Dylan Is Catching A Cold - Putting My Essential Oils To Use

Dylan is completely miserable or rather that he was completely miserable. He won't drink much because his throat hurts. I was trying to get him to drink Claritin out of one of his bottles, of course he was refusing. Just throwing the bottle time after time. I finally gave up and said " It's time to start putting my essential oils to use."

I've been trying to make a huge lifestyle change going more green, organic, and natural. You can imagine with special needs children change is hard. So I'm doing it slowly. I'm already changing things that they don't pay any attention to like the ways I clean, the scents I put in the air etc.

Today though, I decided I would try the actual diffuser inside of Dylans room to try to get the cold virus out of his room, where he spends more of his time. Also to try to soothe him as he was in a full tantrum because he was in pain and unable to drink.

What did I put into the Diffuser?

• 10 drops of  100% Pure Tea Tree oil
• 5 drops of Lavender essential oil
• 5 drops of Vetiver essential oil

I put them into my Now Solutions Ultrasonic Faux Woodgrain Diffuser I just got in my Good Energy Haul. It holds 500ml or 17 fl oz. of water and diffuses up to 8 hours for up to 400sq feet, also shuts off automatically when there is no more water inside of it. It is nice, but as I said in my Haul post I did expect more from it considering the price.

How to Help an Extremely Defiant Child. Part One

Many people who know me know I have been going back and forth with my eldest daughter Jasmine for years. She has her ways of being extremely defiant. By extreme I mean almost never listening to any authority figure at all, especially her parents. She was recently diagnosed with having a disorder, for this reason. I often find myself lost in trying to figure out ways to keep her under control, and so I turn to her doctors a lot for help.

If you have a child like mine, I know from experience that it can be extremely difficult and a lot of the time parents don't know where to start getting help for it. I was fortunate enough to notice something was going on with my son also and started having early on service come into my home and see how Jasmine was acting and they pointed me in the right direction to get the help she needed.

The first step I took on my road with Jasmine was to find her a good counselor. This took multiple times meeting different ones to find one that meshed well with Jasmine. The point though with counseling is not for parents to find out what is going on with their children. Rather that your child finds out what is going on with them and find coping skills to get through whatever it is that they are going through. Jasmine found one about a year ago that she really enjoyed seeing, but then that person found a new job and moved on. Then we were back in the search again for someone she could talk to. I don't mean to be harsh on this at all, but, to be honest, there are a lot of reasons children feel more comfortable talking to someone else about things that are going on in their lives other than their parents. A lot of them have nothing to do with parenting skills at all. So I would just like to say, you should never blame yourself. If your child has an issue they are unable to deal with, that is their issue, not yours. That was something that took me a long time to deal with myself. I tended to always put the blame on myself. Saying things like " Oh, I should have done that or this, I shouldn't have done this or that."  None of the putting blame game will help at all. If they are unable to talk to you, the best thing you can do for them is to find someone else to talk to.

Finding the right person though is the trick. Sure your child could talk to anyone, their friends, friends parents, a family member etc. That is completely fine, although if you do take this approach you might find that it wasn't the best idea. Your really going to want someone skilled in the art that is talking to someone and giving advice to a child in an appropriate manner. That definitely means seeking out a professional.

This is just the first step, there are more to come and I'll continue to talk about that in a later post. They say that the first step is always the hardest. I will say that this is going to be the hardest part.

Ways to seek out a counselor.

• Talk to your child's school social worker. That is why they are there, it is their job to ensure all the children there receive help where it is needed. That includes in their home life as well as at school.
• Talk to your child's Family doctor. They can definitely point you in the right direction to a therapist that specializes in children.
• Make an appointment at you local community mental health organization. They will be able to help you find other services as well, not just a counselor. They are also there to help and give you information that is out there about services you and your child can receive. 
• Talk to your friends who also have children. I know this can be at times a little uncomfortable, but you will be surprised at the fact your not the only one who is trying to get help for their child. They may have a referral for you from experience.

I do not recommend looking in a phone book. While you might find one that way really quickly, more often than not this approach will make finding the right person a lot harder. It is best to get a referral from someone who already knows about your child and some of their medical background.

I really hope this can help someone out who is completely lost on what to do. Remember that is will be the first step and also the most important one.

Graco Stroller Recall - Announcement

I received an email from walmart.com telling me that there has been recalls on Graco Children's Products, various Graco strollers that were purchased between August 2000 and November 2014.

This CPSC recall is due to the the folding hinge on the sides of the stroller can pinch a child's finger, posing a laceration or amputation hazard.

I figured I would share this with you all because this type of stroller and the list seems to be really popular, they sell these at Walmart and a lot of other location and I myself have one. And I believe my sister has one. Graco is offering a free repair kit to those who are affect

All models are a single-occupant stroller with an external sliding fold-lock hinge on each side and a one-hand fold release mechanism on the handle. Strollers with a manufacture date from August 1, 2000 to September 25, 2014 are included in the recall. Model numbers and the date of manufacture are printed on the white label located at the bottom of the stroller leg just above the rear wheel.

Here is the list provided inside my email

UPC	Item Description	Model Number
4740612178	Graco LiteRider Classic Connect Convertible Stroller, Tinker	1876823
4740610890	Graco - LiteRider Stroller, Lively Dots	6M01LIV3
4740612072	Graco LiteRider Classic Connect Stroller, Little Hoot	6M05LHT3
4740611995	Graco LiteRider Stroller, Dotastic	6M14DTC3
4740611375	Graco - LiteRider Travel System, Winnie the Pooh Peek A Pooh Friends	1790492
4740611428	Graco - LiteRider Stroller, Pasadena	6M05PAS3
4740611734	Graco - LiteRider Travel System, Gecko	7M07GCO3
4740611474	Century by Graco - Lightweight Travel System, Inman Park	7M30IPK3
4740611832	Graco Century Travel System, Jungle Boogie	7M30JBG3
4740611527	Graco - LiteRider Stroller, Surin	6M05SUR3
4740609083	Graco - LiteRider Stroller, Tango in the Tongo	6M01TAN3
4740611438	Graco - LiteRider Stroller, Zooland	6M05ZOO3
4740610754	Graco - LiteRider Stroller, On the Run	1761301
4740611958	Graco LiteRider Classic Connect Stroller, Dragonfly	6M05DGF3

If you believe you are affected by this recall, contact Graco immediately for a free repair kit. Repair kits will be available from the firm at the beginning of December 2014. While waiting for a repair kit, caregivers should exercise extreme care when unfolding the stroller to be certain that the hinges are firmly locked before placing a child in the stroller. Caregivers are advised to immediately remove the child from a stroller that begins to fold to keep their fingers from the side hinge area. Consumers should direct questions and concerns to Graco Children's Products at (800) 345-4109 or online atwww.gracobaby.com.

I pulled most of this info from my walmart.com email and the actual www.gracobaby.com site. If you need more info please visit the www.gracobaby.com site. They have an area you can type the model number of your stroller to see if its affected if your unsure.

Thanks for stopping by, if you enjoy reading my blogs don't forget to subscribe it's all on the right sidebar at the very top, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube . Or you could follow by email :) by entering your email in the MadMimi entry box , emails are only delivered every two days. I do appreciate every single reader!

Jessie

Is It Sensory Or Tantrum?

Your child is throwing a fit. Your not sure what they want? and so the fit keeps going until either you find the want or need your child is trying to request from you or they become exhausted. If you are an Autism mom such as my self this can be one of the most difficult questions you ask your self while trying to figure out what is going on with your child. Is it sensory related or just a tantrum? It is totally difficult to answer this question but I have some tips to help you try to know the difference between the two.

Sensory Processing Disorder

According to WebMD, "Sensory processing disorder is a condition in which the brain  has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses."

It can be just one of the senses or it can be all of them, there is no limit to which senses it can affect. Basically your child can be sensitive to what others maybe think is the normal. For example my son goes nuts when you turn on a ceiling fan. While an atypical person wouldn't even notice if it was on or off half of the time, my son will notice it right away and go into full melt down until the fan is shut off. That is Sensory related.

Reduce the Stress of Special Needs Parenting

Ever feel like you just want to turn it all off? Like everything is closing in on you and your not sure what to do. It's OK to take a mommy time out. Mommies need down time too. You might think there is zero way to get away from it all, but there are ways and you might just be overlooking them. Here are some ways I get away without actually getting away.

I listen to music. If My daughter has "been in my ear" way too long for the day. Her anxieties drive both me and her crazy. "Mommie, mom, ma, mama, but ma, I can ma?" It's an all day thing for her to do that to me. Its OK for it to upset you and to admit you had enough. But its not OK to just tough it out when you feel like it is too much. Stress is not good for you. Throw them headphone on, in my case I use a huge headset on the computer, there made to drowned out other sounds and they work great. My daughter picked up pretty quickly what was happening and she would just give in and go off  doing her own thing too. This is also a good way to handle stress if your a new mother with a newborn. Get an iPod, your still able to hold and take care of your baby without the added stress of the crying.  This was a life saver when Jasmine was colicky.

I take a bath. Taking a bath to me is really relaxing. We have rules though when mommy is in the bath no one can come in. I know you know what I mean when your a mom you can do NOTHING alone. So I had to make a house rule when I say "Anyone gotta pee?, I'm about to take a bath." I'm not to be bothered until I'm finished. And it is totally OK to make house rules like this, its not in anyway selfish. Bathing is supposed to be private, we have just been thinking its easier to let them in rather then yelling through the door. You might need a little help for your significant other on upholding the rules while your in there. If you don't have a partner, call your mom, a friend, whoever and say something like "umm totally stinky here, could you watch the kids for me while I take a bath?"   

Make a gated playroom.  My sons Early-on OT told me about this and its been a huge stress relief for me. I know atypically children are tornado's too, destroying everything in their tiny paths. But with Dylan it was super stressful I couldn't teach him to pick up toys because when I gave him direction to do so he totally ignored me. How am I to tell my child to pick up after himself if he doesn't understand basic direction yet? You try still never give up on that, one day its going to click, but until then keep playing in a confined area. It will also teach your child that there is an appropriate place for everything. For children learning without the use of language showing them how is that best way. Making a playroom will help with stress because you already have laundry dishes vacuuming and other things to do who wants to pick up all the toys especially if there all through the house everywhere. While they are in there playing you can take a break or get some housework done with out them following you around.

Use Respite Services. If you don't know what respite services are they are either in home or outside of the home temporary care for you child/family member you are caring for. Its basically someone steps in to do what you would normally be doing for your special needs child and allowing you to rest. The rest might not be sleeping, it might be grocery shopping with out your child or just going to get your hair done whatever. For a few hours they will provide care for that person while you do "You time" Now if your like me and don't trust people easily this might be a little difficult for you. I have trouble believing people when they say they will do it like I do it I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my children lol, its my anxieties emerging.   You can have a family member do this for you. I choose my mom and sister, because I knew they knew how I would want things done.

I know I geared this all towards Mommy's but same goes for you Dad don't let the stress get to you take a break its OK. There are tons more ways these are just a few and I hope you found them useful, I do everyday :)

Thanks for stopping by 

Jessie

The Dreaded Night Time Diaper Removal

Do you have a child nearing the age of 2 years? It doesn't have to be exactly two years just nearing the age of potty training. Well I have two of them in my house right now, Sophia 22 months old and Dylan 3 years old. Neither are completely ready to be potty trained but they're at a stage where they surely know how to get them diapers off by themselves. There have been countless morning I have woke up to both my children in their birthday suits. They soak the bed, or in Dylan's case the entire room. I have once woken up to Dylan having pooped and taking off his diaper and let me tell you what, it was the most disgusting mess ever. It was everywhere, all over his room, all over him. I had to spend the whole day cleaning just because he took off his diaper at night. I have a few tips and how you can try to keep that diaper on all night long. 

  If you have a small child and they're still able to fit into onesies you might as well use those. But for children like mine who grew out of 24 months before they were even 18 months you got to get creative. Finding t shirt onesie to fit 3t size children or larger is nearly impossible.  If you can't find them you need to make them or use what you have already.

Use footie pajamas. You know the zip up kind children you usually wear in the winter. First cut off the feet. If its not even close to winter, and you know that it's going to be too warm for them to wear the fleece material on their legs go ahead and just cut them into shorts. The same with the arms if its too hot just cut them off too. Now put them on your child backwards, yes backwards. Zip them up, and I can guarantee that diaper will still be on in the morning.

Now maybe your child doesn't like fleece material, how about using a Halloween costume . It will have to be a Halloween costume that is overall to work like overall Spider man overall Batman whatever stick that on them. They usually already are done up in the back. So you won't need to put them on backwards just put them on. If it's done with Velcro you might want to maybe sew some buttons on there to make sure that they can't get it off. 

Or you could even use overall bibs. You won't need to put them on backwards if your child doesn't know how to unhook them. But if they do put them on backwards so that they can't get to the hooks to undo them. 

Now I know there's some children out there who don't like to wear anything but a diaper to bed. For them children you're going to need some masking tape. What makes them able to take off their diaper is the tabs are Velcro and so easy to pull, if you put masking tape from tab to tab on their diaper in the front will have a much harder time getting it off. I have never tried the masking tape I have just heard from friends and Dylan therapist that it works. But I have tried all the other options and they work great.

There's also the double diaper option. You put one diaper on and then another over top and hope that they don't get them both off by morning. I've never use this option it can get really expensive. And it's just plain wasteful in my opinion.

What worked best for us was the footie pajamas option. Once you zip them in that backwards there's absolutely no way that they can get out of it and so there's no way they can get their diaper off, they can't even get their hands in their. You might be thinking oh my goodness, they're going to look ridiculous! They will, LOL but who cares? They're just going to sleep, no one is going to see them. And it will make for a cleaner and happier morning for you. I hope you found this helpful :)

~Jessie

Sippy Cup Transitioning

Transitioning from bottle to sippy cup is a hard process. It's not going to be easy I'm not going to downplay it at all. It's hard for even atypical children to let go of their bottle, it almost seems as though the bottle has been with them for so long and they're losing a part of themselves. The key to making the transition easier is knowing whether your child is ready to lose the bottle or not. If your child shows interest in drinking other things besides formula and is able to hold there bottle independently without help , it's probably best to introduce a sippy cup.

Now you may ask yourself, what sippy cups do I pick? There is a whole aisle dedicated to sippy cups in most stores, how do I choose? The answer is there is no right or wrong Cup. You basically have to take the trial and error approach. If you buy one cup and it doesn't work, your child hates, refusing to drink out of it. Well there are many different kinds of cups out there, try another one. Never buy more than one cup at a time. If you do you're probably going to be losing out on a lot of money. Especially if your child has special needs, such as sensory processing disorder, or they just might be picky most children are. When you try a sippy cup, you should give that sippy cup at least a week before trying another one. Expect for it to be thrown and tossed to the side a lot. It takes time, you won't see your child using it consistently at first. Once you find the one that works for your child you can always go and buy more.

Weaning Dylan off of the bottle was one of the biggest challenges yet. I tried about 25 different kinds of sippy cups before Dylan settled in on one. He may have been more difficult than most children considering that he is an autistic non solid eater and has sensory processing disorder. Almost all sippy cup have a sensory input and most of them he disliked. Whether it was bumps or ridges on the nipple or the way the cup felt in his hands. The last cup that I tried was called Nuk active Cup with a soft spout. To me they seemed kind of on the expensive side of the sippy cup spectrum at about $7.50 a a cup, but i had tried almost everything else out there. Not to mention around here we could never find replacement nipples, we either had to order them online and wait for them to be shipped off Amazon or buy a whole new cup. But with all that said, it was and still is the only Cup my son will drink out of.

Because we started with a soft spout, and soft spout is generally not meant for children with teeth. We are going to need to transition Dylan again to another cup, being that he is 3 years old.

Now both of my atypical daughters, transitions were very easy. For them it was basically I went into the department store and bought the Nubi no spill gripper cup with soft silicone spouts they typically are on the lower end of the price range. Now my youngest Sofia, she is 22 months old and still drinking out of a soft spout cup. We will also need to be transitioning her to hard spout or just a normal cup. She is able to drink out of a straw but she's still pretty clumsy when it comes to spilling things so I still want her to drink out of a no leak Cup.

I guess my advice to you as a parent, is don't get stressed out if your child refuses to drink from a sippy cup. Just keep trying and you will eventually find a cup that they will drink out of. Your child will pick the cup not you so if your head strong about using one style/brand of cup, I would suggest you open your mind up to other brands that seem have the same aspects you like about that cup. Just breath they will eventually transition.

Well thanks for stopping by 

Jessie

Dreaded House Cleaning/Organizing

Oh' ma' what clutter you have!

     I don't know you about you, But I dread cleaning. Its like you go over one room making it flawless, then move on to the next and the monsters (kids) move in like a hurricane just tearing everything apart again. It just never fails, its like their mind tells them when they enter a fresh speckle free room "Must Destroy". While I love all my kids to death even my in live nephews, 5 kids is overwhelming at times. The amount of dirty clothes, toys and general clutter, where do I put it all. It always seems like we're picking up something and moving it to another place and it just sits there. We need a overhaul of de-cluttering. With 8 people in the house we have nowhere to put anything.

      How about this if you have a ton of things in your house your not using and you just know it will sit in the closet you so desperately need to get the clutter out of view; Get rid of it! Take it to the local donation center in your area and let the next person deal with it. That's what I'm going to do. "oh these don't fit?" toss "you don't ever play with that?" toss "I didn't even know I had that!" toss. What is the use of keeping everything. I come from a long line of "pack-rats" and I'm telling you I'm about to break the cycle. If we don't need it or use it, Its gone. Half of the struggle with cleaning is the  clutter. For example Do Your kids have a Corner in your house they just toss unwanted underplayed  toys in? Mine do. These toys are feeling like the toys from Toy Story when Andy went to college right now.

  Everything in this picture is going to be taken to the donation center or thrown out if its not usable. They wont be missed either the kids have outgrown them or lost interest in them. There's more in the bedrooms too this is just the over spill of toys. I doubt I will hear one "Oh where is that?" when all of these are gone. Now I could just clean this all up and get it all neat looking, but guess what tomorrow it would look the same, there's just to much! I have recently even started pleading with my mother to take some home LOL. "Oh mom you could use this at your house right?" " You bought it, Here just take it!"

Not to mention there will be more on the way with the holiday and birthday season peaking in my house soon. There will maybe even be more to get out before then. Can you imagine 5 kids for Christmas in one house with 3 of thier birthdays being in December and January? I can! And I'm starting to panic.  Soon I will have no home, It will just be looking like a unorganized preschool.

      If you have old pieces of furniture just sitting around like us, Our barn tends to be a collect all of the unwanted things in house, maybe use it to build something useful like an organizing shelf. We had this children bed sitting out in our barn for about a year now just collecting dust. So today while in my "how do I get this organized? mode, I think I want to build a organizer bookcase, you know the type you stick little wicker baskets in. I wanted to buy one there just too expensive for us. And to be honest I  probably need a lot more then just 1. Now I know I don't know how to build and that might be a problem. But I also know that anyone who knows me knows I know how to use YouTube well. I once ripped apart my entire washer machine from watching a YouTube video about 50 times over and over, then pause and play while I was doing it just to be sure. I fixed the washer just like it showed in the video, putting it all back together perfectly. Guess what! When I plugged it back in and turned it on I was amazed because it WORKED! To me doing that myself was a whole lot better then paying some guy to come in my home milking the clock to get 200 bucks out of me that I don't have!

I'm positive my husband has some power tools laying around here that we never use that I'm ready to watch some videos to see how they work and start doing some more DIY stuff around here.  Making old into new useful things is my plain getting some of that "stuff" out of the barn.

We are actually waiting for the power drill to get charged right now to attempt to throw together a bookcase for the girl's room because they too have a corner with totes and a mess of toys When we start getting to it, You'll hear about it in another post:)

Well thanks for stopping by, just remember get some of the clutter out I'm betting all kids would never notice it gone if they haven't played with it in the last few weeks. 

Happy cleaning and De-cluttering

Jessie 

Boost Your Child's Morale

      Having a daughter that has been socially awkward and anxious for as long as I can remember has made me go out of my way to find social interactions where she feels as though she fits in. When you register your child into programs like Young champions cheerleading or martial arts,  girl or boy scouts whatever out of school activity might be in your area, the children are able to find like-minded classmates and build friendships that will last a life time. When children are doing there special activities they don't realize each others flaws, all they care about is that they all have the same interests and enjoy doing them together as a team. Teaching our youth to work together for a cause that will benefit them as a whole is an incredible life lesson. As much as we would like to think we can do it all ourselves, we as human beings need each other. Instilling morals, such as kindness and striving to give each other a helping hand when needed are incredible life lessons our children will take on to adulthood.

My daughter all decked out in her new gear!

      Going to Cheer every week is helping her come out of her shell. Meeting and interacting with new people. In Young Champions it isn't just kids from her school, all the surrounding areas come and gather in one place for the same effort which is doing the best they can as a team.  She is overjoyed when that time of the week is coming, shes a prepper and is ready to go to cheer by Monday!

Showing moms what they learned tonight!

      They learn to be organized, responsible and confident selling the fundraiser candy. Its no easy task to go out even as an adult and ask people for money. When they do they gain more and more confidence and understanding that charity is good and people come together to help out when others are in need. Earning Cheer bucks teaches children, that with responsibilities come rewards. A much needed lesson for now and even into their adult stage of life when they will be going out and getting them jobs. 

     We haven't done a competition yet, this is her first year participating in Young Champions. I'm sure that her take will be win or loose they all gave it their best, in return making them all winners. She is super excited about going to the competition, We need to travel about an hour away and all the Young Champion Cheerleaders from the region will be there. They get special treatment by getting big pretty bow for their hairs and makeup to match. All really good fun, we both are looking forward too. First year as a cheer mom here so I also have a over abundance of excitement.

     It's also great mother/father-daughter/son bonding time. You being there to support them in their interest will peak there morale. There will feel like they are the most awesome person in the world when you smile at them and tell them how good they are getting, how proud you are of them, they will be ecstatic. I encourage you if your having a difficult time with your child to join into one of these activities it will bring you closer together. Just ask them what they like and if they would like to participate in them, If they don't really show an interest ask them if they will try. It can sometimes be a challenge for children to make that first step to getting out of there shell if they are even a little anxious. Encourage them that trying new things is a good thing and that they just might like it, and make a lot of new friends . If it turns out they don't enjoy it, well at least you tried it and encourage that also. Try to get them to try another one they might think is interesting until they find a place they can fit in.

Being a kid now days isn't an easy task, use guidance to show them the right direction, using encouragement every step of the way and you'll see you and your child will be a little more happier.

Well I hope you benefit from this post,
Until next time ,
~Jessie