Today I learned through Twitter Moms about the CVS Caremark All Kids Can program.

I didn’t know March was Disability Awareness Month, nor was I aware of this CVS charitable program that will run for five years and give $25 million to help make life easier for children with disabilities. I think that is awesome and I have yet another reason to love CVS!

Because it is Disability Awareness Month, Twitter Moms suggested starting a conversation about how parents talk with their children about disability and the importance of inclusion, and I wanted to participate. So no deals in this post, but I hope you’ll continue reading and leave a comment to share your experiences on this topic.

My four year old daughter was diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis just before her second birthday. After limping for a few days (her pediatrician suggested she may have sprained her ankle while playing), she completely stopped walking and started running a 104 degree temperature. She did not want to be held and she could not bend her knees or elbows. She ended up in the hospital for four days while doctors tried to figure out what was going on.

We were very fortunate to get a quick diagnosis. Some children can go for years without knowing what’s going on, meanwhile their joints are being destroyed.

With no know cause or cure for Juvenile Arthritis, we must give her a variety of medications to keep her joints moving freely and keep her growing normally. She has doctor appointments and lab work appointments every other month.

Since she was so young at diagnosis, she has never really known anything else. But over the last few months she has become aware that she is a little “different” from her friends and family. She has started to notice she sometimes can’t keep up with her friends on the playground.

Her legs ache with too much play or with weather changes, and she needs time out to rest while her friends continue to run around. She has started asking why she has to get weekly injections in her legs whereas her friends do not, and she wants to know when it will be over so she can be like me or like her friends (no shots, no doctor appointments).

So… we’ve started having conversations about differences in people. She knows her medications help keep her from being wheelchair bound, so occasionally when she has seen a child in a wheelchair, she will ask if that child did not get his/her injections.

We have discussed that not all children in wheelchairs have juvenile arthritis. She sometimes says she’d rather skip her injections and be in a wheelchair, so we discuss what that means and how incredibly fortunate she is to be able to climb on playground equipment and play chase with her friends thanks to advances in arthritis medications.

We have also talked about how having certain physical limitations means making changes to how you do things, but these limitations should not keep you from doing them. Everyone has different talents and we can learn from each other.

She has shared that she feels lonely when her friends run off while she has to take a break. So we discuss her feelings and the importance of recognizing how that makes her feel so she will be more aware and compassionate when she sees someone who is left out or having a bad day.

While she’s still a little too young to fully comprehend differences, I am glad we’re starting this dialogue now.

If you have a child, have you had a conversation about disabilities with them? As my daughter gets older, I know the conversations will become more detailed so I’d love to hear what your experiences have been.

For more information about Juvenile Arthritis, please visit the Arthritis Foundation’s Website.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 3:58 am and is filed under Other Sites/Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.