Parenting Your Child with Special Needs

National survey shows impact of caring for a child with chronic disorder

AP: December 1, 2008: CHICAGO - More than half a million U.S. children have autism with costly health care needs that often put an unprecedented financial strain on their families, national data show.

Compared with parents whose youngsters have chronic health care needs but not autism, those with autistic children are three times more likely to have to quit their jobs or reduce work hours to care for their kids.

Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Parenting Depression During Pregnancy Can Double Risk of Premature Birth

It has been a while since I wrote on my blog. Thank you to my loyal readers. Here is another article I found which presents research on the impact of depression on premature birth.  Let me know what you think. I'll write more later!!
Cathy

 

 

   

                         By: Allie Montgomery    
    Published: Friday, 24 October 2008

            

                 

Mothers-to-be who suffer from depression have been shown to have twice the risk of delivering a premature infant than pregnant women that have no symptoms of depression. This risk for premature infants increases as the symptoms of depression become more severe.

In a new study, which is among the first to study depression and premature births in a representative and diverse population in the U.S., looked at approximately 791 pregnant Kaiser Permanente members that were in San Francisco City and county from October of 1996 through October of 1998. According to the researchers, the findings provide preliminary evidence that reproductive and social risk factors, stressful events, and obesity may exacerbate the depression-premature delivery link. Because the majority of the mothers in this study did not take anti-depressants, the study provides a clear look at the link between the premature delivery and depression.

Music Therapy

I found this post and thought you might be interested in the content.
Cathy
                        
Sounds of Healing: Music Therapy                                                
                        
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."
-William Congreve

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by a mellifluous strain that tears have streamed down your eyes in a wave of catharsis? Or has a soulful melody opened the flood gates of old memories, to transport you back in time to a beautiful reverie? How often have you rocked your blues away listening to feet tapping music?

From infants to the infirm, music’s appeal is universal and nonpareil, wafting its way to the heart!

Dan Ellsey, a 33 year old cerebral palsy patient couldn’t agree with this more, for him music has become a novel way of expression. On his specially designed computer program called hyper score, Ellsey breaks into a composition to convey the innermost feelings in his heart. Just like Ellsey and for a many others, the repertoire of musical notes has helped convey a myriad of emotions, which words often fail to do.

The quintessence of communication, sound, is evident right from the instant of birth. A baby’s cry is endowed with a certain rhythm, pitch, intensity and purpose, to attract an appropriate response from the parents.

Our hearts beat to an internal rhythm. It is further believed that sounds influence the complete human energy system, increasing our response to them, which is perhaps one good reason why we are also called ‘musical beings’.

Music Therapy is "the prescribed use of music by a qualified person to effect positive changes in the psychological, physical, cognitive, or social functioning of individuals with health or educational problems" (American Music Therapy Association 1999).

Asthma and Allergies: Sizing up a Suspected Cause

By Rich Maloof for MSN Health & Fitness

A group of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, may be making headway in the fight against asthma.
Dr. Richard Locksley leads a small team at UCSF considering new approaches to asthma research. His program is funded by Marion and Herb Sandler, a philanthropist couple who have underwritten research on many diseases. But Marion Sandler herself has suffered from asthma most of her life. After 40 years of spraying steroids down her throat, she wondered why there have been so few advances in preventing or treating asthma. We can recognize asthma-and we diagnose it in more and more children every year-but we don't even understand what causes the condition. Locksley and his team may be on the heels of some answers.