No Progress…Normal?

Discovering stingrays!

Jordan progressed an amazing amount between September and the end of December.  January was a different story. Nothing bad, nothing great. But no progress. When progress slows or stops, I start questioning what is different. What we have added to his diet that may be affecting him, what we have forgotten to keep in his diet or regimen of supplements that may be causing it, what point he is at in his treatment – when one issue is resolved, another will often present itself, as we “peel back the layers” of his health issues. So, maybe we’ve resolved some yeast and heavy metal issues and revealed some viral or parasite issue?  All these things go through my mind – repeatedly. And I turn detective again trying to figure it out.

We saw his neuro doctor (Dr. R) today, and I came away encouraged. He, obviously, knows way more about the brain and it’s development than I do (most of what I know of the brain, I learned from him).  He saw a couple of things in Jordan that I hadn’t counted as particularly significant, like using imagination as he took a toy lizard, changed his voice, and began a pretend interaction with the toy snake I was holding   He also mentioned how the brain will grow and learn, then may step back a bit and go, “Hmm” and let things settle a bit, before advancing again (ok, so that might not be the scientific explanation).

Tonight as I was reflecting on Jordan and his progress, or lack thereof, and was recalling Josiah’s progress in his first couple years. I remembered how it seemed that Josiah would go through developmental spurts, where he would progress a lot, and then his developement seemed to slow for awhile, until he would hit another developmental growth spurt.

Maybe I’m getting a little too used to monitoring every single detail of Jordan’s diet, development, supplements, vitamins, socialness, fussiness, motor control, etc.  Maybe sometimes something doesn’t have to be wrong or need to be changed when development slows a little.  Now I’m not stopping – we’re still consulting with the nutritional and detox doctor again in two weeks and we’ll be doing the new brain exercises for this month from the neuro doctor, and I’ve already redoubled our efforts on his diet and supplements, removing a couple things we had allowed to creep in.  But, I am breathing a little easier and find myself taking a nice big sigh, relaxing, and putting away my detective badge for tonight. Taking a moment, or a few, to enjoy and reflect on how far he’s come. A bad day now is still 1,000 times better than a good day one year ago!

Breaking the Cycle of Developing New Allergies

The very short answer of how the break the cycle of developing more allergies and heal old allergies…heal the digestive system: the gut, the bugs (bacteria & yeast), the immune system (70-80% of the immune system is in the gut/intestines). To explain HOW to do that will take awhile.

The Gut: It’s very possible that there is an issue with leaky gut. Where “holes” in the intestinal wall allow large food particles into the blood, where the immune system sees them as invaders (virus, bacteria, or toxin)and attacks, because big things in the blood are virus, bacteria, or toxin, nutrients from food in the blood are suppose to be small. The immune system then says hey, remember that substance for next time and we can conquer it more quickly = allergy reaction the next time the food is eaten.

The Bugs: We all have an inner ecosystem – good and bad bugs in our digestive system. It’s not that some are really bad, we need them, we just need them IN BALANCE. Too many of one type becomes a bad bug and can cause lots of problems. The most common culprit: candida, or yeast. It is their job to eat large food particles so they don’t get into the bloodstream. Lots of large food particles, means more and more yeast are needed, but in the course of doing their job, they can multiply out of control and actually grow into and through our intestinal wall and get into the bloodstream themselves, and into our other organs, etc when they should only be in our gut and in the right proportion to other bugs there. If this is the cause…digestive enzymes to help digest the food are needed to correct the original reason the yeast overgrew in the first place. Yeast can also overgrow because the good bacteria are killed off for some reason. Bacteria are killed by what? ANTIBIOTICS!!! (Think about it “anti” “biotic”. I’m not saying antibiotics are bad, I’m just saying we need to be aware that they kill both bad AND good bacteria and if we must take antibiotics, to make sure we take probiotics as well to help recolonize our gut with good bacteria after being on antibiotics. Personally, I try to find all-natural antibiotics in the form of herbs, essential oils, and things that help our bodies fight the bugs (thereby strengthening the immune system long term) rather than go in and wipe them out with drugs (which used repeatedly, in the long run weakens the immune system because it gets no exercise or experience).

It can be tough at first, but in the long run it sure pays off. My boys used to catch every little thing going around, and Jordan would be sick and completely miserable for 2-3 weeks every time he caught something. Now that I’ve been using natural things and have been working to build his immune system (for him that meant keeping him away from other sick kids for about a year – when you’re sick, it’s hard to heal other chronic issues and strengthen the body & immune system). Last week and this week we’ve been around hacking coughing kids many times and neither of my boys have gotten sick! It’s wonderful!! FYI: it also means limiting (or eliminating) sugar. Sugar depresses the immune system for 5-6 hours after it is eaten.

If there is already an issue with yeast, due to partially digested food, antibiotic, or other medication use. Then it needs to be killed and brought back under control. There are many ways to do this. My favorite is by using enzymes and probiotics. The enzymes eat the yeast rather than killing it and adding toxins to the body through the die-off of the yeast. FYI: yeast feed on sugar and anything the body can readily turn to sugar: wheat, corn, pasta, potatos, dairy, maple syrup, etc. While combatting yeast it may be necessary to seriously cut back (or eliminate) the intake of these foods

FYI: Yeast overgrowth can also be caused by the use of contraception (and hormone imbalances), and steroid based drugs/medications such as acne medication.

The Immune System: this one is very multifaceted and involved. To be completely honest I don’t totally understand this area yet. What I do know is that immune system disregulation is epidemic today, with Th1 and Th2 responses being imbalanced. Th2 is overactive in many, many children (just think asthma & allergies). This means the immune system is always on high alert, fighting, everything. How did this flip happen? Well, it’s not the only reason, but the most common answer for that is: vaccinations.

So, the immune system. That bring us back to the basis of recovery from many things (including: asthma, ADD, allergies, autism spectrum):

1)Stop putting bad things in

2)Put only the best things in as possible (food, body products, scents)

3)Get the bad stuff that is still in the body out.

For more information on this check out the pages about causes and treatment, toxicity, and nutrition.

In the Mean Time: while you work on these 3 things: the gut, the bugs, and the immune system (and the toxicity – stop putting junk in, only put in good stuff, get the bad stuff out), if the child needs a greater variety of foods, the best thing I have found to help is called NAET or BioSET. However, the effectiveness of these techniques is very dependant on the skill and knowledge of the practitioner. Try to find one that others have had success through and who won’t break your bank with a gazillion treatments.

New Autism Statistics published by the CDC

 In October the CDC (Center for Disease Control) released new Autism rate statistics, the rate of Autism continues to grow rapidly:

• 1 in 91 children (formally 1 in 150 up until 2009 and 1 in 10,000 in the early 1990s)
• 1 in 58 boys
• Fastest growing developmental disability
• More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than cancer, diabetes, Downs Syndrome and AIDS combined.
• Approximately 1 million individuals in the US have autism
•  Studies have shown that environmental toxins like mercury and pesticides can trigger autism.
• There has been no study that has directly linked a pure genetics basis for autism.
• The fastest growing genetic disorders increase at anapproximate rate of 1% per 100 years.  Autism is growing at a much greater rate.

Quote of the Day

My new favorite quote:

“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.” - Chinese Proverb

I just love this, so to all the naysayers out there, you can keep saying Autism is genetic and isn’t reversible, or that nutrition has nothing to do with neurological issues.  While your talking and naysaying, I’m busy saving my child! And I’m succeeding!

Jordan’s PDD-NOS OSR Update

Jordan has been on OSR for one month now. OSR is an antioxident that is quite potent, but gentle as well, and is specific to chelating (pulling out of the body) heavy metals. It is fat soluable rather than water soluable (all other chelators are water soluable). This allows it to get INTO the cell AND cross the blood brain barrier to get metals out of the brain! The best part – it’s rates a zero on the toxicity scale. So, it’s very safe.

So my son who is ultra sensitive to everything…like put sunscreen on him one day and he’s in meltdown for 2 days, has been on OSR for 4 weeks. The last week got a bit bumpy and he started overreacting (aka meltdown) to things like big brother looking at him cross-eyed, so we took him off the OSR to give his body a break for a week or two before he goes back on it.

A recap of our first month on OSR.I didn’t notice any remarkable differences nothing changed from one day to the next. There was no WOW experience…until we got to the end of the month and I looked back. This month he progressed very quickly in his speech and cognition, and evened out in his behavior/emotional reactions significantly. So much so that I’m able to tell others that he’s a normal 2 1/2 year old now (excepting his diet, of course)!!! This month he arrived at his age appropriate level of speech and was “kicked out” of speech therapy!

One week the speech therapist was here and said he didn’t need to continue anymore, because he was basically age-appropriate except for 3 things that he should be added soon at this age, but that most kids struggle with a little more:  1) “I” to his vocabulary 2) something else, I forget what it was 3) colors (but that often they can take substantially longer before they are incorporated in vocabulary). His case manager was here the next week and mentioned the great news as well as the slight concern of the speech therapist and I was like, oh, ya, he’s has 2 of those 3 things now. He uses “I” regularly and appropriately, and whatever the other category of speech was he was all caught up on too. So, the only thing he doesn’t have yet is colors and I’m not worried about that, it’ll come when he’s good and ready…he doesn’t seem to care about colors just yet. It was fun to see those things added so quickly and so thoroughly! One week those things were lacking, the very next week they were so incorporated into his vocabulary I had forgotten they were new

As far as his behavior and meltdowns, we can pretty much go anywhere and do anything. It’s fun to be out of the house and visiting parks, playgrounds, stores, or the zoo. All things that were unthinkable until the last several months. And now he’s off and running, discovering, and investigating – and running back to tell me about it or drag me over to see it

He’s a normal 2 1/2 year old – with the exception of his diet, supplements, and supersonic hearing. He still has aways to go in his body being fully healed, but he’s getting there slowly but surely and the OSR is speeding him along that path!

Today was Day #2 off of OSR and WOW what a difference this morning. I had an appointment this morning and when I returned (this is important because he’s not much of a morning person, so he had time to wake up while I was out) he would not stop talking! He wanted to tell me about everything I had missed while I was away, ask me about everything – I had stopped at the store on the way home and he wanted to know what EVERYTHING was. A few months ago when the talking was so rare, I never thought I’d tire of his talking, and him being curious and desiring to learn is still a little bit new, and exhilarating. For the barest moment I started to bristle , all that nonstop talking – I was trying to put the groceries away and he was underfoot, pointing to things, asking me about everything, wanting to tell me about his morning, etc – anyway, the moment I started to bristle, I smiled and had the purest most wonderful joy. He was talking – nonstop (except for when patiently awaiting an answer to his question “What’s that?”)! Ten months ago he could not point to something he wanted much less say mama or dada. His only way to communicate was a scream and I had to figure out what it meant. Ten months, and here I am conversing with him – unbelievable. Miraculous. God’s incredible… 1) To choose to bless me this way, the gift of truly being able to know my son, sharing life with him and he with me  2) The healing He has brought to this little one’s brain and body. Yes, I started to bristle, then smiled, slowed down, and wonderfully soaked up the joy of conversing with my 2 year old and helping him learn about the curiosities of the world around him!

Jordan Graduated!

As of Thursday, Jordan has been kicked out of speech therapy…he has caught up to his age-appropriate level!!! Wahoo!!!