Betsy Bailey

Show us something weird that's on your desk.
Submitted by Alex. 

Does it really get any weirder than this?

That would be an AcuLight Expansion Screw Key – two of 'em even – which the orthodontist provided for use with HM's and Mir's palate expanders (which where installed yesterday morning).

Every other day for six weeks I have to insert the key in the tiny hole in their expanders, turning the screw one-half turn. So far, I have done this once per child and both times the key slipped out of the screw and – with some force – I ended up jamming that skinny piece of metal into the roof of their mouths!!!

My poor babies. I felt awful the first time, when I did this to HM. And I was oh-so-careful with Mir, afraid of doing the same thing again… and then I did it – AGAIN! No lasting damage. A small scrape. But geez, they are already so uncomfortable getting used to this appliance in their mouths. My poor babies.

Now I'm terrified about my next attempt! I can't believe there are even any issues – after all I had one of these myself when I was an adult (and did my own expanding). The key NEVER slipped out. WTF? I guess it's because the mechanisms are new and stiff? I hope this doesn't happen again.

Anyway, they're both talking funny and eating around them is no joy as they try to re-learn swallowing without access to the roof of their mouths (amazingly tricky until you get the hang of it!).

But the good news is: They can't suck their thumbs! Hopefully 10 months of that will break them of the habit well and forever.

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What a busy (expensive!) month we have shaping up in January.

First, a new baby. A new baby 7 years after the last one, at that. I have NOTHING. Starting all over again. I think I’m relatively a minimalist when it comes to baby gear (will skip the whole nursery thing completely – baby will cosleep at least the first 9-12 months), but still, one needs maternity clothes, baby clothes, car seats and other essentials. Fortunately, we have months to save and plan for most of those needs. I’ll need maternity clothes soon, but I work from home – that helps!

Plus there’s the midwifery care. Insurance won’t cover. Long story. Prenatal care (and the monthly payments) with my midwife starts in mid-January.

Teeth. Then, two of my daughters (ages 6 and 9) require orthodontia. Crossbites, both of them, and my six year old has a scary open bite (it looks a lot like this). In January we will begin their treatment… both of them are signed up for palate expanders and an interesting device called a bluegrass appliance (that’s a picture of it on the right). The bluegrass is soldered onto the palate expander, so it will be like one, integrated, appliance. Fun!

The bluegrass serves a twofold purpose: In theory it will help prevent any further thumbsucking (of course any seriously motivated child would not be deterred) and it retrains the tongue to lie in the proper, healthy position. I guess thumbsucking trained their tongues to do all the wrong things, which is bad for upper jaw alignment. Insurance pays for half of this.

Brain training: Lastly, we’re beginning neurofeedback treatments for my 10 year old – also in… January! She was diagnosed with ADHD – Inattentive Type when she was seven. She has been on Adderall since (currently XR 15mg). Over the past several years, with lots of extra tutoring in math, she’s been able to hold her own. But it’s not enough – at the 5th grade level she’s having a really hard time keeping up. She seems to KNOW the material (i.e, she can manage her homework just fine, if very slowly), but falls apart under testing pressure.

Neurofeedback – when it works – effects a permanent retraining of the brain. In her case, it will help her train her brainwaves to accelerate when she needs to be focused (something the Adderall does for her now, but she probably needs her dosage increased and we’re trying to avoid that). Neurofeedback practitioners claim an 80-90% success rate with ADHD kids. And it’s supposed to work specifically in a way that helps kids succeed in math.

What are the risks? Well, there is no evidence that the treatment causes harm. From my research, it appears there is no risk that she will be hurt by trying this. So the primary risk is financial. Insurance doesn’t pay for it. What controlled studies there are showing efficacy are small. The larger studies are anecdotal. The risk is that it won’t work for our daughter and we’ll be throwing our money (significant dollars!) away. We’re operating on the theory that the potential benefit is so great that it’s worth taking the risk of losing money.

Ideally, the way this will go is that we’ll see some small improvements after just a few sessions, which will make it easy to commit more money to it. It all becomes more complicated if it takes lots more sessions to see any improvement. Wish her luck!!