I woke this morning to my son trying to ‘bite mummy’s nose’ with Dad’s glasses case. I buried my nose in his delicious soft neck – ahh the smell of your own child’s skin! It’s kind of irrelevant to me now that as well as being cheeky and smelling divine, my son has Down syndrome.
Then I read today’s news. Two families from my hometown are taking their doctors to court because they had children with Down syndrome – their diagnosis was not picked up during pregnancy.
The Herald Sun says ‘..in Victoria, people can sue for compensation for the continuing costs of raising a child to the age of 18, where the child was born as a result of negligent care.
I am not one to judge. Human challenges are many.. daily.. for all of us, and we all respond differently. I hear stories every day about how different parents react to a situation like this and I feel for every one of them. It’s hard!
I had no idea I would react the way I did when my son was born. I don’t know how I would have reacted had I been told during pregnancy. But for me, research into healing was therapy – for me AND my son. Others find a situation like this utterly annihilating.
I TOTALLY understand!
There is a common thread through the articles I’ve read today – everyone I’ve seen interviewed, every interview I have read, talks about the FACT that Down syndrome equals health issues. The FACT that it is to be avoided – at all costs, better screening is the solution. Avoid it.
On Channel 9’s Today Show, Mia Freedman talked about children with Down syndrome having ‘enormous health problems.
I can honestly say that our experience with Down syndrome has not fitted this mold in any way. I know there are plenty of people who will say we got lucky, everything we did is placebo – our successes would have happened anyway.
We have worked our guts out to help our son since he was born! But apparently, we got very lucky that he has no heart defect, no thyroid problems, no mobility or vision issues. We got lucky with his hearing, lucky with his ability to walk, lucky that he has only had to go to emergency once in his life (when he had a nasty cold) and has had no other serious illness. We got lucky that he has no food intolerances or behavior problems, lucky that he now speaks, lucky that he cuts with scissors at 3 and could read words at 18 months.
That’s pretty lucky.
And that’s exactly why I wrote my book. It’s a case study. It’s only one child’s story, I understand this doesn’t constitute a double-blind scientific study. But I felt the need to tell others what we did, what supplements and therapies I selected for him, and what results in we achieved in his first few years. We observed miracles I had thought impossible. And now I read more and more stories from other parents who are doing some of what we have done and are observing similar improvements.
I guess they got lucky too.
I produced a documentary about our experiences to bring awareness to other parents that Down syndrome is NOT a life sentence. Children with Down syndrome DO respond to natural and alternative therapies very well.
I want others to know what is possible for their kids. Or for the kids of people they know. This is a human problem. Humans should know there is something that can be done to make things better.
My son delights us just as our daughters did. He steals my wallet and runs away, wants to cook all the time, and counted ‘3 white utes’ on our walk yesterday. We love him to pieces.
Here’s to healing!
For more posts like this you can visit naturallybetterkids.com.