I think I may have a real-world support group. Samantha was in a combo 1st / 2nd grade class a few years back and made a few older friends. One of the friends has an older brother with autism. The mom and a few others get together occassionally while the kids are in school to talk about whatever anyone wants to talk about. On the downside, most of the kids are 6th / 7th graders (versus my very young 1st grader). And, most are autistic. The youngest kid (until Tom) is 8 years old. And he has epilepsy! (Okay, I *really* shouldn't be excited about that, but it's something we have in common.) Anyway, we got together about a week and a half ago and had a nice time. I think they meet anywhere from once a week to once a month, depending on how things are going.

The one mom keeps asking if Tom has a diagnosis. I've told her in the past that Tom has brain damage and all his "troubles" are a result of that. We've been offered PDD by our neuro, but haven't decided we need it. We've never been denied services. Tom is definitely delayed and no one is arguing (which is both good and bad/sad).

So... to the point of this rambling... she told me not to let them label Tom mentally retarded. She said they (the school) would "give up" on him with that label. She knows another mom who got her daughter an autistic label, even though it isn't a good fit, just to avoid MR.

I'm not sure how true this is, if it's just our school district? county? or state? But, I wanted to throw it out for you to think about. OIT doesn't sound like a bad way to go, given the choices.

And yes, I remember last year when you were upset about MR. Probably, because I felt like I was seeing the writing on the wall for Tom... and I don't want that either. Mr. Kay and I were actually discussing it a week or so ago. I tried looking up guidelines on MR and couldn't find anything along the lines of "at age 8, developmentally delayed becomes MR." I did find some IQ and MR stuff that was interesting, but I don't know what Tom's IQ is... and I'm not sure I want to know.

Anyway, I'm all in a tizzy. Tomorrow I take Tom to have a heck of a lot of blood drawn for the DAN! doctor. Then, we repeat it in two weeks... although, not as much blood that time. In addition, I've taken him of all multi-vitamins in anticipation of the bloodwork, and I think he does better with the supplementation. After all the blood is taken, then we're upping his supplements and we'll see what happens.

(((Hugs))) Because it doesn't hurt to have a hug. And if you learn anything more of interest on the MR, let me know.