Nutrition notes- A mathematical approach to giving Sai Kishore the perfect diet

 

Physiology- nutrition

Being a mathematics graduate, I tend to use math in every way possible. When Sai Kishore was 8 months old, I started measuring the nutrients (in addition to just measuring the amount of food) that he consumed everyday. I maintained an excel sheet to log in the values and to check whether he consumed the required amount of nutrients( say omega-3,calcium,iron,etc). I would then try to fit in a diet that would give him all the nutrients over a span of a week.

Sample of how the excel sheet looks

People said that I was crazy to do such things and a few of them even said that it was really wrong to measure the amount of food that we give to a child.

Now, after attending the course, I realize that what I had been doing so long was right and that IAHP too advises the parents to measure the amount of food and the amount of protein , carbs and fat that the child consumes. This is in order to ensure that the kid receives optimal nutrition.I had been doing this for the past 6 months so I find it easier to follow.

I feel that once a good diet routine has been established, it is not required to check every single gram of food the baby eats because you already have an idea about the nutrient value of the food. So I will stop doing this excel sheet work once I have set a balanced meal plan for Sai Kishore. After that point, I will check his diet once in a while to see whether it requies any changes.

LIQUID BALANCE: I have never (accurately) measured the amount of water he drinks. I give him water whenever he feels thirsty.

Now, I have started measuring the amount of liquids that he needs to drink each day so that he doesn't drink too much or too little both of which would cause serious problems. As per the formula provided by IAHP, for his age and weight, he has to drink around 400 ml of liquids everyday.We live in India.Considering the climate here, I have added a 50 ml of liquid allowance which sums up to be 450 ml of liquids per day.

In the next post I will provide information on what foods I feed Sai Kishore,how well it has been working and what changes I have been asked to make.

I have completed the What to do course successfully!!!

My certificate

The "What to do about your brain injured child' course is a five-day intensive course that teaches parents on the whys and hows of treating their child.

Click here to take a look at the details of the course

The course was really informative and it is a course that every brain-injured child's parent must attend. The course was divided into 3 major parts- physical, intellectual & physiological.

I'll post the updates in a similar 3-part manner.I'm trying to plan a really good program for my kid and it is time-consuming. I'm allotting the first week for physiology, second for physical and third for intellectual. I will be back with the updates soon.

9 months to 1 year

The WTD course is happening!!! & other updates...

Yay! The WTD course is happening in India on October 18 , 2015 and we are eagerly looking forward to attend the course.

Krishna Jayanthi - Our little Krishna!

INCLINED CRAWLING TRACK:

He has started moving forward in the track and that is definitely a great news.
I will upload step by step videos after he starts cross crawling.

SWIMMING:

What if all the doors are closed; we have found a window.

We have bought an intex easy set up swimming pool to teach him to swim. So far things have been going really well and he loves spending time in water. Swimming has definitely helped his gross motor skills as well as his muscle tone.

Things are happening... We hope to see a positive change in Sai Kishore very soon.

A tiny light of hope

For the past 3 months things were not happening as expected.

We so badly wanted to attend the 'WTD' course in June but it got postponed to October. We were given a choice to attend it in Singapore but I did not get my passport at the right time , so we couldn't go to Singapore either.

We tried a lot but we couldn't arrange enough funds to attend the course in Philadelphia. So the chance of attending the course this month at Philadelphia is out of question. This leaves us with no choice except to wait until October to attend the course in India; and till this date we are not sure whether the course is happening this time at least.

Anyone who has read the WTD book will know that 0-36 months is the most important period for brain development and delaying therapy is bad for the brain injured child. Time is precious and must be used as effectively as possible in order to stimulate the brain of the kid.

Sai Kishore is still functional in the stage of crawling( Stage 2) & prehensile grasp( Stage 3). It seems like he is stuck and not able to complete those stages. He has been there for the past 3 months and we strongly feel that ' patterning' is the key to unlock the skill of crawling. Patterning is like a surgery , says Glenn Doman, and that it must not be given without proper training, which means we have to wait.

I had a few health issues due to which I had to pause his Flash card program. SK was not gaining weight at the expected rate in spite of feeding him a diverse range of healthy foods. He got sick for the first time in his life and he was totally down for a few days.

We wanted to teach him swimming in order to improve his gross motor skills as well as to help him with his muscle tone. After a long search we found that there are no infant swimming classes in our city. When we approached a few swimming camps whether they would accept our child, they refused. We were asked to come when SK turns 3 years old.

There was a period where he was seizure free , but the last three months he had more than 10 such occasions and he had around 3 brief episodes on his birthday.

We came to know that Frankincense will help him with his seizures and improve the activity of his brain. So we searched all over the city to get this essential oil and there was not even a single shop that had this oil.

We wanted to meet a pediatric neurologist but couldn't meet one due to financial constraints. Every single month we strive hard to save some money for the appointment and we hope we will be able to meet the doctor by this month.

Nothing was happening. Whatever we tried , it did not work.

Suddenly, things have started to change. Good things are coming and I can see a tiny light of hope. All the efforts that we had put in the past 3 months are starting to show results. People are coming forward to help and support us. It is not possible to mention everyone's name in a single post so we are planning to dedicate a CREDITS tab in the tab section of the blog to thank every single person for whatever help they have done.

We have started to give him intense therapy again. We strongly believe that we would see great improvements and we will definitely update the results soon.

It seems like yesterday, but a year has passed by.Happy birthday Sai Kishore !!!

Cure for microcephaly - Part 2

I was wondering whether a combination of stem cell therapy and 3D printing could cure microcephaly - Stem cells to grow the brain and 3D printing to re-adjust the shape and size of the skull once the brain has grown.

I thought of this after reading the following news  3D printing saves a child's life from hyrdocephalus and a few other research papers regarding microcephaly like this one - Gene mutation in microcephaly

I wrote this two-part post just for the sake of sharing my idea and getting some honest feedback about how viable this idea is. I am not a medical student so I do not know much about all this stuff. If there are any medical/ scientific errors in this post please let me know.

After so much reading and researching, I found a few links that actually support my idea.This might remain an idea forever or it might become a treatment option in a few years or maybe decades. There are a lot of different opinions among people regarding the use of stem cells for therapy and in many places it has not been approved of.

For example I found a German website that claims to treat microcephaly using stem cells - Stem cell therapy for microcephaly.

On the other hand , the following links caution us about the false claims regarding stem cell therapy-  link 1 , link 2.

I also found a link that states that microcephaly can be cured through 'in-utero gene therapy' - In-utero gene therapy rescues microcephaly

In the process of searching for information regarding stem cells, I also came across other therapies apart from the standard early intervention program that can benefit a person with microcephaly( and any other brain related injury or insult).

Alternative therapies : 

HBOT- Hyberbaric oxygen therapy - out of which some people have unbelievable improvement while some do not show any positive signs of changes- success story link 1

Aromatherapy - Frankincense oil has the power to heal even traumatic brain injuries.Essential oils and brain injuries , frankincense oil benefits

Music therapy - where the patients are made to play an instrument or to listen to music.

Massage & reflexology

I request anyone who intend to give therapy to their kid to analyse the pros and cons of the method, study the method in and out and then decide whether it will benefit their kid or not.

Thank you for reading through the post. Do you have any information that can be added to this post? If so, please leave a comment below.

Cure for microcephaly - Part 1

According to most of the medical sources I have read through, microcephaly is a permanent condition that is incurable. It is said that the size of the brain cannot be increased but the functionality of the patient can be improved via therapy.

'Impossible' does not exist, at least in medical science. What once was thought to be impossible is possible now, say , growing mini brains on a petri-dish! Who would have ever imagined such things 50 years back?

Link 1

Link 2

Some medical researches are held unethical and against nature , like cloning. Some people treat stem cells in the same way.Cloning and stem cells research are related but not the same.

Cloning is a process by which a genetically identical copy of a gene, or an entire cell or even an organism is produced. A stem cell is a cell in the body or in an embryo that has the capability of turning into many specialized cell types and it can be used to treat diseases and repair body parts.

There are different types of stem cells ranging from the embryonic stem cells found only in the earliest stages of development to adult stem cells that remain in our bodies through out life. Each type of stem cell has its own strengths and drawbacks.

There is a lot of debate going on regarding stem cell therapy. Considering from where an embryonic stem cell is taken, people have strong views about how against nature the process is. Not all stem cell research involves the creation,usage and destruction of embryos.

Click here for Part 2

Current goal: Teaching Sai Kishore to sit independently

I am an INTP. For those of you who do not know what it means you can refer to the picture below for an explanation.

16 personality types - MBTI

Being an INTP is tough. Only 3% of the whole world's population is INTP and female INTPs are even rarer. This makes it tough for me to relate with people around me. 

There are lots of advantages being an Introverted intuitive perceiving thinker. For example, INTPs are strong in logic, quick learners, idea generators etc. 

Coming to the drawbacks, INTPs are very curious- curious to the point that they keep on learning new things and forget to perfect what they have learnt. When in one angle it is good not to keep doing the same thing over and over, this constant jumping around results in less productivity.

I have been trying a lot not to do this jumping around when it comes to SK. Most of the times, I start with listing out what I have to do. Then I try to get as much information as possible regarding the to-do list. When scouring for information I find something new and start searching about that and completely forget what I had intended to do. 

In that process, I will have surely learnt something new; but what about my to-do list? I am in such a position where I do not have time to build my knowledge. I have to concentrate more on my to-do list and try to accomplish them step-by-step, one-by-one.

That's why I decided to make a step by step action plan for my to-do list.

So, here comes the first goal... Making SK sit independently.

Step 1: Making him push up on his arms. 

Step 2: Strengthening his core.

Step 3: Getting him to sit when propped 

Step 4: Muscle memory technique to get him to sit up on his own.

I have not set any deadline for this because I do not want to rush my baby to make milestones happen.I just want to help him in the process. 

I had enrolled in the WTD course provided by IAHP that was to happen on June 28th and unfortunately it got postponed to October. I am waiting to attend the course; meanwhile I just cannot keep my baby idle. He demands us to keep him entertained. So , I decided to take things into my hands. I will keep doing things in my way until I attend the course and get an action plan to work on. 

The above 4-step technique is my husband's idea and yes , he is an INTP too. 

Do you know what personality type you are?  If not you could find out yours here: http://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

There are many other websites out there that provide the same test. Feel free to cross check your results with a few more websites before coming to a conclusion about your MBTI personality.

How I started teaching my baby using flash cards...

How I found out about Glenn Doman and his method of teaching:

I stumbled upon brillkids.com when I was randomly surfing the internet about brain development in babies. After reading through all the information I felt a little overwhelmed. For some unknown reason I felt compelled to try it out with my baby. The methods listed in the website were Glenn Doman's method and Shichida's method.I went with the Doman method.

Why I chose Glenn Doman's method:

1. Flexibility - you do not need to start from the first if you have missed a few days of the program.

2. Fun - The method promised fun for both the parent and the child.

Flash card method: 

Before jumping into the teaching stuff , I wanted to check whether he liked to look at flash cards. So, I made a trial set of 3 cards ,in big red font on a white background and flashed it quickly in front of him. He looked at the cards intently and smiled. I thought to myself "Oh well! It works. Or may be it doesn't. I will need to make more cards in order to know whether this program works."

I have been using Glenn Doman's method for the past 6 months to teach my son words and numbers. 

Whenever I show him the cards he smiles broadly which encourages me to move forward with this method. The only drawback in this method is that the method is against testing babies since testing kills fun. Glenn Doman says "Never test your baby". We just have to assume that he would have learnt the words or numbers or whatever that is shown in the cards. 

So far, I've showed him a lot of English words, dot cards for numbers and pictures( encyclopedic knowledge program). Making the cards is time consuming and requires a lot of effort from the side of the parents. 

Flash card- sample 1

Dot cards- for math

Flash card- couplets- sample

Does it work? 

It is too early for me to comment about the results. I do not know whether the method works. Moreover, I do not care whether it works; as long as he smiles whenever I show him flash cards I will keep doing it. 

I hope that when he starts to speak I will come to know whether the program has worked or not.

Opinions:

'Teaching young babies'

Some people are totally for it and some are totally against it.

There are researches that support early learning and claim that they work; and of course there are researches which claim that these methods are a waste of time. You can see a lot of YouTube videos where kids less than 3 years old are reading books and identifying pictures. On the other hand there are a lot of newspaper articles which say these methods don't work. 

You need to decide for yourself whether this is the kind of method you want to use to teach your baby. Trust your parental instinct - because a parent never does the wrong thing for his/her child.

Do you want to follow this method of teaching with your kid?

The founders of this method claim that this works well if you start early.For more information you can visit the iahp.org or read the how to teach your baby to read book.

I have uploaded the flash cards that I had made for Sai in the free materials section. Instead of trying to make everything on your own, just download the ready made files with a single click and save your precious time.

You can also visit domanmom.com & classicalmommy.com for many more free materials. 

The only suggestion I can give is - Do not concentrate on the results. The moment you start concentrating on results , the fun part will vanish.

What do you think about using flash cards to teach babies?

*Update- 1/03/16* The flashcards do work. Though he is not verbal yet, he chooses the right word when offered options and he can even do math( dot cards). I would definitely recommend this method for teaching young kids.

The Developmental Profile

What is the developmental profile?

A developmental profile is a chart to measure the development of a child. It is broadly classified into 2 categories - Sensory & Motor - which is further classified into 6 categories - 3 under sensory & 3 under motor.

• SENSORY: Visual, Auditory & Tactile
• MOTOR: Mobility, Language & Manual.

These 6 categories are divided into 7 stages as per age (from birth to 6 years). So we have a total of 42 boxes in the developmental profile.

click here to view the developmental profile.

In simple words , sensory skills are receptor skills and motor skills are expression skills.

Sensory:

Visual : eye sight and its efficiency

Auditory: hearing and its efficiency

Tactile: Feeling (through skin) and its efficiency.

Note: Skills of Smell and taste are not taken into account.

Motor:

Mobility: Movement and its efficiency

Language: Speech and its efficiency

Manual: Use of arms and hands and its efficiency.

The 7 stages( divided by age ) are assigned the VIBGYOR pattern for colors. The 1st stage is colored red. The 2nd is Orange, the 3rd is yellow and so on till the 7th stage . 

The developmental profile is easy to use and it helps us compare a child's neurological age with his chronological age, determine the rate of growth of a kid and so on. 

For more information: 

Read the 'How smart is your baby ?' book by Glenn Doman

Visit http://www.iahp.org

Thank you for reading this post. Do you have any information to add to this post? If so, please leave a comment below. 

Microcephaly

What is Microcephaly:

Microcephaly is a clinical finding which is characterized by the measurement of head circumference (HC) less than 3 Standard deviations below the mean for age and gender.

The above statement is the generally accepted definition of microcephaly.

There does not exist a uniform definition for microcephaly. Some medical reference books refer to this condition as less than 2 S.D below the mean and some times even less than 4 S.D is considered.  

Microcephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Unlike other defects , this condition is most often not a primary malformation. Instead , the underlying cause can vary widely, ranging from chromosmal or genetic abnormalites to environmental factors.

MRI of an individual with Normal brain( left)  Vs  a patient with Microcephaly ( right)
source: wikimedia commons

Classification:

Microcephaly has many different types of classification. The most common methods followed are- 

1. Based on the time of onset

2. Based on associated malformations

No particular classification is complete and most of the times many other factors are also considered in determining the reason for microcephaly. I have not gone in-depth with the classification (in this post) because it becomes too complicated to chart it out.

Click on the image to see a bigger picture

Click on the image to see a bigger picture

Do you have any other information to add to this post? If so, please comment below.

Sai Kishore is 10 months old now ...

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Sai Kishore's Pictures : 6 months to 9 months

eating beetroot puree - @ 6.5 months

In his K's kids car - @ 7.5 months

In his K's kids car - @ 7.5 months

Sai Kishore loves books ...

Excitement is what I see in his eyes every time I take out a book to read with him...
In the above video he smiles and squeals on seeing his favorite touch and feel book. This video was taken when he was 4 months old.

6 months - 9 months - a 3.5 min read

6 - 7 months :

• Said 'baa' for the first time
• Started playing with his pacifier
• Started sitting for 45-50 seconds when placed in the sitting position

The shivering that occurred when he was in his 5th month repeated itself. This time the episode lasted for 5 minutes. The moment the shivering ended he looked comfortable as if nothing had happened.

Those shivers resembled 'shudder attacks' which are neither common nor uncommon in infants below 1 year. 

A few times he twisted and turned himself as if he was cramping due to dehydration. This was different from those shivers and was same only in the fact that he was still fully conscious and responding.

During this period he had nearly 10 attacks of both types together. Those attacks were only a minute or so in length. It looked as if he had no control over his body when the attack occurred.

7 - 8 months :

The shudder attacks were continuing. When we asked his pediatrician about those attacks he said that they were not seizures and that we needed to consult a neurologist to know more.

Half way through this period the shudder attacks completely stopped and instead , all of a sudden, one day he started to bob his head. The head bobbing went on for a week and stopped abruptly.

It was this period that we started to question our beliefs. Was our baby boy really free of medical issues? He started to show delay in achieving his milestones. The boy who was achieving all the required milestones way ahead of his peers was starting to lag.

I had my own theories for what was wrong with him. I strongly felt that we could almost always tell what problem someone has with their brain by observing what he/she is not able to do and we can correct it to some extent by proper stimulation. Say for example, if someone has a problem with posture and balance and is unable to co ordinate his movements , it is highly likely that his cerebellum is damaged. So, if we try to stimulate his cerebellum, his posture and balance might improve.

I found that Glenn Doman , whose method of teaching I was following for Sai , had worked with a lot of brain-injured children and all his learning methods were a product of the research done with brain-injured children. I contacted the IAHP( http://www.iahp.org/ )and they were polite enough to answer my questions. Finally, they suggested that I read the " What to do about your brain-injured kid" book by Glenn Doman for a complete understanding.

The book was an eye-opener and it cleared most of my doubts. The main reason I liked the book and believed in it is that the theory I had and the idea of the book coincided. For more on my views regarding the book and therapy click here

We bought the ' Fit baby, smart baby, your baby' book, also by Glenn Doman and started giving him the exercises mentioned in the book.  Within 2 weeks of starting the program we were able to see so much changes in him both physically and skill wise. 

Seeing significant improvements after implementing the exercises, we bought the ' How smart is your baby book?' in order to evaluate him as per the developmental profile designed by Glenn Doman. We found that our baby was lacking skills in the motor and manual areas. In other areas he was perfectly on time with his peers. 

8 - 9 months :

All the shudder attacks & head bobbing were gone for good. 

By the end of 9 months,

1. He was still not able to sit without support
2. He was not able to crawl in cross pattern
3. His left hand was not good enough with grasping objects.
4. He was not able to point at objects nor was he able to look at an object that was being pointed at.
5. He didn't take mini push ups.

Even though he met a lot of little milestones , the list of milestones that he did not meet was becoming longer . He had developmental delay. We had to accept the fact that he needed special care and attention. 

3 months - 6 months - a 2 min read

3 - 4 months :

• Started the Glenn Doman reading & math program when he was 3 months old.
• He loved reading different kinds of books- touch and feel books , puppet books , picture books and even sound books.
• Started to understand emotions through tone of voice. 
• Started demanding that we rock him to sleep and he wouldn't sleep otherwise.
• Head control - was able to raise head to 45 degrees and hold it steady
• Slept overnight for the first time
• Started rolling with ease

4 - 5 months :

• Started semi - solids.
• Started thumb sucking.
• Started blowing bubbles
• Was able to hold objects for more than 20 seconds when placed in his hand.
• Was saying words like 'a-goo','mm-aah' etc.
• Started lifting his bottom to push himself forward
• Started using rake grasp

One day , he started to shiver violently as if he was feeling cold . I wrapped him up in a blanket and hugged him close to me.
Even though he was shivering, he was fully conscious and was still responding. The episode ended in 2-3 minutes.
We thought that it was a SEIZURE. It had happened only once so we couldn't conclude anything out of it. It did not occur again in the next few weeks.

5 - 6 months :

• Started grabbing his legs 
• Started to understand object permanence
• Started trying to imitate facial expressions
• Started grabbing and pulling objects towards himself

WHAT WAS HE NOT ABLE TO DO BY THE END OF 6 MONTHS :

1. Passing things from hand to hand
2. Sit without support
3. Crawling in cross pattern
4. Mini push up

Since it was only 4 milestones that he had not achieved by the end of 6  months we were not much worried. We still believed he was completely normal except for the fact that he had a small head. Even his pediatrician was amazed at his progress and he said that it was okay if the baby was not able to sit unsupported by 6 months and that there was still time . So, we continued providing him a stimulating environment and did not worry much about milestones.

For his pictures from 3 - 6 months click here

Sai Kishore's Pictures : 3 months to 6 months

@ 4 months 22 days

@ 4 Months 23 days

This is how he sleeps!! - @ 5 months 22 days

playing with blocks @ 6 months

'What to do about your brain injured child' - book review- a 2 min read

' What to do about your brain injured child' book written by Glenn Doman is one of its kind.

The term 'brain injured' is quite comforting to hear ( consider mentally retarded.. it is not nice to hear.. is it?). An injury has a chance to heal ; the term 'brain- injury' gives hope to parents (who have hurt kids ) that their kids might heal. 

According to Glenn Doman, everyone is brain-injured. Brain injury is like a spectrum.We all have it to one degree or another. 

Once we complete reading this book we will start to realize that brain-injured people are human beings just like us. They might have extra needs but their basic needs are the same as ours - they need love, care and affection. They are smart but they do not know how to express it or may be they are not able to express it. 

This book gives a new perspective in treating brain-injured kids and even adults. Though these methods are not yet popular in the medical community I hope one day they will find their way through.This is not a how-to book; it is just a book that details out the journey of how Glenn Doman and his associates discovered this kind of a treatment and why it works.

The treatments given for brain-injured children at IAHP include

1. Masking - to enhance breathing 

2. Patterning - to help a brain-injured kid with mobility

3. Stimulation of the 3 senses- visual, auditory and tactile

4. Hanging from a bar & brachiating

and much more...

Not many of the above mentioned treatment methods are approved by the AAP as scientifically valid. Still, we can find many parents who have achieved success with their kids by following this program religiously. 

I personally liked the book because I was able to relate the concept of brain-injury and healing with the theory that I already had in my mind. 

If you are a parent of a brain-injured kid then this is a must read. Even if you are not going to follow this method for treating your kid it might be of use to gain some knowledge about brain-injury.

Note: I am not affiliated to IAHP in any way.

From birth to 3 months - a 3 min read

Birth - 1 month :

Sai Kishore was diagnosed with microcephaly & micrognathia during the 20th week anomaly scan.

At birth, his HC ( Head circumference) was 27 cm . Doctors were concerned that he might not able to feed properly due to micrognathia(small jaw). To their surprise , he latched on beautifully and had no problems in feeding.

After he was vaccinated , he got jaundice and it did not settle down. He was given photo therapy.The bilirubin levels were increasing instead of decreasing. Finally, we decided that we were not giving him therapy anymore and that we were leaving the hospital that day. Against medical advice we took him home. His bilirubin levels returned to normal after a week.

Since he was taken away for therapy when we were in the hospital , I was not able to feed him properly. I had to undergo so much pain postpartum due to that fact. Since he was fed from bottle when in the therapy room , he started asking for bottle and refused to breastfeed.I tried breastfeeding him whenever he wasn't very fussy and the rest of the time he would feed from the bottle, the milk I had expressed. By 3 weeks, I was exclusively pumping because he strongly refused to breastfeed.

He was named Sai Kishore on Sep 02,2014.

Milestones achieved - Month 1  : Grasp reflex, Giggling & smiling, visually tracking a moving object, light reflex, startle reflex, movement of arms and legs without bodily movement, Babinksi reflex. *

1 - 2 months :

• He started saying vowel- like sounds. 
• When put on tummy , he tried to move forward.
• He had his growth spurt at 6 weeks.
• When he was 7 weeks old, he started to bat at toys and started moving forward when he was in prone position.
• By 8 weeks he was able to give different sounds and he expressed himself a lot through facial expressions and vocalizations.
• He rolled over for the first time from his back onto his chest.
• By 9 weeks he started drooling. He was able to balance his weight on his legs. Social smile.

Milestones achieved - Month 2  : Cooing, batting at toys, lifting his brows, social smile, responding to voice and face, sucking fist or a few fingers.*

2 - 3 months:

• He started to understand cause and effect. He started reading books with me and he enjoyed it so much. His first book was ' The very hungry caterpillar'. He also loved looking at contrasting patterns.
• There was a short period where he was crying inconsolably for 20- 30 mins a day. He crossed that phase quickly.
• He started laughing.
• My breastfeeding goal number 1:  ACHIEVED. I had exclusively breastfed him for 3 months.

Milestones achieved - Month 3  : Laughing, Recognition of face, Squealing, Lifting head and turning side to side, bringing hands together,Following people across the room. Enjoys playing with people , aware that his hands and feet are his, hands open and shut.*

*  I have only listed out some of the important milestones. He met all the milestones for birth - 3 months on time. He was even quite advanced in a few sectors for his age at that time.

For his pictures from birth to 3 months click here

Sai Kishore's Pictures : From birth to 3 months

New born

First time in his gym @ 3 weeks

 holding his feeding bottle @ 4 weeks

The little prince in his throne @7 weeks 

" Look at my biceps" @ 7 weeks

@ 2 months

@ 3 months

To check out the milestones that he met during this period click here

An attempt at making him sit with minimal support

June 6 , 2015

Age: 9.5 months

Sai Kishore is not yet able to sit up on his own. He can sit unsupported for approximately 45 seconds if placed in the sitting position.

Aim: To make him sit with minimal support

Technique: Using a foam roller.

1. Placed his left arm over the roller and made him sit with a little support from the roller

2. He looked comfortable...

3. Oops! The moment he took his hand off the roller he lost balance and fell on the bed.

My pregnancy story - part 4 - a 2.5 min read

(19/04/2014) We decided to continue with the pregnancy. We opened up about the scan results to our families. They were not supportive of our decision.
Against everyone's advice , we wanted to go ahead and have the baby.We burnt our bridges by taking such a decision. No turning back... We knew deep down that it was a life-changing decision; but a decision that we would never regret in life.

(20/04/2014) 'Easter Sunday'. My birthday. An expectant mother could not have asked for a better birthday gift - gloomy prognosis for her baby - Genetic counselor: "Microcephaly is a neuro-developmental disorder. It has no cure.The prognosis for your baby is poor. He might even be a vegetable... blah blah blah ... ".  Despite the pressure and stress that we had , some kind of a hope returned.We felt strong enough to move forward.

(21/04/2014) That day was 21st April -  I turned 21 years old and my baby was 21 weeks old.

From April 22nd 2014 ...
We had so much hope that a miracle would occur and our baby would be born with a normal sized head.

After a month: Finally our families got convinced and started supporting us. The doctors too stopped asking whether we wanted to abort the baby. Everyone around me thought that I was committing the greatest mistake of my life. Some people think that way even now.

At around 32 weeks of gestation I had terrible pain and I thought I was going to go into labour. I was afraid that the baby would be born prematurely. Luckily, the pain subsided after some hours.

From Aug 15th 2014 ...
I started getting impatient. I wanted to meet my baby soon. I was in complete hope that he would be born normal. I was constantly checking whether I had any symptoms or signs of going into labour.

(21/08/2014) A google search can be a disaster at times. I suddenly started to itch all over my body. When I started searching about it I found that it could be cholestasis of pregnancy. Most of the symptoms matched and I was scared to the core. Cholestasis can lead to still birth. I started getting tensed and I was praying God to keep my baby safe.

(22/08/2014) (in the 39th week of gestation) The itching started becoming worse as time passed by. I was so badly wanting labour to start right then so that I could have my baby safe in my arms. Late evening , that day, I got a strong feeling that my baby would be born by that time the next day.

(23/08/2014) Around 2 am I started to get contractions. It was irregular and very mild. As time progressed the baby's movements became stronger. By 6 am my waters broke and I went to the hospital. The labour was approximately 11 hours.

Sharp at 5.07 pm : Welcome to this world Sai Kishore!!!

For one second I hoped that he would have a normal sized head. No. It did not happen. He had microcephaly and it was evident; but it did not matter to me even a bit... He looked beautiful.

Doctors thought that he might not even survive natural birth, To their astonishment, he fought his way through and survived.

He proved the doctors wrong.He continues doing it every day...

We are proud to be Sai Kishore's parents. He is our hero. We will always love him no matter what.

My pregnancy story - part 3 - a 3.5 min read

We were discussing the possibilities of why we were asked to have a repeat scan.It was at that time that a woman passed by and dropped a diagnosis card by mistake. I saw the word 'MICROCEPHALY' on the card. I picked it up and gave it to her. She whizzed away without even thanking me.

I told my husband that maybe she was the parent of the baby whose diagnosis was Microcephaly and that I felt sorry for her. I was explaining him why microcephaly could be such a big problem for the baby and what would probably be the prognosis for the little one.

After a few minutes , another woman gave us a sheet to fill out - ' GENETIC COUNSELING'. Why the heck do we need a counseling when we didn't ask for it in the first place?  I skimmed through the form quickly and tears welled up in my eyes. There was one question that broke my heart. ' Was MTP* advised?'. So there was something wrong with my baby or why else would I be asked to fill out some stupid form.The woman who gave me the form collected it back and asked us to go to the counseling room. 

*MTP -Medical Termination Of Pregnancy

In the counseling session , we were asked for our family tree, relationships etc. Specifically if any one of us had a small head running in our family. Once we answered all the questions we were given a diagnosis card- the same one that the other woman had dropped. It turned out that I was the mother of the baby who had microcephaly and not her. 

By that time I was trying so hard not to cry. We put on a strong face , took the diagnosis card and entered the scan room. 

The apathetic behaviour of the sonographer and the hostile environment of the place were adding up to my anger and stress . It was easy to read the sonographer's thoughts. Clearly she felt that she was wasting her time in scanning a 'subject' that was not going to be born. I promised my baby that I would give birth to him no matter what.Once the scan was over she just left the place without saying anything. 

Then came the genetic counselor. He was no different from the rest of the people working there. He explained us what the problem was, what we could expect and what was the best thing to do. He was not adept enough to answer our questions. Rather he was just regurgitating whatever he had prepared for this session. 

Heart broken , we left the room. I excused myself to the restroom just to cry out as much as I can. My dreams were crushed; it was as if my wishes and expectations were shattered to pieces. I came out as if I had managed to process the information in a matured way. 

Half way through the stairs , my husband stopped and turned to look at me. I was acting strong . Suddenly he broke out into tears. It was a day that I would never forget in my life ; it was the first time that I saw my husband, the strongest man I have ever known in my life , shed tears. Seeing him cry , I couldn't act anymore. That was one of the darkest days of my life.

We were not feeling strong enough to break the news so we hid the truth from our families. We had to decide what to do next. Were we going to abort the baby for whom we had grown so much love? 

Click here for part 4

My pregnancy story - Part 2 - a 2 min read

(6/2/2014) I saw my baby in the ultrasound for the second time and it was really an exciting moment. He was so cute- jumping and moving all around. The whole week I was reminiscing about it.

I was given tablets for nausea (they didn't work for me anyway).Back to my symptoms- nausea & vomiting didn't settle down, headache & lower abdominal pain continued, constipation was a new comer. As if that wasn't enough I had dizzy spells, short breath and muscle ache. Yet , the thought of my baby &  the anticipation of seeing him in the next scan session made me strong enough to handle all those pregnancy aches.

As I'm writing this,  I feel that people will think that I am whining. Everyone talks about how good pregnancy feels, how special being pregnant is, how wonderful the experience is and so on; but the painful side of bearing a child- no one talks about.

Yes, not everyone has to go through so much discomfort during pregnancy; but that doesn't mean everyone has it the easy way. Some have to endure so much during this period that they definitely deserve a salute just for the sake of bearing a child and giving birth.

Coming back to my story,

(27/2/2014) Third ultrasound - The baby moved his hand like saying 'hi'. Wow! Such a special moment.

New set of tablets for nausea ( didn't work). I lost weight because I couldn't even eat a scant amount of food due to severe nausea . Even if I managed to eat a little , I vomited it within few minutes .

Without the support of my husband I couldn't have managed even the least bit of that period.I take this chance to thank him wholeheartedly for being such an awesome , understanding and supportive husband.

(12/3/2014) I think I felt my baby kick- for the first time. I wasn't sure though. After 2 weeks, I started getting regular kicks from the baby. I was eagerly waiting to see him do all those flips in the next ultrasound session.

(17/4/2014) My husband and I entered the ultrasound room with so much expectations.  The sonographer was not impressed with the measurements of the baby and we were asked to have a repeat scan. When we questioned her why another scan was necessary she had a grim expression. She finally opened up that the HC(Head circumference) and BPD ( Biparietal Diameter) were not meeting the requirements.

We were so confident that they would have not taken proper measurements since the baby was constantly moving.

THE BOLT FROM THE BLUE

(18/4/2014) It was 'Good Friday'... We were in the waiting room for the repeat scan.

Click here for part 3

My pregnancy story- a 2 min read

My pregnancy wasn't what one would call a wonderful experience. I was facing problems right from the start,even before the pregnancy test showed positive - Severe acne  (for the first time in my life) , terrible headaches , mood swings, lower back ache to name a few.

On observing a lot of symptoms pointing in the direction of  "Hey! You are pregnant", I took a home pregnancy test. Guess what? It showed negative. I had a strong feeling that it was a false-negative.
I decided to repeat the test a few days later.

( 25/12/2013) Pregnancy test - positive. I couldn't control my excitement. I was going to become a mom. I cannot put into words how lovely the moment was.

My first appointment was scheduled for 10th Jan 2014 and my doctor was not available before that.

I had so much trouble concentrating , even on trivial matters.I often had dizzy spells and awful pains in my lower abdomen. My family urged me to have a checkup as soon as possible in order to rule out ectopic pregnancy, and not wait until Jan 10th.

So there I was sitting in front of an obstetrician, who I would say was least interested in listening to me ( wrong choice of doc - my mistake ). Then happened the ultrasound in which she couldn't locate my baby's heartbeat. She blabbered about my baby and that if she didn't get to see my baby's heart beat 2 weeks later , at the next appointment, she would advise D&C for me. Wow, how considerate.I was deeply hurt and started crying the moment I left the hospital. The only gain from that visit was that I ruled out ectopic pregnancy. I vowed to never go back there.

(10/1/2014) Saw my baby's heartbeat in the ultrasound. The baby's age was corrected based on his CRL- from 8W 5D to 6W 4D. The doctors weren't concerned about the correction of age. They said that these kinds of things do happen and that it was nothing to worry about. Feeling reassured , I left the hospital with a good feeling that finally my sufferings were over.

My acne was gone, my headaches were not that terrible and most of the other symptoms were also subsiding.

A week later, I started experiencing nausea and cramping . I felt sick and wanted to lie on the bed all day. I wasn't able to distinguish between nausea and hunger. Acne was back, headaches started getting terrible and I couldn't sleep at night. I started vomiting many times a day and it was draining me out.

Click here for Part 2