The SpecialMoms Parenting Magazine 1st Issue | Page 30

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Interview
(goes into his stomach and jejunum) and is able
to eat only two foods-apples and rice. It’s been
exhausting trying to travel to all of his specialists,
but if I could choose, I would still pick my sweet
guy! He’s loving, smart, and enjoys life.

What is the most rewarding thing
about being the mother of a special
needs child?
I love working so hard with the boys and watching
them learn skills that most parents take for granted.
It’s SO much sweeter when you’ve attended
multiple therapy sessions in order to watch them
learn to button. One day, they randomly button
their shirt and it’s a real miracle! It’s the same
way with speech skills. Every new word they learn
is priceless. The first time each of them told us
“I love you” was such music to our ears. Parents
of children with special needs sometimes work
200% to help their child meet developmental
milestones that should come naturally! It’s not an
eight typically developing children. He was there
for two years and thrived! It’s a mis-perception
that children with autism are not capable of love
and caring.

We watched him blossom into a

verbal and bright child who was able to attend
kindergarten in a regular education classroom!
He is now a chess expert and has many friends.
My younger son was very limited on his feeding,
social, fine and gross motor skills. He was also a
very “sick” little guy. When he was two, we had
to pull all solid foods in order to put him on a
diet of medically prescribed formula for a rare
disease called Eosinophilic Esophagitis. He was
then diagnosed with a brain herniation- Chiari
malformation;

cleft-palate;

scoliosis;

Ehlers-

Danlos syndrome; autism; and mitochondrial
disease. He is now primarily fed via a GJ tube
30  The SpecialMoms magazine ~ Winter 2014

easy job, but it’s a very rewarding one.

Briefly explain to us about your
business/charity and why you
decided to it?
My grandfather was an entrepreneur. It’s in my
blood!

I love seeing what parents need and

creating it. I cannot “shut off my brain!” It moves
so quickly and I am constantly writing down new
ideas for products and articles to write.
I really enjoyed writing my first book, The Pocket
Occupational Therapist. It took about four years
to put it all together. I had always kept a list of
questions that caregivers asked me and found
that most had similar concerns. I knew that the
information had to be put into one place for
them to read and be able to review when they