Child development Centre

[jenk1]

Please can anyone tell me what to expect from the CDC, both my ds and dd are now waiting an appointment for the CDC at 2 different hospitals as we are on the border between the two.

The paediatrician said that dd will have to see an Occupational Therapist(i dont even know what these do), A physiotherapist, A speech Therapist, A Paediatrican, cant remember the rest because it was early hours of this morning.

Do you see them all at once, serperately and what if they all disagree?

Sorry if im rambling but my head is in bits at the moment with everything thats gone on in the last few months, it helps me if im prepared and know what to expect as i find it really hard going into unchartered territory

Thanks

Jenk, heh there, well my DD went through my local CDC and I found ours very supportive. We went to a special play session called an 'opportunity' group and you meet other mums there and are observed by professionals (but not in a horrible way). I think all the professionals involved with your children have meetings so they are all in the know. A community paediatrician is usually there one day a week too for appointments. You will also meet a specialist health visitor and probably a nursery nurse. I found ours invaluable and a great source of comfort and advice. I'm so sorry things are so tough at the moment and so sorry to hear about your DD. Much loveXXXXX

OT does physical exercises and games to help refine motor control, thought process/planning, sensory issues and so on depending on child's stage of development and needs. I'd imagine you'd have separate appointments for assessments and any reviews/treatment. Each will focus on a different aspect of your dd's problems as identified by the first paed so whilst there may be overlap it is unlikely to be contradictory.

Are the appointments for an assessment or for actual therapy?

The system seems to vary from place to place but generally you would have a different appointment for each person. As the others have said, the OT will look at fine-motor skills and sensory difficulties. They may have a questionnaire for you to fill in but will usually do this with you. With ds1 and ds2 they were looking at whether they were using both hands (ds2 was left-handed pretty much from the beginning whereas ds1 had no preference), how they used their hands to manipulate objects and also if there were any textures they avoided touching. The OT asked a lot of questions about sensory areas. This included the more onvious ones like hearing, touch, vision but also things like whether they liked being upside down or swinging.

When all the individual appointments were finished there was a case conference with all of the pros, the Paed, and anyone else involved in the ds'es care (including us). There were no real disagreements either time tbh, presumably because each person had their own particular area of expertise.

How long it all takes will depend on your area. Here the appointments are all done from Mon-Thurs in a single week and the case conference is held on a Friday. In other areas this may be spread out over weeks/months and there may be other observations carried out at school or home.

OMG! I obviously didn't mean that kind of swinging.

im not sure whats happening with dd now.

Yesterday the senior paediatrician came to see her and said there is a problem with her legs for which she,s referred her to physio, she also mentioned a brain scan at a later date and has referred dd back to the dietician to look again at her diet as dd is not putting on weight, she has also said that dd will be seen by one of her colleagues re allergies development etc and yesterday they took blood from dd to test for 6 different things i dont know what for though.

My heads swimming a bit as we have had so much information this weekend so i THINK she will still be going to the CDC for therapy as the paed played with her and assesed her yesterday

can anyone tell me something please, is it the paediatrician that is charge of dd,s therapy etc and assesments, or does each department take control because im confused i,ll tell you why....

Yesterday when dd was weighed the paediatrician asked me why she was on the strict diet that she,s on which is dairy,egg,wheat,citrus fruits and tomato free.

I told her that the dietician at the hospital has put her on it so she asked when was dd seeing the dietician again and i said i didnt know as the dietician said she would see dd in a few months.

The paediatrician looked annoyed by this and said "no, she will be seen as an urgent case and this dairy free is going to stop because dd is not putting weight on even though we are giving her vitamins, cooking with nutramigen and i am still breastfeeding her-she,s still not putting on weight.

So does the dietician have to report to the paediatrician then?

And im worried that dd,s asthma and eczema will worsen as a result of her going back on dairy but its better for her to put weight on i suppose, oh i dont know what to think im a bit confused, has anyone been in this situation before, sorry im rambling on a bit, its a good job ive got you guys on here or i dont know what i,d do!

Hi Jenk, i really feel for you. The CDC is supposed to be "interdisciplinary", meaning they are all supposed to work together. They all keep in touch with each other and the paed gets results of all reports/investigations.

At the end of the day, you know it is you who is in charge of your child's diet. I dont know your child and dont know what the eating habits are like but there are many parents here who are in the same position as you regarding limited and gfcf diets. My son is on one and is doing fine. I must admit though, that for calories, i lace most of his food with special oils and/or foods high in calorie intake. I give him avocado a lot which is very high calorie. Maybe your child cannot tolerate avocado, but that is just one example. The dietician is there to HELP you with this problem but you have probably figured out already, that a lot of the work with our kids is up to us. I have trialled and errored hundreds of foods with my child and have found those which work for him. I went to the dietician looking for answers and ended using most of our time informing her of gfcf and diet supplements. It was funny, she was writing all this stuff down furiously, asking me where i get it. I got no help from her but she was very pleasant.

Parents become the experts regarding autism and in my own case, if i listened to the medical "experts" my son would still be on wheat and dairy and covered in excema and still an unhappy tired little boy. He is the opposite now due to my own investigations. Trust yourself that you know your child and what is best for them. And ask lots and lots of questions. My sons paediatrician is vehemently anti-nutritional supplement. She said that vitamins should be got through the food. Well, when your kid wont eat regular food what do you do. I had to beg to get my sons bloods done. I took them to a toxicologist and found out he has a severely depressed immune system, high in white blood cells and very low in essential minerals. She poo pooed this and said that he was average. You are your child's best advocate and I would start to worry when one professional starts doubting another, i.e. your paed and your dietician. They should be working together for the best interests of your child and if there were any queries, they should have discussed this among themselves and come to a decision. IMHO

by the way, if the appointment at the CDC is for diagnosis, the time spent with all the professionals will be rather quick, at least that was the case with my child. In fact, he only had about 10 minutes with the O.T. Then he had a hearing test, another 10 minutes and then the paediatrician for 45 minutes. Some people i am sure, have different experiences.

sorry for not replying earlier-thanks for all your messages and information