20/20 Isn't Everything - A Child's vision is critical to learning

This is the best video to show how Liam and kids like Liam see. I wish all teachers could experience this so they could better help their students.

Vision Therapy Update

Its been a few weeks since I have updated. Between all of us getting sick, going on vacation then me having surgery I am a bit behind. Liam's Vision Therapy is going really well. He isn't fighting me nearly as much and I am grateful for the days just gets down to business and does it. It's not everyday, but I will take those days and appreciate the progress. We are on week 8 and the improvements are showing.

The first BIG improvement both Mike and I saw was when we went to Disneyland last week. Disneyland has been our only family vacations for the past three years. Our kids love it as do Mike and I. My kids were the perfect ages when we have gone. They were little enough to take in the magic and light up when they saw the characters. They loved all the kiddie rides and thought Disneyland was the happiest place on earth. Then they became a little older and loved all the thrill rides for the most part. Savy still hates Tower of Terror, but this last trip Liam was tall enough for California Screaming. He loved it and wanted to ride it several times. It was awesome being able to experience every stage with them. Okay so back to my main point. 

Over the years Liam hated the Toy Story Mania ride. If you are not familiar with the ride, its a 3-D ride that you shoot at different objects. Liam never wore the glasses and the most points he ever got was 4,000. I was super excited to see if he would like this ride after starting vision therapy. This trip he LOVED it. In fact we went on it 6 times. The fist time we went on it, he wore his glasses the whole time and scored 44,000 points. The third time his score was 55,800 and the last time he went on it he got 64,800 points. By far this was one of the biggest highlights of the trip. It was so awesome to hear him tell Mike and I that army men were jumping out at him, or that a ball flew at him. He spent so much time telling me what he could see that I could barely played myself. After the fist time riding it I immediately had to email Dr. G with my excitement. This was HUGE!!!!!

Wearing his 3-D glasses

Liam's score was the blue 55,800, mine was in the red

 The next amazing thing for Mike and I was Liam's interest in Lego's all of a sudden. He has never had any interest in them. He did not even like the bigger size Lego's for little ones. We have a ton and he has never played with them. While on our trip we bought him a set at the Lego store. He spent easily 45 minutes looking for the perfect set to build with dad. He finally decided to buy the Grand Prix Truck with Race Car. It had 315 pieces and was rated for ages 5-12. That night he sat with Mike is my parents Motor home and built the entire thing. He went step by step looking at the manual with pictures, then finding the pieces and putting it together. Mike assisted, but for the most part Liam did it all on his own. I wish I had taken a picture of them assembling it and even the finish product. Mike had been waiting for a long time for this moment with him. A memory he will never forget.

This is the set he built

He still has a ways to go, but these BIG milestones are what keep us going. Vision Therapy is not easy. Liam works so hard everyday. He still gets headaches and gets frustrated. I still get frustrated and stress over if I am doing it right with him. But then we get experiences like these and it makes us realize all of his hard work is paying off. I cannot wait for the day that he picks up a book and sounds out the sounds and reads to me. Someday he will not flip his b,d,p,q,n,h's or think that X's are T's and H's are N's. I am so grateful for Vision Therapy and Dr. G. Liam's world is changing and is so exciting to watch!

Pumpkin Protein and Pumpkin Butter

Photo Courtesy of Seed Oil Company

If you love pumpkin then look no more. There is a a company that sells Pumpkin Seed oil, Pumpkin Powder and Pumpkin Butter. If you want more info on how to buy the product from Seed Oil Company click here.

Photo Courtesy of Seed Oil Company

Pumpkin Powder can:

• Relieves chronic weariness and stress 
• Has Amino acids required for muscle protein
• Great for Bone density
• Improvement of the liver and prostate
• Improvement of metabolism
• Rich in Magnesium, Zinc, Iron and Phosphorus.
• High Vitamin K 
• Great source of Vegan Protein
• Perfect for high protein, low fat, low carbohydrate diets
• Gluten Free , Soy Free, Non GMO and Dairy Free

If you are Paleo and want to add protein to your smoothies, baking and everyday life look no further. This is amazing product that can be used in many ways. 

Pumpkin Seed Butter is another great product. 

Photo Courtesy of Seed Oil Company

Benefits of Pumpkin Seed Butter are:

• Vegetable Protein
• Bladder strengthening
• Prostate (BPH) relief
• Anti inflammatory
• Relieve IBS
• Prevent urinary and prostate problems
• Prevents formation of kidney stones
• Relieve muscle fatigue 
• Provides nutrients, essential for muscle growth
• Ease the symptoms of arthritis

Pumpkin Seed Oil is great too! It can be used Pumpkin seed oil is used as a salad dressing
mixed with fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. You can add flavor and nutrition to soups, sauces and many other recipes.

Photo Courtesy of Seed Oil Company

Benefits of Pumpkin Seed Oil

• Bladder strengthening
• Prostate (BPH) relief
• Anti inflammatory
• Relieve IBS
• Prevent urinary and prostate problems
• Prevents formation of kidney stones
• Relieve muscle fatigue 
• Stimulate muscle growth
• Maintain the body's cholesterol levels
• Ease the symptoms of arthritis.
• Boost metabolic rate

For more info on this product you can watch this:

http://www.kdrv.com/sustainable-table-pumpkin-power/

• Liam is doing so well with his U.C. that I am super excited to try him out on the Seed Oil's products. I have wanted to get his gut stable before introducing something with more fiber than he is use to. The Seed Oil Company has an even finer pumpkin powder this year, so we are super excited to try it out. I will let you know how it goes.

Vision Therapy Week 4

Wow what a difference a week can make!!!! Liam had a great week! I think mainly because Dr. G made his therapy more fun and age appropriate. He was also thrilled to not be using the red/green glasses. Dr. G decided that we would focus on strengthening each eye separately so when we make his eyes work together it will be easier for him.

Our 1st exercise was flashlight tag. This was fun for the whole family to do together. Liam enjoyed this one and as the week progressed he was able to follow my flashlight faster and more accurately. It has become a fun game for the two kids to do when stuck inside.

The 2nd exercise was Monocular Accommodative Rock. Liam is patched and has a lens for this exercise. He has to read the pairs of letters within 2 1/2 minutes. Through the week he showed good improvement. 

Here are the results:

Right Eye: 16 pairs

                29 pairs

Left Eye:   29 pairs

                25 pairs

By the end of the week his results were:

Right Eye: 35 pairs

                27 pairs

Left Eye:   33 pairs

                31 pairs

The 3rd exercise we did was Vision Training Star with a Metronome. Liam had to be patched for this exercise with a bean bag on his head to keep it stable. Here are his results:

Right Eye: 45 bpm 

Right Eye: 46 bpm 

Left Eye: 45 bpm 

Left Eye: 46 bpm

End of the week:

Right Eye: 64 bpm

Right Eye: 65 bpm

Right Eye: 65 bpm

Left Eye: 62 bpm

Left Eye: 63 bpm

Left Eye: 64 bpm

As you can see his speed increased a lot and was able to track the Star fairly quickly by the end of the week. 

The 4th exercise we did was called 4 corners. Liam had to stand shoulder distance away from the wall and say the letters out loud. The letters were on four pieces of paper displayed in a box. We timed him for each eye which was patched. His results are as follows:

Right Eye: 3:00

Left Eye: 3:05

End of the week:

Right Eye: 2:27 

Left Eye: 3:11 

Left Eye again: 2:20

The reason I did the left eye a second time was because he had gotten under three minutes the day before so I wanted to see if it was a fluke. Turns out it wasn't.

The 5th exercise we did was Number hitting on wall. I made cards and taped them to the wall and Liam had to slap them in order. He got times for this exercise as well as patched. He loved this one. 

Results:

Right Eye: 19 secs

Right Eye: 13 secs

Left Eye: 26 secs

Left Eye: 18 secs

End of the week:

Right Eye: 11.4 secs

Right Eye: 9.4 secs

Left Eye: 10 secs

Left Eye: 9.3 secs

Overall he had some great improvement which is always nice for a parent to see. It keeps me motivated and knowing that we are doing the right thing for him. The best part of this week was the few tantrums we had. Liam got to play trains at Barnes and Noble twice and I got a few minutes to myself to read some books while he played. It was a win win for us this week.

Vision Therapy Week 3

Week three was a HARD week for Liam and I. We both had several ups and downs. Therapy at home was taking up to 2 hours a day. That is a lot considering Liam is in Kindergarten from 8:00-12:10. I try to feed him lunch and then straight to work hoping to finish by the time we get his sister at 2:10. Week three was hard on so many levels. His therapy was harder this week then the two previous weeks. Because is was much harder it took us a lot longer. Lots of tears and lots of breaks had to be taken. We got the new exercises assigned to us on Thursday. While in the office the power went out due to huge winds we were having. The office was dark except in the area next to the waiting room, where people pick out frames. We pulled up some blinds and Dr. G said "do you want to try the therapy here?" I said "sure why not give it a try." Liam did extremely well considering the circumstances. He had an audience of at least three staff members, as well as patients showing up for their appointments not aware of the loss of power. Liam completed all his therapy and I walked out feeling confident in our week ahead. 

We started the exercises as usual on Friday. It went alright. It was long, but he was still willing to do them. Saturday it took us two hours, because he was struggling. We had plans to go to a friends house for dinner so he kept going, because he did not want to miss out on the fun. Sunday is when everything went downhill. He threw a two hour tantrum refusing to do therapy. It was so hard on me and him. I felt like the worse mom in the world, because I had to be the "bad" guy. I told him he could not get out of the chair until he agreed to do his exercises. He screamed and cried in the chair telling me he was never going to open his eyes again. He also said he was going to rip everything off the walls when I went to bed and never do them again. After a while I could not sit there with him, so I got up and started to make dinner. I told him "when you show me you are ready by standing up and putting your red/green glasses on I will stop what I am doing." It was so hard standing my ground, but I kept thinking if I give in at this moment he will have my number and do this every day to me. Finally he gave in and we did the three hardest exercises. We had lots of tears for those three exercises, but when he was done he gave me a BIG hug and ran off to play. We ate dinner and after dinner he said "mama I would like to finish my exercises". I was so relieved and when dinner was done he sat down and finished. I was so proud of him. 

Monday morning after I took the kids to school I drove to see if Dr. G was available to chat. Fortunately she had 15 minutes between patients. She is amazing with so many encouraging words and great ideas. One that we came up with was that Liam could pick a day to have off. Instead of doing therapy 7 days a week he could do it 6 days a week. Then next thing she said was to tell him that if he completed the rest of his exercises for the week she would give him a break on the red/green glasses and Brock String. I knew this would be a key one, because he hates the red/green glasses and brock string.  I felt pretty good leaving her office and went home and got on Facebook.  There is a closed group that gives support to parents who are doing VT with their kids. All of them had amazing advice for me. The most frequent was BRIBE!!! It was so nice to hear from other parents that is was okay to bribe. I am not a fan of bribing, but in this case it is needed. You are asking your kids to do exercises that are hard and can make them dizzy, nauseous and give them headaches. They need some kind of reward when its done. Its hard for them to understand that when this is all said and done they will see better. In most cases these kids don't understand that they can't see. Liam tells me all the time "I am all better mama, I can see now." My response to him is always "Liam if you were all better these exercises would be easy." Its not that these kids can't see, its that they can't focus, track with both eyes, or see 3-D etc.. Most have compensated in one way or another and don't know any different. So making them understand they will be better when they don't think anything is wrong is hard. 

After all the advice from strangers, friends and family we came up with a plan. Liam was super excited to take a day off. He chose Sundays because its hard to do exercises when daddy is home from work. I don't blame him, it is hard to not being able to play with daddy the whole day. He did improve and get his exercises done on Tuesday and Wednesday because he wanted a break from the red/green glasses and brock string. In fact when we saw Dr. G on Thursday last week he said "I did all my exercises so no more glasses or string right?" Dr. G said "yes Liam that is right you get a week off." 

The next bribe or incentive that we are doing which was Liam's idea, was to go to Barnes and Noble Book store and play with the train set. So the deal is if he doesn't throw a huge fit all week, then we go play on Fridays after school. He also has come up with the idea that when he finishes his exercises for the day he gets a piece of gum. I can do this one with no problem. The last thing I did was had my husband have a chat with him. My husband works very hard and long days. He isn't present when we do the therapy. In Liam's mind I am the mean mommy that makes him do these awful exercises. My husband told Liam that he needed to do the exercises with no fits. He also said that he expected to get good reports from me when he got home. He asked Liam to make him proud and to do the exercises and make him proud. I wish I had the magic like my husband, but I don't. Liam took him seriously and I feel that this is another reason why its going smoother. I am so grateful to have a partner in this. Even though he isn't present for the therapy, Liam at least knows daddy has mommies back. 


All in all I am so grateful week 3 is over. It was a rough one, but I learned some new tricks. The last two days of the exercises he improved quite a bit. It is hard to really pinpoint how he improved last week because we changed some stuff up mid week. But overall we saw some positive changes. As I type this we are in week 4 and let me tell you it is a 100 times easier this week!

Halloween Candy Alternatives

Are you wondering what you can do this Halloween about at the candy your kids are going to get from trick or treating? Let me help you with some idea,s which allow your kids to feel like they partake in the holiday and don't get gypped. Here are some ideas and links to help with this Halloween.

For older kids:

• You can simply buy back their candy. This works well with older kids.

• Two years ago I found a dentist that bought my kids candy by the pound and then he shipped it to our troops overseas.

• You could also get gift cards to their favorite places and trade out the candy for a gift card.

For little one's you can go with these ideas:

Set up a "shop" after they are done trick or treating you can have a table with items from the dollar store or appropriate candy and have prices near them. For example:

• 25 pieces of candy for : a  plastic ball or whoopee cushion
• 5 pieces of candy for: fruit snacks like Annie's or TastyBrand
• 10 pieces of candy for: pack of stickers

You get the idea. The kids might think its really fun to go shopping after they trick or treat. I suggest giving them a heads up so they know what to expect when they get home.

Ideas:

• Stickers
• Plastic ball
• Whoopee cushion
• Play dough Halloween packs- sold at Target
• Temporary Tattoos
• Glow Sticks
• Bouncy Balls
• Hair clips
• Hair bands
• Fun Socks
• Match box cars
• Earrings
• Nail Polish
• Squishes
• Bubbles
• Slime
• Fruit Snacks : bunnies, Tasty (they have Halloween characters at Costco)
• Lollipops without all the bad stuff

Some sites to buy stuff at are:

http://www.indiecandy.com/default.asp they have gummies, lollipops and chocolate that is all 8 major allergens free

http://suncups.com/ - Liam can't eat these due to dairy, but if you can have dairy and not nuts, corn, soy or gluten this site is for you!

http://www.crispygreen.com/where-to-buy.html - freeze dried fruit in a bag

http://www.tastybrand.com/api/Index.cfm/cms.page/i/3406/Tasty-Store-(Gummies)/- gummy fruit snacks

Breakfast ideas

A typical breakfast for us is eggs and bacon. Its nice to change things up a bit though so the kids don't get sick of it. Here is what we eat. I will try to post the recipes soon.

• Eggs: scrambled, fried in olive oil, or steamed with some water and a lid. 

• Meat: Bacon, Canadian Bacon, sausage patties all nitrate free. Sometimes I just cook up a bunch of meat and give them a fruit smoothie and they are good to go. 

• Frittata: I will take a 8x8 Pan and spray with coconut oil or Olive oil. I put left over carnitas, or ground sausage or turkey from tacos, ham, or bacon on the bottom. Next I take whatever veggies I have. For Liam I saute them so they are a little less crunchy. Don't saute too much because they will cook down in oven. His favorite is bell pepper, spinach or kale, and mushrooms. Savy my daughter loves all those too as well as asparagus, onions and garlic. After you layer the veggies on top on the meat you pour over beaten eggs. For our family its usually 10-12 eggs. If you have ramekin's you can make individual ones for your kids. Then just place pan in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Take a toothpick and poke the center, if it comes out clean then its cooked. I make this ahead and cut up into squares and store in a glass container and reheat in the mornings for school. 

• Smoothies: My kids love smoothies for breakfast. I make fruit ones, chocolate banana ones. I will post these recipes soon.

• Muffins: I make muffins up a head of time. Right now my kids are loving an almond flour blueberry muffin. click here for the recipe 

• Oatmeal: When Liam isn't feeling so great he still asks for Oatmeal. This would be a cheat he has that isn't Paleo. I let him eat it though because it seems to feel good on his tummy.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.