Hot and Sweaty...

was how we arrived for our 2nd follow up visit on Tuesday. It was a beautiful day but it was a bit hot in the car for a two hour motorway drive, even with the air conditioning going full chat. The Dore centre, just outside Taunton, is in a converted barn attached to a working farm. George had a run around in the field to burn off a little excess energy, before we went in. As always, we were attended to almost immediately. George was assessed on the balance machine and eye tracking and the results showed that he is making progress (as we had already noticed). His "balance" is still very poor but has improved on both follow up visits. By the time he had finished the assessments he was getting a bit restless and started playing up a bit, but a few stern words outside soon brought him back into line and the rest of the visit went well. He has been given some slightly harder exercises which are more focussed on the balance aspect. Hopefully this will help him improve further.

I spend quite a lot of time working on my PC and over the years have been lucky enough to have a few cyber buddies (people whom I like, but have never met). One of these lovely people asked me last week to explain "the exercises" because she couldn't work out what it was all about. So, for Pat, here are a couple of examples:

Walk five paces forwards, then five paces backwards. Bend to the left three times, then bend to the right three times. Repeat this sequence eight times more.

Using the ball (which looks like a space hopper without the ears), sit down on it with your knees together and your feet together on the floor. Bounce up and down for 1 minute. Then, sit perfectly still on the ball for 1 minute. Close your eyes and bounce up and down for 1 minute. Keeping your eyes closed, sit still for 1 minute.

I also have "real life" friends and am priviledged to have known one of these friends for 30 years. We were chatting a couple of days ago and I was telling her that George needed to eat Salmon twice a week to ensure that he keeps his omega 3 levels fairly high (much better absorption than fish oil capsules). She came up with a really fun way of getting him to eat it, rather than just slapping a fillet of steamed salmon in front of him (it's a bit boring after a while). I'm going to try it this weekend:

Slice one cod fillet and one salmon fillet into strips (gougons). Dip them first into beaten egg, then into home made breadcrumbs and fry them for 3-4 minutes each or until golden brown. The fun bit is you then have a guessing game, whilst eating them: Pink or white? The one who guesses the most right, wins!

I also shared one of those Homer Simpson style "Doh" moments....

It's becoming increasingly difficult to find squash that isn't "no added sugar". It seems these days that everybody is harping on about cutting down on salt, sugar, saturated fat, eggs, cheese..... everything really.... I know! Lets just drink water!

Oops.... there I go, on my high horse again.... I'll get back to the plot....

Sugar free drinks may be better for you in terms of reducing ones sugar intake. What they don't tell you is that the sugar has been replaced with aspartame and this is a HUGE problem, in my experience. My children DO NOT have sugar free drinks because the aspartame causes more problems. For this reason, we always buy high juice squashes (not sugar free ones) or real fruit juice. A couple of weeks ago, George had been particularly helpful and he asked if he could buy some chewing gum. I allowed this and didn't really given it a second thought. The following day, come mid-morning, he had turned into the Tasmanian Devil, was completely uncontrollable, and I started to panic that the Dore Programme had stopped helping him..... Then came the "Doh" moment. I checked the ingredients of the chewing gum, and sure enough, it was sugar free and LOADED with Aspartame. That'll teach me to take my eye off the ball...... thankfully, by the following day he was much calmer.

Finally, in my haste to make my previous blog post, I forgot a rather significant and pleasant occurrence. Earlier in the year (pre-Dore) George was in danger of being excluded from Scouts because his behaviour could not be efficiently managed while he was there. We were recently told by his Scout leader that for the last 6 weeks, George's behaviour has been exemplary.

Woo Hoo!!!!

He's off to Scout camp this weekend, and for the first time ever, I'm not worried that he'll be disruptive.

I really like this feeling. :o)