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Showing posts from: Conditions

Parenting: The “C” Word—Colic

Father holding colicy infant in his hands
[Guest Author] This article on infant colic is the twenty-seventh in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over sharing ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging. His URL is up for sale, and I’ve lost track of him now after COVID, but his content will be here for safe keeping until he wants it back. I’ve written about Colic before, but Dr. Barrett has a refreshing viewpoint.

Read more →

Parenting ADHD: Errors of commission and omission

Gymnastics, good outlet for ADHD

[Guest Author] This Guest Post on Parenting ADHD, Attention Deficit/hyperactivity, is the twenty-forth in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over sharing ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging. I’ve already written a whole series of articles on ADHD myself; and even some on ADHD and puberty. But Dr. Barrett has a perspective of his own. I’ve resurrected his content from his vacant and camped on blog; but I’ve needed to add applicable images and occasional updated information/comments (shaded). Read more →

Autism: Autistic Concert Pianist

Derek Paravincini, Autistic and Premature

DEREK PARAVINCINI, autistic concert pianist

Born three and a half months prematurely, Derek Paravicini is blind but has literally become an Autistic Concert Pianist. But with perfect pitch, innate talent and a lot of practice, he became a concert pianist by the age of 10. Here, his longtime piano teacher, Adam Ockelford, explains his student’s unique relationship to music, while Paravicini shows how he has ripped up the “Chopsticks” rulebook.

Derek Paravicini weighed half a kilogram when he was born, prematurely at just 25 weeks. Growing up blind and with severe autism, Paravicini had trouble communicating, but was fascinated by sound. He began teaching himself how to play the piano and, by 4-years-old, had taught himself an incredible catalogue of songs that he played with unusual technique. Soon, Paravicini began studying with Adam Ockelford, a teacher at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind in London, who saw in him the marks of a highly inventive musician. Paravicini gave his first concert at age 7 and, two years later, played the Barbican Hall.

TV and Stage

Once a child prodigy, he’s matured into a creative musician, able to reimagine songs in ways few can. Now in his thirties, Paravicini has continued to grow as a performer, with the ability to reimagine complex pieces of music even after only hearing them once. He was featured in the series Extraordinary People in the United Kingdom and, in the United States, on Stan Lee’s Superhumans, which verified his musical ability and confirmed his savantism. Paravicini has also worked with composer Matthew King. The two have played improvised pieces on BBC Radio and collaborated on Blue, the first concerto ever composed for someone with learning impairment. Autistic Concert Pianist indeed!

For more information about autism see: As Much As You Want To Know About Autism

Hyperactivity and Puberty – “ADHD on Testosterone”

13 year old boy with ADHK doing a high kick jump

I’m actually quite proud of how the series of articles I wrote on Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) turned out; until recently that is, when it dawned on me that it wasn’t over yet. I had left out an important issue: when hyperactivity meets puberty.

Puberty and hyperactivity, normal teen issues on steroids

The same holds true from my extensive series of articles about puberty—I didn’t mention how it is effected or even altered by hyperactivity. Read more →

Childhood Diabetes Update

Update in diabetes care of the pediatric patient

Although, as explained, personal issues prevent me from posting as regularly as I have always done; none-the-less, I still try to keep up with the new developments in pediatrics and one such area is Diabetes in childhood.

I’ll try and update several “discoveries” related to “Diabetes” in the pediatric population that should be posted in this site: 1 – New naming conventions; 2 – that adolescent diabetes is much more refractory to treatment than we had thought; and, 3 – that the FDA has now approved the “artificial pancreas” for use in children with “type 1” diabetes.
Read more →

The Charles Bonnett Syndrome: An Under-reported Phenomenon

Visually Impaired and Charles Bonnett
Psychiatrist Oliver Stacks Explains

The relaxed demeanor of Dr. Stacks is easy to understand when he explains the unease experienced by patients who are loosing their sight when they see something that isn’t there—the hallucinations of the Charles Bonnett Syndrome give fears of “loosing one’s mind” or other conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

Most have heard about the “phantom limb syndrome” experienced by individuals who have lost a limb; but, almost no-one has heard of that happening when sight is lost, although it does.

Dr. Stacks explained how the phenomenon was first seen and described in the literature by Dr. Charles Bonnett (hence the syndrome’s name) when his father lost his sight. It now has been described as a “not rare” occurrence in people whose vision is becoming impaired not just those who are blind.

There is a “comfort,” of sorts, from knowing that there is a name for what is happening, that it’s “normally” seen and not an additional problem and that it’s not a harbinger of something worse.

In addition, just knowing about it and learning about what makes it happen—who knows, might lead to one day being able to develop artificial eyes. Stranger things have happened.

As Much As You Want To Know About Autism – FIVE Videos

Autism Explanations
From Diagnosis to Treatment to Living With It

Carefully selected from the hundreds of videos about the subject of Autism, here are four others chosen for their clarity, succinctness yet completeness and amazing insight.

Faith Jegede Cole · Writer

Writer Faith Jegede Cole draws on her experiences growing up with two autistic brothers in order to spread awareness and understanding about this increasingly common diagnosis.
She says: “Don’t tell me I’m ‘normal'”, and thinks of her brothers not so much as ‘ordinary’ but extraordinary.

Steve Silberman · Writer and editor

Steve Silberman is a writer and contributing editor for “Wired” who covers science and society. His newest book explores neurodiversity and the link between autism and genius. He relates the history of the autism diagnosis; the Connors vs Asperger issue; and, implications for diagnosis and treatment.

Ami Klin · Autism researcher

Ami Klin is an award winning autism spectrum disorder researcher who explains why we need to find new avenues for early diagnosis and what he and others are doing about it.

Temple Grandin · Livestock handling designer, autism activist

Through groundbreaking research and the lens of her own Asperger’s, Temple Grandin brings startling insight into two worlds.

She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.

Her insight: “…Einstein, Mozart, tesla would all be diagnosed as having ASD today… attends to detail… I think in pictures… one of the things that worries me is where are the younger versions of these people going today – they’re not ending up in silicon valley where they belong… if you got rid of all the Asperger’s there would be no silicon valley.”

“Is it unrealistic to think that their child loves them? Let me tell you that that child would be loyal, if your house was burning down they’re gonna get you out of it.”

 

ADHD, Hyperactivity: Don’t JUST Take My Word For It →

Fussing around trying to find photos to accompany my many posts in the series about ADHD and hyperactivity, I stumbled upon a great article from one of the most “down home” type physicians on the internet, Greg Barrett MD. A professor at a prestigious college, this guy has won many awards from his medical students for just “plain talk” and “making sense”—along with the overall kindness usual with a Pediatrician. Here is a link to his article about ADHD entitled “Errors of commission and omission.” Dr. Barrett’s whole site has been taken over by a “flipper” who wants to sell it. I’ve recovered his articles and am providing them a home here until such time as his site is recovered.

Hyperactivity Treatment: What Really Works… Really

ADHD treatment - what we KNOW works

In this series so far we’ve learned that there are new guidelines for diagnosing ADHD and hyperactivity which should help standardize when a child is “labeled” with the problem. We’ve followed a child through an appropriate diagnostic evaluation and we’ve been reminded that the internet is full of scams which delay children from getting real help. Read more →

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