How I Found The Words To Advocate For My Daughter

April 1, 2013 Subscribe · Forward How I Found The Words To Advocate For My Daughter When my daughter Zoe was little, I looked to the doctors to forecast her future. After all, they had the clinical experience from thousands of patients, and I was the first-time parent of a special needs child. I would cover Zoe's baby face with kisses, all the while wondering, "Will her words ever come?" "Will she ever walk?" The doctors were uncertain. As Zoe grew older, she missed "milestones," yet amazed us with her tenacious achievements. We learned to embrace her uniqueness, and I found peace with the fact that as her mother, I knew her the best.  Continue reading... What I Want My Sons To Know About Marriage Massive Jump In ADHD Diagnoses Why I Will Never Really Remember My Boys At This Age PHOTOS: 17 Frighteningly Awkward Easter Photos LOOK: A Letter From The Easter Bunny's Biggest Supporter PHOTO: This Is What Happiness Looks Like PHOTOS: 17 Frighteningly Awkward Easter Photos PHOTO: This Is What Happiness Looks Like 10 Things I Learned When I Stopped Yelling At My Kids PHOTOS: 17 Frighteningly Awkward Easter Photos LOOK: A Letter From The Easter Bunny's Biggest Supporter JULIE FLYNN BADAL How New Notions of Love Brought Me Closer to My Kids Of course my efforts to please my daughter didn't make her happy. They only made her appreciate me less. While she was mild-natured and agreeable with babysitters and teachers, she became grouchy and oppositional with me. She was only four, but to me it felt as if she was going on fourteen. Continue reading... ABBY BERGMAN My Two Moms: A 17-Year-Old's Take on Prop 8 and DOMA I remember waking up the morning after Prop 8 passed wondering how this is possible and questioning why people didn't know better. How is it that a 17-year-old can see what some adults cannot seem to? That love makes a family. Continue reading... WENDY SUE SWANSON, MD, MBE, FAAP Why Do Babies Wake Up at Night? Although some superhero babies sleep 10-12 hours straight starting around 3-4 months of age, most infants wake up during the night and cry out for their parents. There are scientific reasons and some developmental and behavioral explanations for these awakenings. Continue reading... ASHA DORNFEST Putting School Year Activities Into Perspective There are serious logistics involved when your children are in school. What with the lunches and the clothes and the papers and the pickups and the drop-offs and the homework and the social and extracurricular activities and the vacation schedules (not to mention the volunteering)... Continue reading... GLENN D. BRAUNSTEIN, M.D. Let's Junk Junk-Food Advertising to Kids The average toddler sees nearly three fast-food advertisements every day. And research shows that children younger than eight years old are not capable of understanding the intent of advertising and typically accept claims as fact. Television and print are only part of the problem. Continue reading... Received this from a friend? Sign up for alerts from The Huffington Post here. Unsubscribe here. Huffington Post, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003