more About Me

Welcome, I’m Chris.

I did not set out to create a website about so many different kinds of caregiving.

The Nurtured Child began with the NICU: a place that can feel frightening and unfamiliar when you are suddenly living inside it. Through my work, I have spent years beside babies and families during those early, uncertain days. I wanted to make some of that world easier to understand and help parents feel less alone in it.

But my own life kept adding chapters.

I have parented neurodivergent children through sensory needs, medical concerns, school meetings, adolescence, and now the complicated transition toward adulthood. Parenting at this stage is not only about finding the right support. It is also about constantly wondering when to step in, when to wait, when to send the email, and when your child needs the chance to do something without you.

At the same time, I have become a caregiver for my mother as she lives with dementia. Some days, I move from thinking about a teenager’s future to trying to meet my mother in a moment that feels real to her. Those roles ask very different things of me, but both have taught me how much it matters to slow down, pay attention, and listen for what someone may be communicating, even when they cannot say it clearly.

The Nurtured Child has grown because my life has grown. Here, I write about NICU care and feeding, neurodiversity, sensory differences, parenting, medical challenges, aging parents, and dementia. I also write about the parts that are harder to name: guilt, uncertainty, grief, exhaustion, advocacy, and the invisible thinking that happens behind so many caregiving decisions.

I do not have tidy answers for all of it. I am still learning too.

Sometimes I create an article, book, journal, or practical tool because information was difficult to find. Other times, I create something because an experience was difficult to put into words. My hope is that what I share helps you understand something more clearly, take one manageable next step, or simply feel a little less alone.

Take what feels helpful today. The rest will be here when you’re ready.