Developmental pediatrician Dr. Conlon?

[Anonymous]

In response to the OP-I agree with the others-Dr. Conlon is worth the wait and cost. He takes a lot of time to assess and he has a wonderful way with children-even those with a slow to warm up temperament like my son. My husband and I found his down to earth, respectful and helpful. The report takes forever, but he's a busy man and you leave his office already knowing the conclusions of his assessment.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have the phone number I can call to get an appointment with Dr. Conlon? Did I miss that part of the discussion?

[Anonymous]

I am just starting to look into getting an evaluation for my daughter (2.5 yr). She is displaying some "unusual" traits such as constantly stacking, sorting, arranging, etc. She very much plays alone and only makes close connections with me. In additon, her speech has not progressed in the past three or more months. Does anyone have advice of sites I could look at to learn more about possible disorders???? Also, I am attempting to get an appointment w/Dr. Conlon, but any suggestions of others who would be good for an initial eval???

I was reading this site to get feedback on Dr. COnlon whom we are about to see - but wanted to respond to the entry above. We have an almost 11 year old who has a range of developmental issues, one of which was almost non-existent speech development at 2-3. He had 30 words in his vocabulary when I took him for a speech eval at age 3 1/4. Soon after that, we got some advice to take him off dairy as he had had chronic very bad ear infections from the time of 7 months (when we started feeding him something other than breast milk) until he had tubes put in at the age of 14 months. Four weeks after having taken him off dairy, he started speaking in 3-4 word sentences - quite remarkable and everyone (teachers, therapists and we) noticed it. We were seeing Dr. Compart at the time (who is very good, by the way - very open to alternatives) and she told us about the leaky gut syndrome. It turned out that our son wasn't fully digesting the proteins in wheat (gluten) and dairy (casein); these undigested proteins were escaping the gut (through irritation in the wall of the intestine caused by constant antibiotics to treat the ear infections which in turn led to candida overgrowth, which caused the leaky gut); once they were in the blood stream, those that escaped the body's clean-up mechanisms wound up crossing the blood-brain barrier where they mimicked neurotransmitters in the speech center of the brain. They were sufficiently similar peptides (short chain proteins) to those that form the correct neurotransmitters to be accepted by the receptors, but they didn't actually allow the information to continue along the neural pathways - communication was hence blocked. These neurotransmitters are changed renewed every three weeks. When we removed the source of the undigested proteins (in this case, casein) the correct neurotransmitters were able to hook onto the receptors, and our son's brain began to process speech. It was quite remarkable. The ear infections, as it turned out, were caused largely by dairy - our son was eating yogurt every morning on his cereal. Check Annals of Allergy, 1994 for a study at Georgetown that shows a strong connection between dairy and chronic ear infections.

I hope this information is helpful to someone out there. It may have no connection to your particular situation, but it is my understanding that this is not uncommon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


I am just starting to look into getting an evaluation for my daughter (2.5 yr). She is displaying some "unusual" traits such as constantly stacking, sorting, arranging, etc. She very much plays alone and only makes close connections with me. In additon, her speech has not progressed in the past three or more months. Does anyone have advice of sites I could look at to learn more about possible disorders???? Also, I am attempting to get an appointment w/Dr. Conlon, but any suggestions of others who would be good for an initial eval???

I was reading this site to get feedback on Dr. COnlon whom we are about to see - but wanted to respond to the entry above. We have an almost 11 year old who has a range of developmental issues, one of which was almost non-existent speech development at 2-3. He had 30 words in his vocabulary when I took him for a speech eval at age 3 1/4. Soon after that, we got some advice to take him off dairy as he had had chronic very bad ear infections from the time of 7 months (when we started feeding him something other than breast milk) until he had tubes put in at the age of 14 months. Four weeks after having taken him off dairy, he started speaking in 3-4 word sentences - quite remarkable and everyone (teachers, therapists and we) noticed it. We were seeing Dr. Compart at the time (who is very good, by the way - very open to alternatives) and she told us about the leaky gut syndrome. It turned out that our son wasn't fully digesting the proteins in wheat (gluten) and dairy (casein); these undigested proteins were escaping the gut (through irritation in the wall of the intestine caused by constant antibiotics to treat the ear infections which in turn led to candida overgrowth, which caused the leaky gut); once they were in the blood stream, those that escaped the body's clean-up mechanisms wound up crossing the blood-brain barrier where they mimicked neurotransmitters in the speech center of the brain. They were sufficiently similar peptides (short chain proteins) to those that form the correct neurotransmitters to be accepted by the receptors, but they didn't actually allow the information to continue along the neural pathways - communication was hence blocked. These neurotransmitters are changed renewed every three weeks. When we removed the source of the undigested proteins (in this case, casein) the correct neurotransmitters were able to hook onto the receptors, and our son's brain began to process speech. It was quite remarkable. The ear infections, as it turned out, were caused largely by dairy - our son was eating yogurt every morning on his cereal. Check Annals of Allergy, 1994 for a study at Georgetown that shows a strong connection between dairy and chronic ear infections.

I hope this information is helpful to someone out there. It may have no connection to your particular situation, but it is my understanding that this is not uncommon.

To the PP- if you take out dairy, what do you substitute for it? Soy milk?

[Anonymous]

I'm not an expert, but I think soy milk is still considered "dairy" since it contains casein. Rice milk (readily available at Whole Foods) would be a casein free substitute, but since it lacks protein you should be sure your child gets protein from other sources.

[Anonymous]

I posted a while back on this thread singing Dr. Conlon's praises. My husband and I really liked his style and we found him helpful with our child. We still recommend him;however, we have not received the report despite our requests and it's been quite a while. I guess that's the price we pay for seeing a top notch doctor. How many months is it supposed to take???

[Anonymous]

I got mine fairly quickly but I called the office. YOu can also email him with ??? he is very reponsive with email. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

We waited 3 months for our report. This was after calling and checking in. After waiting for the appointment, it adds up fast.

[Anonymous]

It took a while for us to get reports, too. In fact, we're still waiting for one from an initial evaluation of one of our kids back in early October. I totally understand it's frustrating, but we've been really grateful for Dr. Conlon's willingness to work with us, our primary pediatrician and our educational consultant. Our 2 kids absolutely love appointments with him and, for us, the positives far outweigh the the delays we've had. Also, when we had deadlines with the school that required a report, he's gotten it to us in time. I don't know if it's worth it for you or not.

[Anonymous]

My DC has a sensory processing disorder and we are doing OT. We have an appointment scheduled with Dr. Conlon, but in light of the cost, I wonder if we should keep it. What in addition to OT does he offer for a child with SPD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC has a sensory processing disorder and we are doing OT. We have an appointment scheduled with Dr. Conlon, but in light of the cost, I wonder if we should keep it. What in addition to OT does he offer for a child with SPD?

I'm a little confused by your post. Dr. Conlon is a neurodevelopmental pediatrician. He doesn't provide OT. Do you or your OT have other developmental concerns about your DC? As you know, SPD encompasses a wide range of challenges and intensities. It's also comorbid with many other conditions. You haven't provided enough information for anyone to really comment on whether it might be beneficial for your DC to see any specialist, not just Dr. Conlon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC has a sensory processing disorder and we are doing OT. We have an appointment scheduled with Dr. Conlon, but in light of the cost, I wonder if we should keep it. What in addition to OT does he offer for a child with SPD?

I'm a little confused by your post. Dr. Conlon is a neurodevelopmental pediatrician. He doesn't provide OT. Do you or your OT have other developmental concerns about your DC? As you know, SPD encompasses a wide range of challenges and intensities. It's also comorbid with many other conditions. You haven't provided enough information for anyone to really comment on whether it might be beneficial for your DC to see any specialist, not just Dr. Conlon.

My DC was evaluated by a psychiatrist and diagnosed with SPD. This psychiatrist recommended OT, and we have been doing that. On my own initiative, I made an appointment with Dr. Conlon. I'm just wondering what else Dr. Conlon would have to offer, in addition to what we're already doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC was evaluated by a psychiatrist and diagnosed with SPD. This psychiatrist recommended OT, and we have been doing that. On my own initiative, I made an appointment with Dr. Conlon. I'm just wondering what else Dr. Conlon would have to offer, in addition to what we're already doing.

Dr. Conlon could assess other areas of developmental weakness, ADHD or underlying conditions affecting development but it doesn't sound like you have any other concerns. If you and the OT don't see a need for futher evalutions then I wouldn't spend the time or money on Dr. Conlon.

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I have an appointment in the next month with Dr. Conlon. However, I am trying to figure out if this is someone that I need to see or his is going to tell me what I already know. My DC was diagnosed with Dyspraxia/Apraxia, Cerebral Dysgensis and Sensory Disorder within the past 9 months. We have SLP's, PT's, OT's through the school system and privately that we see. We have see a neurologist who gave us some of the diagnosis'. We also have a developemental pediatrician that we have been seeing. He is good -a little more liberal than I would like at times with some of the diagnosis but overall good. However, I just have heard really great things about Dr. Conlon and wanted to make sure I'm not missing out on a better Doctor. Any advice???