but the meltdowns immediately went away and he is much happier. It wasn't to difficult a decision to make for us - happy child or sleepless mommy - I'll take the happy child any day, I can catch up on my sleep in 20 yrs....maybe.
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