How do I get to the Front of the Line at Disneyland?
OK, we figured we’d just put the question out there since that’s what you’re most likely thinking. Short or tall, disabled or not, nobody likes standing in line at Disneyland Park, California Adventure, Disney World, Six Flags or whatever amusement park you’re attending. The truth is that it used to be much easier to bypass the line based upon a visible disability, but this honor system became so abused that Disney had to put in a much more rigorous system. We used to be able to just go through the exit at Space Mountain, walk right up to the ride, wait a few minutes, and hop on.
Disneyland Railroad Depot
Disneyland and DisneyWorld Guest Assistance Card
Disney has implemented an official program called the Guest Assistance Card. At Disneyland, when you first walk in you want to head to the left and stop at the Town Hall. You will most likely have to wait in a long line and when you get to the front desk, you need to ask for the Guest Assistance Card. The customer service agent will then ask you a generic question such as “What is your concern?” At this point, your line-skipping ability for the rest of your stay is based upon what you say. The customer service agent has a variety of stamps to choose from, depending upon what you say. We’ve seen a stamp depicting stairs, meaning that you can bypass the line on any ride that has stairs. There’s also a stamp with a detour arrow, which means to use an alternate entrance (usually the exit). On our last trip, we learned about another stamp which lets you use your child’s stroller as a wheelchair. Please let us know if there is another stamp that we don’t know about.
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A great brand that worked for a couple of the LP kids in our chapter is the Miraflex brand frames. They are high-grade rubber frames for prescription lenses for children. These frames fit well on the younger LP kids who have less of a bridge than other dwarf kids. Achons usually have more mid-face hypoplasia, which make it more difficult to fit eyeglasses at a young age. Mid-face hypoplasia causes the nose bridge to be less pronounced. Thus, it is more difficult to fit a pair of eyeglasses.
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We turned on the ability to comment on our posts. After some discussion, we decided that we believe our site can be more useful if the community can respond with their own experiences and suggestions. So we welcome all helpful contributions and hope to have a meaningful discussion.
How many times has this happened to you? “Mom! Dad! Come help me in the bathroom!” No, it’s not a normal potty emergency.
You cautiously go to the bathroom and find your child pointing to the potty while making a face-palm gesture. Holding onto the spring-loaded toilet paper holder is hard enough for adults. But with children’s small hands, especially the hands of a dwarf child, controlling this unfortunate device can be extremely difficult. We wanted our six year old LP child to be independent enough to simply change a toilet paper roll. With a small palm and just being six, it was easy to understand that this accident could happen. But we can help make sure it does not!
Don't be frightened, this is not #2. It's a toilet paper roll holder. Maybe just as scary, considering you have to pull it out with your hands!
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Recently we both started experiencing some significant back pain, bad enough that we’d wake up with it every morning. We tried managing the pain with ibuprofen, Salonpas, and Icy Hot. And we went through the usual analysis in our heads: Are we dealing with compression? Another back problem? An issue related to prior surgery? After many months of torment, the Aha! moment was anti-climactic: our mattress was killing our backs.
Mattress Shopping Fun, or Lack Of
If there’s one shopping experience that’s significantly painful, and intentionally made so by the manufacturers and retailers, it’s looking for a new mattress. Just like with carpet, the big-S manufacturers (Sealy, Simmons, Serta, Spring-Air, Stearns & Foster) do not sell the same mattress model to more than one retailer. They do this specifically to prevent the end consumer from doing any sort of legitimate comparison test, and moreover it allows the mattress retailers to set their own completely arbitrary price. They have quite a racket going. It’s so difficult that even Consumer Reports basically refuses to compare and rate mattresses.
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Any new or experienced parent can tell you the fun and frustrations associated with bedtime. Whether you are dealing with nighttime breastfeeding, moving your child into their own bed, or solving a fear of the dark, bedtime is challenging for both parents and young children alike. This can be extra difficult for dwarf parents and parents of dwarf children. We have successfully sleep trained our dwarf child and are currently trying to have our average height daughter sleep in her own bed (though it’s taking a little longer while mom is savoring the “baby time“). For the first couple months, a bassinet was really useful for us as dwarf parents. Most bassinets are low, don’t take up a lot of space in the parents room, and are safe. 
For our first child, we were in a two-story house and carrying the baby up and down the stairs for nap time was difficult. We kept the Arm’s Reach Co-Sleeper Mini Bassinet downstairs for naptime and it also did double-duty as a changing table which was very convenient. Since our dwarf child was delayed and not really mobile, we kept the co-sleeping side rail down to make it easier to reach him in and out. If your child is an early mover, you’ll want to be safe and not keep it in the co-sleeper configuration.
Cribs and Dwarfs Don’t Work Well Together!
Now that drop-side cribs are no longer available, we believe it will be either challenging or expensive to find a crib that will work well for dwarf parents. LP arms are too short and we’re not tall enough to reach into a crib safely. Our dwarf son did not stand up until he was over 2 years old, so it would have been impossible to pick him up from the crib without a drop-side rail. Even with the drop side, we used a tall height setting for the mattress to make it easier to reach him. For our average height daughter, we had the opposite problem. She was growing so fast that we couldn’t keep her mattress on the tallest height because she could pull herself up and over the rail.
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Future LPA National Conferences
Past LPA National Conferences
The list below is a work in progress. If you are able to help fill in any details for prior conferences (city, date, name of hotel, etc.), please let us know!
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The dream of going to space is a common fantasy shared by children (and adults) alike. And for those of us who grew up in the 1980′s and watched the Space Camp Movie, actually attending Space Camp as a camper was another dream. Fast forward to being a dad with a dwarf son who is a space/rocket/jet/missile/airplane fanatic and learning about Space Camp for Little People! We just knew this was something we had to provide for our son (ok, and for dad as well). We just got back from attending and our mini review is below.
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What are my chances of having a baby with dwarfism?
We frequently see incoming search queries related to people asking questions such as What are the chances of having a dwarf baby? and Do dwarf parents always have dwarf children? Since there is a lot of interest in this topic, here is our attempt at making this understandable. (A quick reminder: dwarf or little person is the preferred term, not midget).
Autosominal Dominant Disorders
These types of dwarfism only require one parent to pass on the gene (or through a random mutation at conception). Some examples are achondroplasia, pseudoachondroplasia, hypochondroplasia, and SEDc.
Two Average Height Parents (no history of dwarfism)
- Approximately 1 in 25,000 (0.004%) chance of a child with dominant dwarfism
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Finally getting to this subject, as it has been a discussion item on many boards and asked by many LP women and couples in our community. I would be happy to answer any more questions from our/my experience. There are just so many questions about the subject, it’s easier to leave it as just a Q & A.
Was finding maternity clothes difficult because of being an LP?
I didn’t find it to be difficult finding maternity clothes, personally. But, we are all different shapes and sizes in the LP world. Also, my taste is different than others. My style is pretty laid back, funky and comfortable. Also, I like to keep things affordable. Though, if you are in an office environment that requires you to wear business attire, it may be more difficult. When I was working for a university in the front line and not behind the scenes, I kept my attire mostly monochromatic with black, blues, greys, browns, and whites. It’s also very slim looking! I bought a couple of maternity pants in neutral colors, got them hemmed and mixed them up with my regular tops/non-maternity pants during the 1st and 2nd trimester. I had some dresses already on hand that either had an empire waste or a stretchy/loose fitting cut. I took these and mixed them with my maternity pants, especially if they were dresses on the short side. The product was a very chic, black or charcoal grey ensemble with low flat heels. On Casual Fridays, I bought some dark maternity jeans and paired it with a black or grey top, layering it with a maternity tank top as I got to be rounder. These were my must haves for LP maternity style:
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