I recently wrote about how mothers have a sixth sense, a gut instinct, when it comes to our kids. While watching yesterday’s “Oprah Winfrey Show,” actress Jenny McCarthy mentioned this same sense, she calls it the Mommy Sense. She used this in diagnosing her son with autism.

When a doctor told her that her son had epilepsy, she knew the diagnosis was incorrect … from her gut, she knew, she explains. She pushed forward, with another doctor and got the correct diagnosis — autism. Had she not listened to her Mommy Sense, who knows when she would have received the correct information.

We all need to use this as a reminder to trust our Motherly instincts, our guts, our hearts. Even when you can’t explain why you know; if you know you are right, press on.

All Moms have it. I don’t know why, or where it comes from, or exactly at what point we get it, but we possess  a super sixth sense when it comes to our children. It’s the sense that you know something is wrong with your child, even when others don’t. You can’t explain the feeling, but you know you are right.

It’s a tool that I’d been told about for years from friends who were mothers. It’s hard to believe until you gain this sense yourself. Several years ago, on the television show, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Raymond’s mother could detect a fever in a child just by kissing his or her forehead. When I first saw that episode I thought it was a bit crazy, but now that I have my sixth sense, I can do the same thing. Moms know. We just do.

I use my sense mainly for when to go to the doctor. When our son was a baby we’d debate whether to call the doctor or to wait it out. Since learning about my special sixth sense, I now get to make the calls on when we phone the doctor — my sense trumps any indecision we might have. All I have to say is, “I’m the Mom and I know.”