Troian is a very lovable 9 year old who as yet has not
been 'labelled' apart from 'general developmental delay' and 'failure
to thrive'. These 'labels' have always seemed to me to throw the onus
back on the parents. WE are always the ones at fault. Having seen
countless specialists in this, that and all sorts, we at last found a
dyspraxia website, and if you could have put a name at the top of
that website it would have been named Troian. It told the story of
her life from birth. Nearly all of the problems connected with
dyspraxia are hers. She bum-shuffled instead of crawling. At the age
of 6 months of age she had a wandering eye. At 9 months of age she
failed her hearing test, and the re-test. At one year of age she was
wearing glasses. She has worn them ever since. She has had three sets
of
grommets to date. At the age of two i was told she was suffering
from 'toddler diarrhoea', which i self-diagnosed as a milk allergy.
She developed all sorts of dietary and non-dietary allergies from
then on. At the age of three and a half i was told she was the right
height and weight for a 2 year old-by her PAEDIATRICIAN!!! We have
tried countless different diets to help her to no
avail. She suffers from developmental delay, yes she is 9, but she is
the height and weight of a 4/5 year old, and has the speech and
understanding of a 2/3 year old. She goes to a special school and has
been statemented for special needs. She has speech, sight and hearing
problems. Dietary and non-dietary allergies, which i hasten to add we
have paid for her to be tested for. She went to one hospital from the
age of 2, who 'gave up' with her and sent her to another for 18
months which we had to visit every 2 months. Then they gave up with
her and re-referred her back to the original hospital. We have never
heard from them since. we are now struggling to get her referred
again.she is hyperactive, but because she 'conforms at school' and
then reverts to normal at home no-one at school sees her REAL
behavious so they dont believe us. We had never come across ONE
problem she has until we saw the evidence written on the website.
This was the fact that when Troian gets excited or nervous or
frustrated she 'flaps her hands and arms' like a little bird trying
to fly. she knows what she wants to say.do but cant figure out how to
say/do it. she has eczema which is diet
related. we have struggled for the last 7 years to get some sort of
diagnosis for her. We are now hoping that our telephone interview
with BIBIC on monday 6th August 2001 will help us to get a bit nearer
to that diagnosis, and the help she has so desperately needed for so
long. If anyone out there is in or has been in the same position as
us please let us know we are not alone. Ann and Tony.