Welcome to Parent 2 Parent!

If you're a new member to the Parent 2 Parent forum, welcome aboard! We are an on-line community dedicated to serving families in Southwest Michigan. We offer information, hope, and friendship to parents, other family members, and caregivers of children with special needs.

We hope that you will be able to connect through this forum with others who are sharing the same experiences that you are. We also have sections for referring doctors, schools, or any other professional or community service that can help families in the area.

Feel free to introduce yourself below, and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask! CandiB or Drew are the administrators here, and are more than happy to help you with any questions or concerns you may have.

Again, welcome!

Hi I am new to this forum. I'm excited about this and hope to connect with other people who deal with the same things I do. I am a single mom of four and I have a son with Asperger's or H.F.A. who is going through severe anxiety and behavior issues right now, among all of his other disorders. Well I'm not sure what else to say so I will go for now. Thank you for reading!

Also, new to the group. I have a 12 yr old son with aspergers and can relate to the high anxiety problems. Lack of play dates is a real problem because his sibs have many friends. Any thoughts?

I'm struggling with that myself. My other children have alot of friends and are always doing fun things with them. It's very hard to deal with as a parent watching your child go through this. It seems so unfair. My problem is finding a good match for him. It's hard because you kind of have to "make friends" for them if you get what I'm saying. As parents we have to do the introducing and encourage playing together. Even then sometimes we have to push them to play, more so than our other children. I don't really have any answers, I'm still learning too.

I, too, am new to all of this! My name is Charlotte. I am a mom of three.

My oldest is 7. He is diagnosed ODD/ADHD. He has severe listening/respect of authority issues. I thought for the longest that it was normal 7 year old boy behavior, but after recent incidents, I realize that it it not.

The next is 3, will be 4 in October. He has severe GERD and was also diagnosed as severely verbally apraxic. Because of the GERD he is very small for his age. Weighs approximately 29 pounds and is the size of about a 2 year old, yet somewhat taller. He has about a 30 word vocabulary, but it seems to be improving. Also, still in diapers due to lack of communication for the "I gotta go's."

The youngest is almost 18 months. She seems to be developing normally except for her size. She has just hit 20 pounds and wears a 6/9 month clothes. No diagnosis yet. She will be visiting the pediatric endocrinologist soon.


I am looking forward to getting to know other families with similar challenges. It's good to know I'm not alone.

I am the mom of an 11yr old girl and a 1yr old son with Sturge Weber Syndrome. This past year has been a whirlwind of emotions and learning how to cope with a child with special needs. Most people and doctors aren't aware of what Sturge Weber is and if not for the internet we would have left the hospital thinking our son was ok. He has a port wine stain covering half his body and had glaucoma at birth. At 4mo he started having seizures. We spent a good week out of each month since in the ICU trying to control them. We recently started him on a ketogenic diet which seems to be helping to control the seizures. Developmentally they put him at about a 3-4month old. He's an amazing little boy and his big sister is the kindest, most loving little girl. Sometimes I worry about her more, not getting enough attention. She never complains.

Just wanted to tell you a little about us.

Hi. My name is Lori, I am 45. I have 5 birth children, (28g,24b,22g,20b, and 12g), and 2 step children (13b, 7b). I married my husband in March, and things have really been quite a whirlwind I guess. Most of my children are grown and gone, only my 22 year old daughter (she attends college here), and my 12 year old daughter live here. My ex husband and I coparent our 12 year old amazingly well (he is a CPS worker, and his parenting skills are pretty top notch). We split time 2 weeks on/2 weeks off (we live 12 minutes apart), so we both see her all the time for sporting events, school things, etc. Also, whoever doesn't have her for the 2 weeks gets to spend Wednesdays with her after school, for dinner, etc.

My husband and his ex DO NOT coparent so well. She married a convicted sex offender and there is a restraining order that keeps him away from the boys. This has resulted in her only having the boys 4 days a month. To say there is some tension/animosity between those two is putting it mildly. So, long story short, the boys are here almost all the time, my older daughter is here all the time, and my 12 year old is here 1/2+ time. Okay, enough 'family dynamic' details.

Here is the issue...Stepson 13 has serious behavioral issues. He was diagnosed early on with PDD-NOS (he looks and behaves like a very naughty 7 year old), and last night after extensive testing, he was diagnosed with Autism, a very low IQ (57), and is considered very low functioning. He should have been in treatment for a LONG time, but this never happened. He has been in special ed since 2nd grade, but other than that, no behavioral treatments, therapies, etc. The 7 year old also has some very strong symptoms of ADHD.

I am feeling so completely overwhelmed. I am not used to such chaos. I owned my own personal organization business for 15 years. I thrive on structure and boundaries and systems. I am now a caseworker for DHS, so my job is chaotic enough, then I come home to absolute turmoil almost every day. I guess I don't know where to start, where to look for help, how to help my husband who is truly devastated by the diagnosis, how to find resources, how to improve things around here....help. Any advice is going to be appreciated.