Firstly, there's not much engine braking on automatics. Secondly, you are far more likely to lose control on a RWD car with braking on a slippery surface beacuse the back axle swings around (try braking with only the back brake on a motorcycle on a wet road). An upshift to prevent engine braking would be to meet emission standards because it reduces the vacuum pressure in the inlet manifold. An automatic never runs in idle unless you put it there. And downshifting when you floor the throttle has always been standard on all automatics. I think the overheating would be because of the AWD problems, problems with synchronising the rear and front drivetrains ? Landrovers with viscous diffs used to chew up tyres.

First I would go back to your vet about the scaly patches if you have not already. These could be something else and could be serious so please have them checked by your vet! I don't want to scare you but my 12-year-old dog had a patch of scaly skin and hair loss and it turned out she had a bacterial and fungal infection and skin cancer. The best thing would be to have allergy testing done to find out the source of the allergic reactions. Barring that I would recommend using a limited ingredient grain free diet. A limited ingredient diet is one with a shorter ingredient list which usually uses only one type of meat as the protein source. This way if your dog continues to have a reaction to the food you can narrow down the possibilities of what is causing the reaction because there is a small ingredient list. Keep in mind that it can take several weeks before you see a difference when trying a new food. Some examples of good diets of this type: Natural Balance Potato and Venison Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish BLUE Fish and Sweet Potato California Natural Herring and Sweet Potato Canine Caviar Venison and Pea Pinnacle Trout and Sweet Potato Honest Kitchen Force For the psoriasis type spots I would ask your vet if they carry a line of products called Douxo Calm. This line includes a shampoo, spray and spot treatment for allergic dermatitis. I have used their other product, Douxo Seborrhea, on two dogs for different skin issues and it worked REALLY well. If your vet doesn't carry it, see if they can look it up for you and if they think it is ok to use, then you can order it online.

Wanda - I am glad that you found the solution for your daughter. My grandson does not seem to have a milk allergy. That was the first thing the docs checked. Carla - They do keep him upright, in fact, a lot of time is spent holding him that way. If he's down (on his back only) or reclining, they keep his body straight. They have the Bjorn carrier, which braces him pretty well. I'll mention the notion of not burping him, which is amazing! He is not constipated, lol (I know that that is not really an lol, especially for you). His stools are pretty much what is expected when breastfeeding. I think that they are going with the growing out of it expectation. I would like them to press harder, but it is very difficult for me to make suggestions. They are sensitive; they are using all their energy to hold things together. Interesting that you mentioned their marriage. I've thought about that, but things seem to be okay. My DIL is a very calm and patient person, and my son is a very earnest and sincere guy about all this, so I think that they'll be all right. My now ex-husband and I took our elder son through ten years of catastrophic asthma. It was a tremendously difficult, awful ordeal. At around year seven of that battle, we divorced. I know that the illness played a big role; it eventually drove us apart. Even though my husband was a superior dad in terms of being there when the asthma struck and our son was hospitalized, too many times to count, nevertheless he spent more and more time away from home. He needed adventure and excitement and we had a boy who needed all kinds of meds and a breathing machine if we were more than twenty minutes from a hospital, not to mention our home life, which was very quiet. Mainly because my son and I would use the non-crisis times to recover and get normal again. Then it would start all over again. My now DH's love of hominess and just generally being around all the time is one of the things that drew me to him. He was and is always "here". I have also thought that my younger DS, the baby's dad, was deeply influenced by his brother's long illness - in his child's mind he observed that no doctors, meds or many hospitalizations, even surgeries, could make the asthma go away. His brother had to grow out of it, which he didn't do until he was in college. So they may feel that as we were alone, so are they. I have noticed on the reflux boards that many parents are just holding on, even with a battery of doctors and various treatments. Some of their situations remind me of my mind-set with my son's asthma. IOW, hang on, try whatever, there is no cure, only coping, forget about the house, just "hold it together." Thanks for your attentiveness!

I have a problem with saying teachers and other state employees' pensions are what's making the states drown. How about all the government waste and fraud. How about welfare, food stamps, housing, heating, healthcare, etc. etc. etc. for so many people that refuse to work. Go ahead, slam me. But it's true. I can absolutely tell you that all those things are totally abused in the area where I live. So very many of them just don't want to work, and why should they? I know there are people that truly need help. But it should not be generational. My husband is a retired state worker, a prison guard in a maximum security prison, don't tell me he doesn't deserve the pension he earned, and which, by the way, he contributed to all his working years. Do you know how kids act in these schools now? Do you know there's not a damn thing a teacher can do to them? Do you know teachers are not allowed to fail any students? My sister is a teacher in MD, has been teaching for 17 years, she's never failed a student. Her principal goes in and changes the failing grades. If they have too many kids fail, they lose state funding. I have 2 nieces that just starting teaching this year. One first grade, one sixth grade. The sixth graders are horrendous! They are too cool for school already. The parents have been called, repeatedly. Where there's not family structure, no one at home to teach these kids right from wrong, and that there are consequences for their actions. When there's no one at home to make sure they eat properly, get enough sleep, take a bath, and let them know they are safe and loved, they aren't going to give a d@mn about school.