Posted by SugeyCE on November 28, 2009 under Standard | 
Tommy cleaning out the pumpkin pie tin
If you are like us, your child may be on a special diet. This recipe will not work for all diets, so please keep in mind that this worked for my son’s specific allergies–GF/CF/Almond Free etc… While Tommy has ALOT of allergies, other families we work with have to have their kids on ketogenic diets (high fat) because of epilepsy issues and others are on a Specific Carbohydrate diet (low carbs). This recipe would probably not fit those diets because it does have a bit of carbs.
If, however, like us you have been searching for years for more recipes that could help our kiddos not “miss out” on anything, then this is something you will appreciate. Tommy–with our help-devoured this. Both Rich and I definitely even think this might even taste better than regular gluten rich, casein rich, fat rich pumpkin pie! It was delicious, so I hope your family enjoys it as much as ours did.
PUMPKIN PIE
Adapted from: Nourishing Traditions
TOTAL TIME: 55 MIN.* MAKES 8-12 SERVINGS
Ingredients for Crust:
1 box Kinnikinnick GF/CF/Allergen Free Graham Crackers
6 tablespoons Spectrum Organic all Vegetable Shortening (instead of butter)
1 /3 cup of sugar or other sugar alternative
1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Use shortening to grease up pie pan (9 inch pan)
3. Pour Crust mixture in pan and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Ingredients for Pie:
1 Graham Cracker Crust made from scratch (see above)
1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree or 2 cups fresh baked pumpkin
3 eggs
1/3- ½ cup honey or other natural sweetener, to taste
1 tsp dried ginger or 1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp powdered cloves
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 cup coconut milk (full fat)
Steps:
1. Line a 9 inch pie pan with your choice of gluten-free crust. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and beat well. Add the rest of the ingredients until thoroughly combined. Pour batter into pie crust.
2. To avoid the crust getting burned, cover edges of pie pan with strips of aluminum foil until they just over the edges of the pie crust.
3. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes or until firm.
Per Serving (doesn’t include crust): 96 Calories; 4g Fat (37.2% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 13g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 64mg Cholesterol; 77mg Sodium.
Posted by SugeyCE on November 27, 2009 under Standard |
Help The Tommy Foundation by supporting us in a new challenge set forth by Chase Bank on the social media giant, Facebook. Chase Community Charity Giving Challenge details are listed below. It takes less than 2 minutes to help support us and other local charities working DIRECTLY with families.
- To view our page, click on the link below:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/853399?src=wallpost&ref=mf
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What is Chase Community Giving?
Chase Community Giving is a program run by Chase that will allow Facebook users to vote for local charities and non-profits, and help direct Chase corporate philanthropy dollars to eligible organizations in the following focus areas: education, healthcare, housing, the environment, combating hunger, arts and culture, human services, and animal welfare. The grassroots campaign aims to inspire a new way of corporate philanthropy.
The eligible charity receiving the most votes will be awarded $1 million, the top five runners-up will receive $100,000 each and the 100 finalists, including the top winners, will be awarded $25,000 each. Additionally, a special Advisory Board led by prominent national philanthropists will allocate $1 million to the nominated charities of its choice.
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How long does the program run?
Chase will use Facebook to allow participants of the Chase Community Giving program to select local causes and organizations in need of support focused on the issues that matter most, enabling those organizations to make further tangible progress toward their missions. Voting for Round 1 ends December 11. Voting for Round 2 ends January 22, 2010 and the top charities will be announced on or around February 1.
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What is the role of the Advisory Board?
The Chase Community Giving Advisory Board was formed to embody the spirit of giving back to local causes and the importance of community giving. The role of the Advisory Board will be to review the 100 finalists from Round 1 and the winners of Round 2 as determined by participant votes to help ensure the finalists meet the eligibility requirements and standards of the program. The Advisory Board will also choose one or more organizations, from those organizations receiving at least one vote, to be awarded a combined total of an additional $1 million.
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Why do I need to become a fan of Chase Community Giving and provide access to my information? Will I receive e-mail communications from Chase by becoming a fan?
The purpose of allowing access and becoming a fan of Chase Community Giving is so that administrators are able to track participant votes and to allow participants to spread the word of the program by giving users ability to comment on the charities that they vote for, and to notify friends about the program. We hope that participants will use the fan page to create awareness around the opportunity for charities to receive donations totaling millions of dollars from Chase’s philanthropy fund. It has no direct tie to Chase mail or email campaigns.
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How will the winners be determined?
Voting for Round 1 will go from 11/15/09 until 11:59:59 p.m. ET on 12/11/09.
Voting for Round 2 will go from 01/15/10 until 11:59:59 p.m. ET on 01/22/10.
Winners from both Rounds will be determined once the votes have been tallied and it has been determined that all program eligibility standards and requirements have been met.
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I am a member of the media and would like to contact someone at Chase about the program, who can I reach out to?
Media inquiries should be directed to JPMorgan Chase corporate media relations.
To view our page, click on the link below:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/853399?src=wallpost&ref=mf
Posted by SugeyCE on under Standard |
Autism is a complex neurobiological condition that is currently diagnosed based on core deficits in social interaction, communication, and resticted, repetitive and stereotypical behaviors. The model currently used to diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorders is the DSM-IV which was developed by psychologists. They are currently working on a new model that will be called the DSM-V. Issues with the DSM include failure to look at either genetic, environmental or sensory issues related to these individuals. Individuals are classified based solely on behaviors they manifest and not looked at holistically to see what their individual needs are as a person.
As mentioned, Autism is a spectrum disorder and currently based on the criteria established in the DSM-IV, a child can have a diagnosis of an ASD if they have Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Asperger’s Syndrome, Rett’s Syndrome or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. Right now, 1 in every 91 children in the US has an ASD diagnosis and 1 in 58 boys has it as well. Out of every 5 children with the condition, 4 of them are boys. Autism is growing at a rate of 10-17% annually and the condition knows no racial, ethnic or social boundaries.
Some families–like our own–will report no early signs of autism in their children and in fact a regression into these categories after environmental triggers is often cited. For others, there are some signs that may have indicated that their children had ASD. First signs can include:
* Insistence on sameness or resistance to change
* Difficulty in expressing needs
*Echolalia (repeating words or phrases in place of responsive language)
*Laughing, crying, showing distress for reasons not apparent to others
*Prefers to be alone or seems aloof
*tantrums
*difficulty in socializing with others
*may not want to be touched
*little or no eye contact
*sustained odd play
*spins objects
*Inappropriate attachment to objects
*Apparent over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to pain
*No real fear of danger
*Hyperactivity
*low muscle tone (underactiviity)
*Uneven gross/fine motor skills
*Not responsive to verbal cues (often children appear deaf and will often be tested for this first)
Along with a Diagnosis on the spectrum there are other conditions that a child may be diagnosed with including: Mental Retardation, ADHD, Seizure Disorders, Chronic Constipation/Diarrhea, Sleep Disorders, Anxiety or mood disorders, Obsessive compulsive disorders, low muscle tone, sensory sensitivities, motor-issues (dyspraxia).
As a mom with a child on the spectrum–now aged 10, almost 11–I think research and a firm knowledge and investigation of your child will be your biggest ally in helping the individual in your life who has an ASD with the challenges they will face. As a parent, the term sounds really scary, but in reality we all have challenges with our kids, this one is just a bit bigger than what we originally thought we’d have. Understanding that there is hope and that there are treatments that can truly help your child will help make this diagnosis seem a bit less scary and more manageable. The most important thing to remember, is that your child is a person–an individual–and that in much the same way that a parent who happens to have a child with diabetes would not introduce their child as my “diabetic child” or a parent with a child who has cancer, would call them my “cancerous child”, your child has autism, autism is not who they are as an individual.
In the last few years with our work with Parent Education Network (http://www.parentednet.org/), Autism Spectrum Connections and an organization we founded, The Tommy Foundation (www.tommyland.org), we have talked to families who are affected by the complexity of autism. Whether a parent just discovered their child is on the spectrum or they have known it for years, the reality is that most families are struggling in some way–whether it is financially or just staying on top of all the current research or that their child’s behavior or biological manifestations of the condition continue to evolve through time. This is where understanding your child and becoming a “happy detective” of them will enable you to make positive changes in their life and your own.
The term happy detective is borrowed from a wonderful group (Autism Treatment Center of America) that has revolutionized our life and our approach to working with our own child, The Son-Rise program. As an advocate, I support every parent’s right to find and utilize the technique or approach that BEST suits their child and so we fight to let parents know what these approaches are and get the information into their hands so they can choose the approach. As a parent, it is awesome to see my child–who went from saying phrases, looking at us and playng appropriately with toys and people to an isolated individual who refused to be touched and would only eat everything you gave them–start to come back to us thanks to our loving and understanding approach to his condition, the creation of a loving and supporting team, and the implimentation of a biomedical treatment.
My advice to parents just now discovering their child is on the spectrum OR for families that have not done research in a bit because it can be so overwhelming, is to take a deep breathe and take everything in steps they can digest. The first and most important thing to do is to examine the best expert you have about what your child responds to/does not respond to–THEM. Everytime I am “stuck” with what Tommy needs, I remind myself that he will show me the answer if I observe him and reseach the possible reasons for it and if I can verbalize to our “team” what is going on so that we can find a solution together. In examining your little “expert” take pictures of them, get a journal, document reactions they have after they eat certain foods, what are they motivated by etc… What you will find is that your child is not “acting out” or just engaging in a “stereotypical” behavior by choice, but that there really might be a sensory, biological, and maybe even potential serious reason why they engage in a particular “stim” or “ism”. For example, a child who mouths alot of objects may have low iron OR they may just need more sensory input to that area of their body and a good solution might be working with a occupational therapist on some techniques (such as chewy toys) to help them get that stimulation. On the other end of the spectrum, a child may be banging their head or physically “hurting” themselves because to do this releves pressure from another area of their body which may be putting them in constant pain–for example neurological issues such as migraines, tumors and the like.
In your role as happy detective, look at your child’s diet. Are their certain foods that your child just does not like to eat? Why? Are their certain foods they seem almost obsessed with or unhealthily drawn to? Why? The answer to some of these may be sensory (a child might be oversensitive or undersensitive to textures, tastes, smells and the like) or it could be an issue of digestion–they may be fixated or addicted to foods their little bodies simply cannot process which can send them on hyperactive, destructive or emotional spurts. Below is a list of things I would recommend you look into after you start deeply and lovingly investigating who your son/daughter with autism is and why they may be “behaving” they way they do:
Biomedical resources:
1. Children with Starving Brains by Jaquelyn McCandless, MD (Book)
2. Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies by Dr. Kenneth Bock, M.D. website: http://www.rhinebeckhealth.com/rhc/
3. Healing and Preventing Autism by Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, MD and Jenny McCarthy
4. http://www.defeatautismnow.com/ This is a website for the group called Defeat Autism Now. The Founder is the late Bernard Rimland who is credited in autism literature for debunking the refrigeration mother theory of why children developed autism. The theory went that once mothers went back into the workforce the child lashed out against these “refrigerator moms” by developing ‘bad’ behaviors. Thank goodness that this little bit of sexist history is past us.
5. http://www.generationrescue.org/ Generation Rescue Website that has everything from information about what to do next to grants for families that are considering starting a biomedical program for their children but may not be able to afford it.
Therapeutic approaches:
Son-Rise
- Son-Rise: www.autismtreatmentcenter.org (website) Son-Rise the Miracle Continues by Barry Neil Kaufman (Book)
- www.autisticallyinclined.com with Certified Son-Rise Teacher, Julie Sando.
- http://tenthingsautism.com/ by Jonathan Levy also a certified Son-Rise teacher who wrote a book, What You can Do Right Now to Help Your Child with Autism. He has served as an expert witness on trials of individuals with autism and has worked with thousands of individuals on the spectrum.
Floor-Time
1. http://www.livestrong.com/article/14705-the-greenspan-floor-time-model/
2. Engaging Autism: Helping Children Relate, Communicate and Think with the DIR Floortime Approach (Merloyd Lawrence Book)
ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis)
1. http://autism.about.com/od/alllaboutaba/a/abaoverview.htm
2. http://autism.healingthresholds.com/therapy/applied-behavior-analysis
I am a firm believer that you need to examine your child to see what works and what does not. If you can see something is not working than please trust your instincts, ask questions and know and don’t let someone tell you that they know more about your child than you because they have a title. You have a title too, it is Mom, Dad, Caregiver, Facilitator etc… You are your child’s best asset and will be the one that will work with your child throughout their life–well beyond the 21 year old benchmark set by the state.
Always
Unique
Totally
Interesting
Sometimes
Mysterious
There is hope and it starts by learning how to heal yourself and them… As parents, especially moms, we tend to ignore our own needs often feeling selfish about spending time away from our kids. The truth is the more out of sync we are, the more they will be out of sync as well. Our kids respond to their environment and part of that is us. I am proud to be a warrior in this battle with your all and hope that we can be friends through it all. Even when we disagree, let us work together to try and build ourselves up and not tear us down with our actions, words and the comparison game. You have a unique individual in your life, as do I, let’s respect them and ourselves by always remembering that we are ALL doing the best we can.
With much love and admiration,
Sugey
Posted by Richard Everts on November 3, 2009 under Documentary |
I’m proud to announce that production has begun on a new full length documentary from the Tommy Foundation on autism in the Northeast. While the title is of course nowhere near ready for submission, we have an excellent idea of how everything is going to progress with the story.
It will be a story about Sugey and myself becoming autism advocates with Tommy and his development. This includes us setting up interviews with prominent individuals in the autism community which I can not name publicly at this time, but rest assured they are pretty “big” when it comes to the community. However, to give the story a twist, we’re adding 6 families into the mix that come from all kinds of different backgrounds to show how autism is affecting families across cultural boundaries. This is kind of the multiple story line situation you see in so many documentaries, where you have one main story then lots of subplots that come together in one overriding theme. Most of the interviews and talks will be given in the original family languages and translated into English for our viewers. So far, we have one Asian-American family that speaks Korean and Chinese, two Hispanic families speaking Spanish only, one African-American family, and 2 caucasian families.
Sugey is compiling the stories into her first book, which I’m very excited about as well. She does a wonderful job relating to individuals, and I know there are VERY few people looking into the cross-cultural problems associated with children on the ASD spectrum. Production has already begun with the scheduling of interviews and the materials needed to pull this together.
We’ll be filming in 1080 HD on a Canon XH-A1 HDV camera system with an RODE NTG-2 boom mic for the primary camera and an HV20 for the secondary. We also have a full spectrum lighting system with reflectors for the interviews. I just ordered a neat slate to help with the syncing and plenty of HDV tapes. I’m assuming right now we’re looking at close to 100 hours of footage before we’re done with interviews and stock footage. We’ll be editing everything with Final Cut Pro on either a 2009 Mac Pro 2.26 Xeon with 6 GB RAM or a Macbook Pro 17″ 2.93 with 4 GB Ram depending on the situation. Special effects will be created with Affects Effects CS4. I haven’t decided on a Sound Editor, though I do enjoy both Soundbooth CS4 and Soundtrack Pro as part of the Final Cut Studio suite. For color correction I’m going to try and do in Color, but I don’t have the expertise so I might have to do it in Final Cut and hope for the best. Storage is a major issue, especially with HDV taking almost 500GB for 10 hours of footage, so I’m looking at starting with a MyBook Mirror 2 TB RAID to start with my main project and software, and then get additional hard drives without the RAID for the rest. Since everything is on HDV film, a data loss will just mean a recapture. Painful for sure, but not catastrophic.
I’m really jacked to be putting this together. I think it can be a major milestone for the autism community and will help many people understand what families go through regardless of their socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. If you have any suggestions or know of any way to contribute, let us know.
