Isn't She Talking Yet? - Times Online - WBLG

And again

For anyone who can't watch the Bradlee film via the link in my previous post, here it is from YouTube.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Quinn Bradlee's film about DiGeorge

This is a bit more cheerful. Quinn Bradlee, as in son of Ben Bradlee, as in Watergate - I wrote about him last year - has VCFS, aka DiGeorge, aka 22q11 deletion. He's made a terrific film about living with the syndrome; it includes an interview with Dr Robert Shprinzen, who first identified VCFS in 1978. Everyone should watch this; if your child has DiGeorge, email it to anyone who's not quite clear about what the syndrome entails. You can watch the film here.

Various bits

Joanne Hill, who drowned her little daughter Naomi because she was "ashamed" of the child's disability has been jailed for life.. Only click on the link if you have the stomach for it - personally, I don't. Mrs Hill had a history of mental illness and was, according to her husband, more or less an alcoholic; as far as I can see, she was not at any point offered the help or support that might have kept Naomi safe. It's a horrible, horrible story, but I don't quite understand how locking the woman up for 15 years really helps anybody.

Unique, the excellent charity for parents of children with rare (or, indeed, unique) chromosome disorders, is having its family conference over the course of this weekend. Details here.

NICE - the National Council for Health and Clinical Excellence - has (finally) stated that Ritalin should not be given to under-fives. They could have made more of the link between hyperactivity and diet, if you ask me, but anyway (I know I have a bee in my bonnet about this; and I know a minority of children benefit from Ritalin. But every time I see another mother at the park, shoving Diet Coke and sweets down her fat child and moaning about his ADHD, I get all prickly with fury. ADHD has become the childhood equivalent of "it's my bipolar, innit"). The BBC report on this story includes an interesting segment from this morning's Today programme.

Dental probs? Meet your new best friend

So I was sitting at the hygienist's yesterday, and she told me about this amazing-sounding new product. You know probiotics, aka 'good bacteria'? Scientists have now developed an exclusively oral version, which just works in the mouth. Basically, the good mouth bacteria eat the bad things that cause plaque and decay, which results in dramatically improved oral health all round. This is all very fabulous for you and I (to say nothing of for people with hideous halitosis), but it is especially fabulous for people with special needs who have dental issues. Children with DiGeorge, for instance, are especially prone to tooth decay, and for some children with severe special needs the whole concept of tooth-brushing can be a bit of a palaver/nightmare. (The product isn't supposed to replace tooth-brushing, obviously, but it's certainly going to be a help if tooth-brushing is for any reason difficult).

Now, I haven't tried this product myself (well, I have, once, but it takes two weeks to start doing its thing), and it does sound quasi-miraculous and almost too good to be true, but I have total faith in my hygienist, who was really excited about it. It comes as a sugar-free mint-flavoured lozenge, which you suck slowly (apparently they're working on making it in powder form, for people who can't suck). The press release thingy follows, if you want all the ins and outs. The product is called PerioBalance; it has been accredited by the British Dental Health Foundation. It will be available from Boots, Lloyds and Unichem from 27 October and will cost £14.99. For more information and stockists visit www.sunstargum.co.uk. To buy PerioBalance online visit dentalshop.co.uk or call 0845 006 6296. The press release follows after the break.

Back to school/ Russell Brand

Well, at school for the first time, actually, with a Statement on the way - hallelujah - which stipulates 20 hours of week of one-on-one help (which hasn't started yet). I literally felt nauseous at the idea of leaving Nell all alone at real school, didn't sleep at all the night before etc etc. We (entire extended family) solemnly marched her up the hill to where the school is and... she was absolutely fine. She was literally hopping with excitement and waved us off the second we'd installed her in her classroom. Then I sat by the phone, waiting for them to ring and sat she she'd had enough, but no: the whole thing seems to be a triumphant success. Advantage of having teenage brothers: she doesn't find the bigger children remotely intimidating. So, fingers crossed. THE RELIEF, I can't tell you. Also, look at her socks, the sweetness of them practically makes me want to cry.

There's a really depressing story in today's papers about a woman who couldn't deal with the idea of her four-year-old daughter having a disability (she had mild cerebral palsy), and drowned her out of "shame". Here's the link. I don't know which is more tragic, a little child losing her life because of attitudes to disability, or a grown woman having nowhere to go for help. Well, I do know, but you know what I mean.

More cheerfully, Russell Brand (who I've interviewed for the current issue of Harpers Bazaar, coincidentally) has got into terrible trouble for calling Dubya "that retarded cowboy fella" during the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night. ("It was nice of you to let him have a go. In Britain we wouldn't trust him with a pair of scissors").

Predictably, most of the criticism is about a Brit having the temerity to hold an opinion about the world's last remaining superpower (I know, the effrontery), but a vocal minority are furious about his use of the word 'retarded'. Which once again goes to show what a minefield this whole vocab issue is: Americans don't have any problem with the word 'spaz', as in 'I said we couldn't go to the mall and she completely spazzed out'.

Would "that spazzy cowboy fella" have been okay? Would there have been less outrage if he'd said Bush was "severely intellectually impaired" - the current "non-offensive" phrase? I'm not mad about either word - obviously - but I do think it's a question of context. In this context, I was too busy snorting with laughter to feel outraged at Brand's vocabulary. What do you think? (No rants about filthy Brits coming to America the Beautiful and deserving to be taken out and shot, please - there are plenty of those in the Comment bit here.) You can watch Brand's "offending" remarks below, if I manage to paste the link in.