moooooo

1 question...
1 chance...
1 honest answer...
That's all you get...

Ask me 1 question.
Any 1 question, anything,
no matter how crazy it is.
An honest answer.

No catch.
Except one. All comments will be screened so your question stays private between you and me, and only you will get to see my answer to your question.
But I dare you to repost this and see what people ask you.

Where I've Been

I just got back from a 2 day High Risk Infants conference in Mississauga Ontario.

A quick review. NOTE: I am NOT bothering to type out all the letters after presenter's names here.

Day 1.
Emotional Trauma and Neglect
Diane Benoit, University of Toronto

I worship this woman. I would give my RIGHT ARM to study with her. Some of the videos used are distressing but very educational. Watching a 10month old baby dissociate is bizarre and disturbing. Watching the choices of toys that traumatized parents will select is disquieting. The knowledge that up to 60% of children exposed to Domestic Violence develop Post Trauma Stress Disorder is frightening. The effects of trauma on a person's ability to parent is devastating. Seriously people, heal thyself and protect your kids. "CORTISOL is BAD for the BRAIN"

Day 1
Breastfeeding and the High Risk Baby
Jack Newman

This man is very...passionate...about breastfeeding. He also came off as judgmental and oppressive. Showing an image of a young mother with tattoos on her hand and stating "this single mother would likely be on YOUR caseloads" was just plain inappropriate. He completely simplified the factors that child protection workers have to take into consideration when a child is apprehended. He is also ANTI_FORMULA...fair enough. However he completely did NOT acknowledge the fact that there are women who NEVER produce enough "hind milk" (the milk that contains fats and proteins) to allow for their babies to grow. Historically those babies WOULD HAVE DIED...or been handed off to the local wet-nurse. I walked out of this session on 3 separate occasions just to keep from leaping over the table to strangle him. I support breastfeeding, MAJORLY and encourage mother's to work at it, cause it does take learning and time to "get it right" in some cases. However, I also respect other peoples choices AND know that sometimes it's just not going to work for everybody.
OH...and he is a proponent of Co-Sleeping... and breastfeeding even if mom is using recreational drugs...

Physical Abuse and Neglect of Infants
Dirk Huyer

This man was entertaining and added clarity and levity to an otherwise disturbing subject. The images shown were graphic and clear. The most marked statement he made was following the demonstration of bruising on a child's hand (identified as a squeeze mark) when he stated that this child "died by asphyxiation by the contents of his father's penis."

BEST line... "If they don't cruise, they don't bruise" and best advice "can they generate enough force to cause that mark."

DAY 2

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Donna Debolt

This was an excellent and educational session for me. Donna brought up some significant information regarding the lack of appropriate questioning that is done about the prenatal exposure of children to alcohol. The complications around dealing with children with FASD are vast and require significant community teamwork, however the infrastructure is not in place to deal with it at this time. 80% of children with FASD are raised by someone other than their biological parent and if a woman has 1 FASD child, she is likely to have UP TO 3 MORE.

Adults with FASD are similarly complex to work with. Her advise to me about one mother on my case load..."Bribe Her."

LUNCH PRESENTATION
Emotional Intelligence and Self Care.
I'm not even sure who presented this...The Institute for Health and Human Potential.... It felt basically like one big advertisment.


Failure to Thrive and Malnutrition
Mary Zachos

Excellent content, unfortunately she read her power point slides, which we had received in the conference package. Again, the stress on "breast is best" failed to acknowledge that someone women CAN"T. Strong emphasis on assessing if the issue is organic or non-organic. GOOD information. Boring speaker.

Learning from Infant Deaths in Ontario
Jim Cairns (Ontario's head Coroner)
Karen Bridgman-Acker

Great presentation. COMPLETELY against Co-sleeping. Unsafe sleeping environments assessed to be the cause of 59 infant deaths between March 2006 and June 2007. Solid recommendations to Children's Aid Societies from reviews of infant deaths. NOTE: "Involvement with a CAS is not a factor in the vast majority of child deaths in Ontario, for those children who died while receiving CAS services, most deaths could not have been foreseen or prevented by a CAS." This does not mean we can't learn something though.


Overall a good conference. Educational and I have more avenues of exploration for at least 2 of my current cases. I'm glad I got there, despite the stress and hell it's gonna cause me for the next few weeks.

Horrorscope

Writing in the L.A. Times, Rosa Brooks bemoaned the budgetary cuts that have caused the mass firings of reporters at many major newspapers. This sad development means there are "fewer persistent, nosy people with a mandate to wander around the world asking questions." Whatever you do in the coming weeks cannot single-handedly fix this problem, of course. But it will be your astrological mandate to be a persistent, nosy person wandering around asking questions. Halloween costume suggestions: journalist, spy, muckraker, whistleblower.


NOTE:  I'm in full investigation mode on a couple of my files...this is timely!!