Allergic Sensory Breasts: Lots of Awareness in October

October is here. National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Pink Ribbons everywhere - pink pink pink. Practically a whole aisle of pink cooking utensils & bakeware at my local Target. I have a giant pink sautee pan that I use almost daily and a host of other utensils. Tonight my son, who is a big advocate of using "green bags" - reusable grocery carry bags, spotted a pink version at the local Stop & Shop checkout and demanded that I buy it for his baby sister to use. Green being his favorite color, pink being hers - it made perfect sense to him. Breast Cancer is scary stuff, and so if I can give a little with a $1 shopping bag, why not? The bags are available for a limited time & in limited quantities at Stop & Shop and Giant food chains. Good find, Alex.

...Speaking of Grocery Shopping.... I must say, Stop & Shop is comin' around for me lately - our local store has expanded their natural foods section and now has almost an entire row of Gluten Free items as well as a published list of gluten-free items under their Store Brands. Definitely more convenient than having to trek to Whole Foods or Wegmans, though I'm sure I still will a few times a month. Stop & Shop is also becoming way more allergy friendly. It started with them carrying Allergy Free Foods frozen chicken and now they are marking their store brands similar to how Wegmans does it and everything is clearly labeled with what "Big 8" allergens are ingredients. When dealing with Gluten Free & Casein (Dairy) Free, this is a huge help. Of course, I still read the ingredients list in its entirety because I'm that paranoid - and aware of 'hidden' offenders - 'natural flavoring', anyone?

Back to Breast Cancer.. Autism's Mother Warrior, Jenny McCarthy went into a dunk tank today on the Ellen show for a $10,000 donation for Breast Cancer. Go Jenny! The video is up as the video of the day on Ellen's site, I hope they keep it on the site after its down from Video of the Day. Great Stuff! People say Jenny is a wing-nut, and the story about a stripper pole being in her son's bedroom certainly didn't help (though I think it is quite funny and 10x cheaper than an actual fireman's pole, can't knock that).

...And on to Autism, So while I'm on the topic, I found out that October is Sensory Awareness Month also - in addition to Breast Cancer. I didn't know that it was but I must have only had a trial subscription to SI Focus magazine since now that I think of it, I haven't read it in a long time. I sadly might have missed had it not been for Pancakes Gone Awry. Going in the same month with Breast Cancer, I don't think we'll hear all that much about Sensory Awareness. To be honest, I thought that being part of the Autism Spectrum that it would go under April (Autism Awareness Month) but, indeed - October it is. Alex has so many sensory issues and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), formerly Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SDI) is a part of our day to day here. Any chance to spread awareness for this important cause. I'm in.

Got Sensory Issues?

This is what it means for us to live with a child with sensory issues. Noises that are 'everyday' are so loud that he needs to wear ear-muffs intended for the shooting range, the sun so bright - dark sunglasses (prescription) and if he takes them off he squints or closes his eyes, wanting to wear a baseball hat every day.. and underneath that his hair must be buzzed super super short. And through it all, we deal with it and we face the issues head on. Alex is making progress and requiring his ear muffs less. He really is my hero.

In closing, it's October! Be Aware.

...and Yay! Halloween will be here before we know it!