Questions about Proefa

[Guest guest]

Hi, I had some questions re: proefa in situations where a child is

pre-verbal. I'm basically trying to manage my expectations. Wiley, when

trying to imitate a word will invariably produce da or ba. His only true

words are mama, dada, and bye bye, which sounds between a ba ba and bye

bye, not even a true i sound. His no is " doo " and he can say " yeah " but a

lot of the time it comes out " deah " Every so often (like every 2 months)

he'll say bubble, but outside of that it is bah-bah. All done is aw da.

And as a plea he says something like " i do " At times it is contextually

appropriate, at other times not.

He is 2 1/2. He is receptively normal and scattered higher. He just

initiated an emotional conversation about how his Barney doll has a

g-button and the one on TV does not and how this made him want to get rid of

B's g-button and then he tugged at his own trying to rid himself of one,

too. I explained that Barney just covers his with purple crayon on tv so

you can't see it but really he has one just like my son's doll - this

quieted him and he gathered barney back into his arms and went back to the

program. So I know he is thinking pretty deeply about differences at this

point. He is constantly sick. 2 weeks well then 2-3 weeks sick with sinus

infections / colds /ear infections and the like. Not sick enough to go off

to the hospital, but sick enough to stop eating and become very

distractible, moody, and in large part, sleepless.

What kills me is how SLOW this is. Even the eating piece is improving, but

the speech is such a SNAIL. I don't think it's going to just KICK in one

day and he'll be talking - he is sublimely social and expressive otherwise.

He wants to talk.

So I find this listserv and there's just all this super enthusiastic

information about ProEFA and I'm wondering if it's just this odd group

created by Nordic Naturals to market their fatty acid supplements - but I

know that's untrue and there are just too many parents writing in. So I buy

it, and stupidly, stupidly somewhere inside me I think I'm going to say at

the week's end, " oh! he is saying words!!! " when honestly I don't see how

that is possible.

Does anyone have a child similar to mine who took off with the supplements

and does anyone have a child similar to mine who hasn't? I know fatty acid

chains were looked at when my son was hospitalized a year ago and everything

was normal. Does it help when there isn't even a deficiency?

I just don't want to get all hopeful. I really don't because it's hard

enough. I hate that I underestimate my own son's intelligence on a daily

basis without even realizing it, that I probably don't talk as much with him

as I would if he was speaking more, ... I dunno. I love him - I want to

unequivocably accept him and not be disappointed in him because a fish oil

doesn't affect him either way.

Any experience with this type of situation out there to share would be

greatly appreciated.

Sorry so long winded.

Thank you,

Betsy

>From: " roddyt001 " <roddyt001@...>

>Reply-

>

>Subject: [ ] Hawaii

>Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 01:00:13 -0000

>

>Anybody from Hawaii here?

>

>Traci, Mom to Kennedy 2 GDD, Apraxia, SID