Trig Palin, once a prop...

Trig is now Sarah Palin's favourite prop. He's portable, cute and has special needs, a wonderful combination. Trig has replaced Piper as chief prop since the vice presidential campaign and has been at Sarah's side for many photo ops. More recently, the little guy was taken to several venues all over the country, carried like a sack of potatoes most of the time, was seen walking with Piper as a bonus, and had no proper clothes or his glasses unless Sarah was reacting to the bloggers who pointed that out.

Trig had to wave, be hugged by strangers, pose with several different people, in and out of the aeroplane, in and out of the bus, any time of the day or night.

He had no set routine, no time for his therapies, would not be force-fed solids by his multiple caregivers. (BTW, the photos of Sarah's auntie trying to feed him have been removed from the book tour gallery)

Bree kindly sent me a copy of the photo where Trig is reluctant to eat:









Trig deserves so much better! Sarah Palin's hypocrisy in this videos is too obvious. If she can't provide decent care for "her own" child, how can she possibly portray herself as an advocate of all children with special needs?


The second video shows Trig clapping hands at the age of nine months. According to a parenting website, these are the milestones for babies (without special needs) at the age of eleven months:

By the end of month eleven a baby typically:

* Says "ma-ma" and "da-da" discriminately
* Understands "no"
* Claps hands
* Waves bye-bye

OK, there are no rules set in stone when it comes to child development. Some babies will do certain things very early, other will achieve the same milestones much later.

Here's a chart of milestones for children with Down Syndrome:

(Click to enlarge)

Even without appropriate early intervention, Trig appears to be developing reasonably well. But we suspect he's older than a baby supposedly born on April 18, 2008... Maybe that's why he can clap hands "earlier" than expected for average babies with no special needs.

The most worrying aspect of the lack of early intervention and of being taken all over the place as a mere prop is that when he's older, no longer portable and perhaps not so cute, he'll be relegated to the back burner, without the benefit of the skills he should have been learning now in order to ensure a more independent and happy life.
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