Pacific Pediatric Supply Review & Giveaway

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I am so excited to tell you all about our new review and giveaway! This is going to be great! The reasons why I'm so excited about it is because #1: they're great giveaways, #2: I know they will help out your kids and #3: they're awesome products that are so fun! So are you on the edge of your seat yet? This months giveaway is:

1 Doorway Net Swing System

and

2 Peanut Balls

That's right! I have *3* things to giveaway and all from Pacific Pediatric Supply! They have been so generous in this giveaway! So I will have not one, not two but three winners this month! Let me tell you a little bit about Pacific Pediatric Supply!

Pacific Pediatric Supply is based out of California and was started in 2004 by a husband and wife team! Since then, they have been providing a new source of innovative, high quality sensory integration products for autistic and special needs children. Over the past 4+ years they have become a wonderful, growing supplier helping schools, day cares, clinics, hospitals and homes across the globe!

Their main website offers over 1,000 products! They also have over 300 products on their Ebay store and 400 products on Amazon. They sell wholesale to websites and magazines and even internationally! Whatever the needs of your child Pacific Pediatric Supply has products for kids and parents! Here is a list of their product categories:

(click on any link below to see what products are offered in that category!)

~ Early Learning , Books and DVDs, Exercise and Strengthening, Fine Motor and Handwriting, Positioning, Oral Motor, Sensory and Tactile, Sensory Integration and Weighted Items, Specialty Furniture

Whether you have a special needs child or work in a special needs facility, these products are for you! Here are a couple photos of just some of the products they offer.

Toddler Rockers

Tactile Brushes

Porcupine Balls

Chewies

Body Sox

As I said before Pacific Pediatric Supply is giving away 3 prizes! They sent me one net swing and one peanut ball to review and my kids love them. They're not only good for therapy but they're also good for fun activities so they can get their energy out! Take a look at this short video of one of the prizes being given away. (And don't mind me saying, 'um' every ten seconds! I was trying to quietly control my son while taping! lol)

Cool net swing huh? My kids love it and I'm sure yours will too! All 3 of my children have SPD and have been in therapy now for a while. However, my youngest daughter is the one that needs ongoing therapy every day. This swing is something that really helps give her input to make her day a little easier. If I'd let her, she would stay in it all day long. As you can see in the video we put a body pillow in the swing to make it easier for her to get in and out of. However, you can also lay down in it on your back or belly without a pillow. The full system net swing is a $97 value and comes with a doorway support bar, rope extensions, swing, screws and instructions. The nets rope is of good quality and holds up to 175lbs. And when installed correctly doesn't interfere with the door opening and closing.

Let's move on; below is a picture of the peanut ball. This ball is used just like a yoga ball would be for therapy the only difference is that it is designed so that children can do it on their own. With this their feet touch the ground so they can jump without having to hold on to someone or something to keep them from falling. Very brilliant idea if you ask me! I was surprised at the quality of plastic used to make this ball. It's very thick so it won't puncture easily. I really liked the fact that it is good for therapy OR just for exercise! And with being only $28 they are affordable.

Well now I have introduced you to Pacific Pediatric Supply, showed you pictures of some of their products and given you links to check them out further. Now it's time to tell you how you can win one of the prizes.

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MANDATORY ENTRY:
Head over to Pacific Pediatric Supply and look around. Come back and in a comment tell us one of your favorite products that we did not talk about here.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

~ Blog about this giveaway with links back to us and Pacific Pediatric Supply

(5 entry points)

~ Tell us one thing you learned about Pacific Pediatric Supply that we did not talk about here.

(4 entry points)

~ Follow us on Twitter

(3 entry points)

~ Fave us on Technorati

(3 entry points)

~ Follow this blog

(3 entry points)

~ Grab our button and display it on your blog

(3 entry points)

UNLIMITED ENTRIES:

~ Tweet this giveaway and in a comment give us your tweet URL

(2 tweets only per day please)

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Contest ends on June 22 at 12pm Central time. Winners will be picked using a random generator and announced later on in the day. Only one prize per person/household. The winners will then have to answer our confirmation email and respond within 48 hours or a new winner(s) will be drawn. No exceptions!

Contestants may only enter using one name and one email address to enter. Any contestant that does not follow the rules (i.e. Mandatory entry FIRST, spoofed entries, etc.) will be disqualified.

Thanks for entering this giveaway and good luck to everyone!

Therapy Thursday

Thank you for your question! Therapeutic Listening is a complex treatment and there really isn't a lot of research on it. Please let me know if I have answered your question adequately.


Question: Good luck with TL(Therapeutic Listening)! I've heard and read about how great an impact it can have. We tried it with our four year old and we unfortunately fell into the under reported unsuccessful category which you alluded to briefly. I'm curious about what you know about the downside affects. We are having a difficult time pinning our OT down on the potential for adverse affects.




Answer: I am assuming you were wondering about research on the adverse effects rather than word of mouth. According to a paper published by the Autism Research Institute (B. Rimland and S Edelson 1991), the Berard and Tomatis Auditory Training programs are not harmful. Therapeutic Listening is based on these approaches. They also report that some people experience "mild-not severe-side effects during and after the training sessions, including irritability, mood swings, hyperactivity, and fatigue". This is based on parent report rather than actual data.


On a personal note, both Stefanie and I have children who have participated in Therapeutic Listening. Both of our sons had the experience of throwing up once while listening to the music. It can have a surprisingly intense effect on some kids. For both children, this was a one time thing. In addition to the above side effects mentioned, I have had parents report changes in eating and sleeping habits. Children with sensory issues often have eating, sleeping issues and mood swings before beginning Therapeutic Listening. It is sometimes hard to tell what is actually caused by the music.

Our experience with Therapeutic Listening!

A week or so ago I told you all about Therapeutic Listening and that children with SPD, among other things, can benefit from it. I also told you how it can make your child sick if not done properly. TL is very strong and should not be fooled around with. Well now I have my own proof to that.

Last week Little Man was at his weekly OT appointment. After about a half hour he and his therapist came out and she told me he had thrown up. He was white and when I say white I mean he was as white as rice! You could tell he didn't feel well. His therapist, who I really like, said that she thought it was because he was in the swing while doing the TL and was in it too long. I felt so bad for him and so did she. But after about 20 minutes, some water on his face, some water to drink and some down time he was back to his normal hyper self.

This past Monday Little Miss had an awful day! She was throwing tantrums, having major meltdowns and was very clingy, screaming and crying, etc. and so on. Nothing I did made any difference so I decided to sit her at the table with her TL headphones on and give her a sensory activity to do along with it. After about 10 minutes she was done. The strange thing was she was worse then she was before. I finally had to put her in her crib because I was afraid she was going to hurt herself (she bangs her head against things when she gets in one of these meltdowns.) After about 5 minutes I got her out of her crib and sat her down for dinner. She ate and ate and ate! All together she had about 4 kid sized plates of pasta, applesauce and cauliflower. She was an empty pit that wasn't getting full. She has been behind in communication but has been getting better with ST, OT and DT so she is saying some new words and new signs.

I spoke with her OT about it yesterday and she said that is was probably because she was so hungry and didn't know how to tell me and the music made her stomach hurt. Well then I just of course felt terrible! So now we are working on the "eat" sign! So my whole point is that even if your therapist helps you with TL and tells you what to do you need to be very observant of your child so that if they begin to feel sick you notice and stop the music. Having a child with sensory issues and having them not feel well equals major meltdowns!

This is my first hand experience with TL and my kids being overwhelmed by it. Please be careful when you do TL with your child(ren). Don't ever attempt TL on your own without the supervision and advice of your therapist!

For those of you that already do TL with your child(ren) here is a small list of things you can let your child do while listening to the music to give added input.

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Sensory play activities to pair with headphones and music:

~ Washing cars in a basin or bowl

~ washing babies in a basin or bowl

~ yogurt or pudding paint on paper, mat or themselves

~ magnets on a pan

~ sorting balls, cereal, etc in muffin tins

~ markers, crayons and paper

~ bingo dabbers

~ puzzles

~ necklaces made out of cereal

~ hide small beads in some playdoh and let your child go through and pick them out and sort them however you want.

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Do you have any more suggestions that we can add to this list? Please leave your suggestions in a comment!

Therapy Thursday (Question/Answer)

Here it is, our first Therapy Thursday question. Shireen, our Speech Therapist, has answered your question. I hope this helps. If anyone has another question please email me at: bloggymommy3@yahoo.com

Question: I have a SPD question for you. My 7yo son is constantly playing with the baby toys. He always has. Tonight he was playing with this toy https://www.tinylove.com/toy.aspx?toyId=25 and I asked him why he liked it so much. He said he likes the gears that turn, the squeaky ball, the levers that go back and forth, the ball that spins, and the music. Is this a sensory thing? Are there more age appropriate things for him to play with that will meet those sensory needs? I'm pretty sure he's got a strong tactile sense. We have lots of clothing issues with him, and he has to constantly touch EVERYTHING. I'd get him some other toys geared at babies and toddlers, but with him being 7, and he's pretty rough on toys, I'd hate for him to break them. I guess what I'm asking is how can I constructively channel this need for touch and to play with the baby toys. We don't have many of the baby toys left as my youngest is now 2 and is on to bigger and better things.
Sincerely,
SPD Follower

Answer: You are right that that toy is not very age appropriate for him, but there are plenty of other toys that are. Some suggestions I have include Gearation or Gears Building Set, Light n' Chaser, Visual Tracking Ball Tower or other marble run, and the Light Up DNA ball or Window Ball. All of these toys can be found at www.beyondplay.com I have no affiliation with this company. I just think they have some great sensory toys. There are also things at home to give him more tactile input like playing with water, sand, playdoh and shaving cream. Hopefully this gives you some ideas of some more age appropriate toys for your son. A book I can recommend with many more ideas is "The Out of Sync Child Has Fun", by Carol Kranowitz. Thanks for your question and let me know if this helps!
Sincerely,
Shireen (Speech Therapist)

Shireen's Intro

Hi, my name is Shireen and I am a speech language pathologist who has both professional and personal experience with SPD. Stefanie has invited me to this blog to help out with Therapy Thursdays and answer any questions that I can. I would like to tell you a little about myself and my experience with SPD. I became a speech language pathologist and worked in an elementary school for a couple years before my daughter was born. I loved my job and I quickly learned about SPD and many other disablities. However I had no idea that this job was really just the beginning of my training.

In 2000, I had a beautiful baby girl and took maternity leave from my job. It soon become apparent that something was going on with my daughter. She was constantly fussy, and had to be carried all of the time. The only way she would sleep is with me and with her feet pushed up against me. I could not even get out of bed to go to the bathroom without her waking up screaming. It took two years to get her evaluated and realize she had delays in language, gross motor, fine motor, and SPD. By this time, I was pregnant with my son. He was also fussy baby, but his sensory needs were not the same as hers. He also was diagnosed with developmental delays and SPD. I took off a few years to stay home and do therapy with my own children. I spent hours doing research and therapy with my own children.

When my son started in an Early Childhood Special Ed program, I decided to go back to work part time. I am a much better therapist now because of what I have been through personally. I can really relate to parents and help problem solve daily issues. I love working with young children and families. I would love to help you in any way I can. I think this is such a valuable resource for parents, and I would have loved to have this available years ago. Please ask any questions related to SPD, speech therapy, behavior issues, or even being a mom to children with SPD.

Join us for Therapy Thursdays

Hello everyone and welcome back! I am here to tell everyone that now on Thursdays we are going to have something called Therapy Thursdays. All you have to do is email me or Michelle with any questions or comments that you want either heard or answered and we will put them in a post with the advice from one of our therapists on Thursdays.



We are bringing two therapists on board to help with questions, comments, new ideas and so on. They are Little Miss' Developmental Therapist, April (we will post her intro as soon as we can) and Little Miss' Speech Therapist, Shireen (who has already posted her intro). Please give them a warm welcome and have your questions and/or comments in by Tuesday of each week so they have time to answer all of them.



From time to time they may also post links to new places for you to check out, new ideas on different therapy ideas, at home recipes for you to try with your youngins and so on. I can't wait for our first Therapy Thursday which will start next week. So mark your calendars and submit your questions by Tuesday. See you all then!

Interview: Lori's Child

Ok everyone here is another new interview. Lori found us and asked to do an interview. She adopted her son from China and recently found out that he has SPD. Please give her a warm welcome and show her some support. Thanks!

My name is Lori and I am a 43 year old stay at home mom to one child, "M". Our family -- "M", and my husband and I -- live in the Ohio.

~ How old was your son when you adopted him?
"M" was 10 months old when we adopted him.


~ What was his life like before he was blessed with you?
"M" lived in an orphanage for the first 10 months of his life. We did not get to visit the orphanage, but we did see pictures of it and it appeared to be in good repair, well kept and clean. His primary caregiver had 7 children that she cared for at the orphanage. When we adopted him, his head was very flat on the backside indicating that he spent most of his time on his back in his crib. He also held his arms at an odd angle -- at 90 degree angles to his body, which is the only place he would be able to see his arms if he was lying down. The flat head has corrected itself and the odd arm holding disappeared after a couple of months with us.

~ How old is your son?
"M" is currently 28 months old.

~ When did you first notice that something just wasn't 100% with your son?
We always thought that something was different about "M". The adoption agencies always tell you that it takes about a year for these kids to catch up. At 10 months old, "M" could not sit up by himself or roll over. In the first few months he did catch on to lots of things pretty quickly. I remember the first night he rolled over he was about 11 months and he did it all night because it was so exciting to him. He did not sleep a wink that night.

After we had "M" home for a year, it just didn't seem like he was catching up anymore. In fact, in some respects it seemed like he was falling further behind. Also, he mastered things in very strange ways. For example, he would walk between my husband and I at about 13 months, but he completely stopped doing that after about a month. I attributed it to the fact that he had learned to crawl and that was good enough with him, but he did not attempt walking again until about 20 months. He mastered using a spoon at about 18 months. Over the last 10 months, he has regressed with respect to utensils. Sometimes he will use them like a champ for several weeks and then refuse to use them for several weeks. Right now, he is refusing to use any utensils or plates. He learns new words and then never uses them again. Occasionally, he will revert to crawling.

The biggest thing that clued me in to a potential problem was the fact that "M" did not "play" with toys. He just mouthed them and put them places -- even at 2 years old. When in a group play setting, "M" did not participate -- just fluttered around the edges doing his own thing. "M" does not like to crawl up on things, go down sliding boards, ride on riding toys or play with balls (he just hugs them and carries them around -- very sweet but concerning).

~ When was your son diagnosed? And how old was he?
"M" was just officially diagnosed this week, though I did my own diagnosis weeks ago. The way it all came about was very strange. We had been seeing an occupational therapist since October for help with "M's" fine motor skills. At one appointment in January, "M" was acting up, throwing tantrums, not wanting to participate. The OT suggested that "M" may benefit from a brushng protocol. She explained it to me and I thought it sounded very strange. I went home and did some on line research and discovered Sensory Processing Disorder. At this point, no one had told me anything about this disorder. I got several books and read them and knew that this is what afflicts "M". It was kind of like being told you need to have chemo for a liver problem, going home and looking on line to find out what chemo treats and finding out you had cancer -- strange! I knew I had to find a local "expert" to help us and I was able to do so. We met with her this week for an evaluation and she confirmed what I have known.

~ What kind of therapy (if any) does your child receive?
"M" currently receives Occupational Therapy once a week and Speech Therapy once a week. We are seeing the Physical Therapist who is the Sensory Processing Disorder expert twice a month and an Early Intervention Specialist twice a month.

~ Do you feel like the therapy is helping?
I have not had an overhelming feeling that any of our therapies are helping tremendously and I feel like it is because of a lack of focus on SPD thus far. Now that all therapists involved know about "M's" sensory issues, I feel like we are going to be getting more focused therapy and that we should see improvements.

~ What is your biggest challenge that you face with SPD?
I think "M" is so inhibited physically that it is affecting everything he does. That is "M's" biggest challenge. My biggest challenge is finding enough time in the day to get all of his therapies completed, get play time in, feed my family, get "M" to his multitudes of therapy appointments and still find time to clean my house! AND I'M A STAY AT HOME MOM! I really don't know how anyone who is working can keep up with it all.

~ What are some of the things you do with your son to help them during a meltdown or tantrum?
"M" responds well to giant bear hugs. Also, if I can get him to laugh, we are done with the tantrum. Tickling sometimes does it for him and I know that sounds strange as many children with SPD do not resond well to tickling. It seems to work for him. His latest thing is hitting and head butting -- that is a challenging one as I sometimes cannot get close enough to give him a hug without getting a head butt to the lip. In fact, I had a bloody lip just this morning.

~ What are some of your son's symptoms?
"M" has a very interesting way of eating. As I described above, he refuses utensils and plates but that isn't the only eating issue. He will put food in his mouth, chew it and then spit it out. He has done this since he started eating table food and we, of course, had hoped he would "outgrow" this lovely trait by now, but he hasn't. It makes for some very messy meals.

"M" has very distinct "good" days and "bad" days. On bad days, he just wants me to hold him and listen to music. He walks around crying alot. Thankfully, we have not had a full blown bad day since early January. Can that be because of brushing as that is when we started? I'm not sure. Good days are peppered with lots of giggling, lots of energy and lots of energetic head shaking and ear covering. We have tantrums on both kinds of days.

~ How do you deal with your stress?
I have discovered the awesome benefits of strenuous exercise. I get up at 5:20 to get to the gym by 6 and home before "M's" dad leaves for work. I know I'm going to be exhausted by "M's" naptime anyway, so since I'm going to nap at that time, I figured I might as well get up early. It is also of huge benefit in handling my stress to interact with other parents who have children with these same issues.

~ What is something you want all parents of children with SPD to know?
I don't really have enough knowledge to answer that question yet but there is something I want all parents of ALL children to consider. It seems to me like MOST learning disabilities are based in some way to sensory issues, and our local "expert" agrees. If parents don't address them properly then they may just end up on the ADHD/ADD drug bandwagon needlessly. Also, if you THINK that something isn't 100% about your child, you are probably right. Find out what it is because the younger your child is when these issues are brought to light, the easier they will be to remedy. It could mean the difference between 6 months of therapy vs. years of therapy. These aren't issues that children just "outgrow", they grow around them making it more difficult to get to the source.

Thank you for interviewing me! I hope I've been of some help to someone.

If you have any advice or kind words for Lori and her family please leave a comment. Let's all give her a big thank you for joining us and telling us about her and her family.

Thanks Lori!

Picture Schedules!

Sundays are always the worst at my house! When Little Miss is off her schedule/routine she looses it. So her Speech Therapist (I'll call her 'B') gave me a great idea!

I told you all about how we took pics of all of her things that she plays with, eats and does throughout her day, right?! Well now we're going to get some Velcro and put them on the fridge so that each morning when we get up we can go over to it and take off the breakfast one and say, 'Ok Little Miss, breakfast is over. Let's take off the breakfast picture and see what's next.' Then she will see that it's playtime with her favorite toys. After that's over and it's time to go somewhere to run errands or eat lunch then she'll get to go to the fridge and see what comes next. And when that's done then she can take that one off and see what the next one is going to be; nap time, errands, etc. This is going to help her understand what happens next, feel like she is more in control or in the loop with what's going on and help prepare her for the next event.

So now not only are the pictures I took good for giving her options and words but they're also now going to help her with Sundays and feel like she is on a schedule/routine even though it's different from the rest of the week. I highly recommend doing this with your kid(s)! I can't wait to get started. I'll keep you all posted on how it's going! Thanks 'B' for all your help and advice so far!

Suggestions for children with SPD

So yesterday was our appointment for Speech Therapy. I have to say that I *love* our Speech Therapist! She is patient and seems eager to get to know Little Miss! She always brings toys that get Little Miss' attention and are good for children with sensory issues. We are trying to find out which textures and things she likes and doesn't like.

She did have a tantrum when she was here but it was only a small one. She came out of it after a little bit and we had to remove the cause of the tantrum which was a toy that she wanted to open but didn't open. She loves the textured puzzle that she brings with her and *loved* the bubbles! In fact that's how we finally got her tantrum to end. The SP blew bubbles and that was enough to distract her and get in interested in something else. Since Little Miss doesn't have a lot of words we are trying to teach her baby signs. I don't know which (verbal communication or baby signs) is going to be easier for her to learn and start using but I really don't care which one it is. All I want is for her to be able to communicate with me other than screaming and throwing fits for whatever it is that she wants.


Our DT (Developmental Therapist) is coming for the first time on Monday and I cannot wait to hear what she has to say. I will update on Monday night or Tuesday on what happened and how everything went.


Here is a list that our SP left with us for me to do with Little Miss. I hope that some of these things will help you out with your own little one.


Suggestions:


1. Take pictures of everyday objects that are familiar to her and make a small photo album to show her the pics and give her choices on what she wants. (Ex. picture of a banana and a picture of grapes. "Little Miss, would you like to have a banana or grapes?" This way she gets to make the choice and it makes her feel more in control.)


2. Establish a sensory diet to calm and prevent tantrums.


3. Get a therapy net swing to put in the house for part of her sensory diet. Everyday at a scheduled time swing her so that she can feel better and hopefully throw less fits.


4. Use a toothbrush before meals to increase awareness in her mouth. (Little Miss has a bad tendency to over fill her mouth with food almost to the point of choking. This is because she cannot accurately feel when her mouth is too full. This will help 'wake up' her mouth so that she won't do it as much.)


5. In nice weather, go to playgrounds that are fenced and not crowded.


6. Stack up mountains of pillows for her to climb on. (Little Miss has no safety awareness and climbs on everything! This will allow her to climb but keep her from getting hurt.)

7. Let her jump on the trampoline with supervision.

8. Teach her to take one bite at a time by saying "One bite" and giving her one bite on her plate.

9. Offer her choices whenever possible to give her sense of control and reduce tantrums. (Yep, she's gonna be a control freak just like her mother! lol)

10. Use 'if' and 'then' when speaking to her about events. (Ex: "If you get your shoes on then we can go outside to play.")