Guest Blogger
Mishelle Rudzinski
Mishelle is a co-founder of SPOON Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the health of international orphans and adoptees.
Through her work with SPOON, Mishelle helped to develop the Adoption Nutrition Website, the first website devoted entirely to the unique nutritional needs of adoptees.
Mishelle is also a pediatric speech-language pathologist specializing in improving the communication skills of children who are nonverbal.
She is the CEO of SwitchClimber.com, an educational company that operates an interactive website for children who cannot access typical computers.
Mishelle and her nine year old daughter live in Fountain Hills, AZ.
Adoption Nutrition
At SPOON Foundation, the nonprofit that I started with another adoptive mom, we decided to start compiling all the information we were learning about the nutrition of adoptees so that other parents could access it. It’s now all together on our Adoption Nutrition website, and although much of the information is specific to parents who [...]
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Tips for Picky Eaters
At a recent orthodontist visit, my 9 year old daughter was given bite blocks that prevent her from biting her teeth together. “You’ll need to make sure she doesn’t eat food that requires much chewing,” the orthodontist told me. My jaw dropped and I watched his expression that I assumed was judgment when I described [...]
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My Daughter Grows and SPOON Develops
With SPOON Foundation established, Cindy and I began to explore our options for helping to improve the nutrition of institutionalized children. Our original idea was to ship multivitamins to Baby Houses in Kazakhstan, but we quickly realized this idea had several problems; most importantly it was not a sustainable model. We also needed to make [...]
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Nutrition Inspirations
Within days of entering the U.S., my newly adopted five year old daughter, Bakha, was diagnosed with malnutrition and rickets. Her symptoms were so severe that it was hard to imagine that malnutrition could be the sole cause. She was started on a high dose of Vitamin D, and I was told we would wait [...]
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My Accidental Adoption
The adoption of my daughter happened so suddenly and quickly, that for a while I joked I had accidentally adopted. At 38 and single, I was still undecided about having kids. Some days I couldn’t wait to start a family; other days I gave it no thought. I had a demanding job that I loved. [...]
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