Mission Statement

To provide a place for parents and family members to meet and share experience, strength, give hope and awareness, to other families who have similar experiences raising children with ADD/ADHD, SPD, Anxiety, ASD, mental health diagnosis, developmental and behavioral challenges. Through sharing in this experience of raising these hard to raise kids, we grow stronger and more resilient.

Easy to Love is a 501 (C) (3) Non-Profit Organization

Friday, October 28, 2011

Halloween...

I love Halloween... really I love any holiday and like to make them a big deal {birthdays too!} Things have for sure had to adjust with Emma and when I still try and do the BIG DEAL stuff, often times it back fires.
Emma's first 2 Halloweens were un-eventful. She was so young that I plopped her in a costume for pictures, went to 2 houses and then we were good.
top-Em's 1st Halloween, bottom-her 2nd


Last year she was older and I thought a good age to attempt some real Halloween fun. She had the MOST adorable Halloween costume and we had several activities spaced over a few days. By Saturday night when Utah did their trick or treating Emma was spent. We traded out the "itchy" fairy costume for a soft frog costume (with a tiara she insisted on :) that was warm and fuzzy and out we went for Em's first real trick or treat experience. It was freezing, rainy and windy. Em made it through 4 houses before she had a melt down, during the melt down she slipped and fell Add Imagein the mud...we were bathed and in bed 30 minutes later.
this picture pretty much sums up last years Halloween



This year Em wanted to be Rapunzel from Tangled, her very favorite movie. She is thrilled with the SOFT costume I had specifically made to be SPD friendly. We are taking it easy. We did a trunk-or-treat Friday night, after she got some treats she was in her jammies, snuggled in a warm car watching a show. She was happy to eat a couple pieces of candy and watch a Halloween Clifford. We will do some Trick-or Treating on actual Halloween but we are avoiding the "events" of the season. It is just too much for her. I will admit, sometimes it is disappointing to turn down family and friends who invite us to fun activities. It is disappointing that we can't always do our "family traditions" that have been happening since I was a child. But, I am working through that and adapting things to meet Emma's needs. We are still creating wonderful memories in the process.
Every year is a learning experience... maybe this year I will have the hang of things?!




Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!
Lindsay

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Child Care Update




We WILL be offering child care starting in January! Wahoo! We are so excited to be able to offer this to parents and are hoping that it will make it easier or realistic for you to attend!
Child care will be free and at the location of the meeting.
If you are interested in utilizing this please email us @ utaheasy2love@gmail.com and let us know. We will be sending out Guidelines and liability waivers in December.


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Davis County Meeting

Next week is our October Davis County meeting. We like to have a general idea of the numbers so we can be prepared with copies and such.
If you could RSVP here, on our facebook or via email, that would be much appreciated!!

This months topic is Nutrition/Feeding struggles
10/26
Davis Behavioral Health
7pm

Thanks all, hope you are having a great week!
Lindsay

Monday, October 17, 2011

Eating Issues


Hi all -
I have been away on vacation with my husband and kids. I was so sorry to have missed the first meeting this month on Nutrition, because we suffer a lot with this. Now, I say a lot, but Hudson doesn't have a feeding tube or anything like that, he just has a very narrow selection of foods - peanut butter sandwiches, cheese pizza, crackers, yogurt, chicken nuggets (sometimes) and french fries - oh and loads and loads of Carnation Instant Breakfast! Thank god for that. I think that chocolate milk can be thanked for the majority of his growth in the past year. That said, he is in the 30% for weight and 80% for height. There is not one single vegetable to be had by him, and believe me when I try to sneak them in he knows! I put yellow tomato in his quesadilla tonight and he gagged. He will chew on a nibble of carrot and then vomit it up 10 minutes later because he won't move the textured stuff back to swallow it. We have had a swallow study at the hospital to make sure there was nothing wrong there - he can swallow. Now we are involved eating therapy with an OT every other week so that we can hopefully, start desensitizing him and introduce some new foods. You name it and I have tried it (and I am still always open to suggestions), V8 Fusion, Smoothies, the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld, letting him cook with me so he wants to eat it, growing my own in the yard and letting him pick it. Heck, I have even starting trying to cut his sandwiches into special shapes so that he would be excited to eat it. Because I am a bit of a foodie, I am the one that struggles the most with this. I was feeling even worse about his narrow selection, until I saw the docudrama about Temple Grandin and all she ever ate was yogurt and jello. She obviously survived and did really well for herself. So, I am gaining some acceptance and see some small rays of hope when he eats half a slice of cucumber, like he did tonight! But for now we are relegated to peanut butter and chocolate milk :) Jen

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Deseret News Article

We are so excited that Lois Collins from the Deseret News decided to do a post on raising challenging children. She talked about the group we started and the challenges we face. The article is wonderful!
Click HERE to go to the story.
we hope that this article spreads awareness, compassion and open discussions!!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Where I have been...

I have attempted to post several times over the last couple months and have several drafts floating around that are all unfinished! I am FINALLY sitting down and filling you all in! Emma has had a rough couple months. Lots of ear infections, gtube infections, an unexplained fever that was almost daily for 2 weeks, etc. After 3 ear infections in a month we went to see the ENT, her tubes were no longer working after only 8 months. It was time to replace the tubes, they also decided to look in her sinus' and see if there was infection there that was causing the fevers. 3 days before surgery Emma got tonsillitis and the ENT decided to take out her tonsils as well (she had her adenoids out last year).

Surgery day was September 22, it went pretty well. Her tonsils had infection in them and her sinus' were packed with infection, more than the doctor even expected. The first couple days were alright, a little rough but manageable. By day 3 it was insanity... not sleeping, in pain, so sick and started having serious stomach issues. Day 5 she was still not healing and they put her on a 3 day round of steroids, day 7 after an all night vomiting episode we were back at our pediatrician. with serious weight loss, not eating/drinking and lethargy. We had to use the tube to give her some calories/hydration and they gave Emma some medication to help ease the upset stomach.


Last week was her first week back at school, she struggled and was exhausted by the time she got home. But, she seemed happy to be getting back to her normal. We have follow ups scheduled to monitor her weight and she seems to have healed from surgery. It was a BRUTAL 16 days! Now that she is feeling better, I am really optimistic that this surgery will help her not get sick so often! Fingers crossed.

On some positives, Emma's development was tested and she is right in the average range in speech and cognitive. Her speech has come WAY up. We have had huge milestones at home including getting off the bottle, potty training and sleeping in her own bed. Emma is in a ballet/tap group and LOVES it, she is just in heaven for an hour a day. She listens to the teacher and works hard to understand the dance moves. We will also be getting back to swimming lessons now that she is feeling better.

Emma's anxiety and sensory issues are our struggles right now, but things are evolving. With the growth in Emma's verbal skills she is able to communicate when she needs a break, squeeze or is just "mad". Every day is a new day and things shift and change. Some days are amazing and others feel like we are spinning our wheels until bedtime. We are still working on socialization as Emma prefers to play alone. We are happy we were able to get back in to Julia our OT, weekly OT makes a world of difference for Emma. We are also participating in a 8 week Sensory group through Easter Seals, last week was the first one and it was great!

So there is the update on us and here are a few updates on the group:
We are going to be in this weekends Deseret News! Keep your eye out!
This months meetings are talking about feeding issues/ nutrition. Jen is out of town for the Salt Lake meeting but will be back for the Davis County. We will be bringing books that have been helpful to us, some handouts and ideas. We look forward to hearing your ideas!
Salt Lake Meeting 10/12 @ The Sharing place (1695 East 3300 South) - 7pm
Davis County Meeting 10/26 @ Davis Behavioral Health (934 South Main Street #6 Layton)- 7pm

As always, feel free to contact myself or Jen via email or phone with any questions!!
Lindsay