Wow what a difference two weeks can make. The last two weeks have been crazy. All of my babies birthdays hit about a month apart so we end up having one big birthday bash. It was suppose to be a small get together at grandpa's pool, but of coarse the crafty part in me always takes over and I end up over doing it.
Before the chaos of the party I took Buddah off dairy. Thru my research on the internet I found that lots of parents see a significant difference in their autistic children when they remove gluten and casein from their diets. Alex was born with a wheat allergy that was diagnosed when he was about 18 months old so he had already been off of gluten (commonly found in wheat products) for over a year. At first I thought what could removing dairy really do, and then I thought well why not try it and see. The statistics show that 90% of autistic children that go on this "Autism diet" show a significant improvement and some have even been cured from it. So we put him on soy based products and slowly started to remove the things he loves like milk, cheese and yogurt.
Only a day later we noticed a slight difference in him, he started holding his dads hand and following him around. Something he never really did before. Everyday he seems to break out of this shell he was in. He even said his version of hi (hhhhhhh) to a complete stranger on his 3rd day off dairy products. Everyday his babbling is increasing. Today I called Tim who was hanging at home with the kids and heard babbling in the background. When he told me it was Alex, I smiled, it something so simple but I know it's progress.
So two weeks later we have a little boy who seeks out our attention and is including us in his world. He's up to about 5 new words in his constant vocabulary, and today he even played chase with his big sister.
He's this new little person we are getting to know and he's even sweeter than I could have ever imagined. Tonight at bed he gave me about 20 kisses and hugs. I just can't wait till the day he looks at me and can say "I Love You Momma"
It just shows the power of the intranet, I was telling Tim last night that every thing I have learned has been from the internet on my lunch beak. Our next two therapies will include preschool through the school district, he gets to start school early on his 3rd birthday because of his autism diagnosis. I'm really nervous but know that they've got the skills and know how to help him much more than I ever can. We're also trying Spirit Horse Therapy, from my understanding they include pony's and horseback riding into the therapies, kinda like a reward system and also as a sensory tool.
YAY! It's great to see progress and I just had to share it!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
the mind set of kids
This weekend I decided to have the talk with my older two girls about Alex's new diagnosis and it caught me by surprise at how receptive and inquisitive Arianna was. I think Angelina was a bit to young to understand exactly what I was telling her, so she just kinda looked at me with lost eyes and said okay and walked off.
Per my research it recommended getting your entire family no matter how young, as informed and as active as you could in the therapy. So I sat the girls down and let them know why we have been taking Alex to lots of appointments to see Dr.'s and why he has therapist over almost everyday.
At first I told them that he was sick and needed our help on certain things and that he had been diagnosed with something called Autism. Arianna asked me what it was so I tried to explain it to her the best I could at a 7 year old level. I let her know that his brain just works a little different from ours and that he would need our help on learning lots of things that seemed normal to us. She asked me a little about his therapies and what he learns from them and told me to tell her anything she could do to help him.
I then asked them that even though he's a little different then most of the 3 year olds we know that he was very special and I asked them what they loved about him that was so different from other kids.
Arianna thought about it for a minute and said "I love how sweet he is to us, he never hits us, never snatches things from us, never tattles on us, and he's never really mean to us". She had noticed one of the best attributes of autistic children. Most of the sibling rivalry we've endured or participated in is a social behavior that is instinctive. Autistic children don't necessarily have alot of the social skills most of us are born with. Most of the time it's a skill they must learn and practice and hopefully one day make it a habit. The girls have been at each other from the day they could both talk. Sure they love each other but siblings just fight, it's natural. But Alex as of now, will never do those things. He only knows that when he smiles at us or hugs us it makes us smile. What little girl doesn't love hugs and cuddling. It's also one less ongoing match we won't have to referee. :-)
I just thought it was sweet that a 7 year old could pick up on something so simple and true.
Per my research it recommended getting your entire family no matter how young, as informed and as active as you could in the therapy. So I sat the girls down and let them know why we have been taking Alex to lots of appointments to see Dr.'s and why he has therapist over almost everyday.
At first I told them that he was sick and needed our help on certain things and that he had been diagnosed with something called Autism. Arianna asked me what it was so I tried to explain it to her the best I could at a 7 year old level. I let her know that his brain just works a little different from ours and that he would need our help on learning lots of things that seemed normal to us. She asked me a little about his therapies and what he learns from them and told me to tell her anything she could do to help him.
I then asked them that even though he's a little different then most of the 3 year olds we know that he was very special and I asked them what they loved about him that was so different from other kids.
Arianna thought about it for a minute and said "I love how sweet he is to us, he never hits us, never snatches things from us, never tattles on us, and he's never really mean to us". She had noticed one of the best attributes of autistic children. Most of the sibling rivalry we've endured or participated in is a social behavior that is instinctive. Autistic children don't necessarily have alot of the social skills most of us are born with. Most of the time it's a skill they must learn and practice and hopefully one day make it a habit. The girls have been at each other from the day they could both talk. Sure they love each other but siblings just fight, it's natural. But Alex as of now, will never do those things. He only knows that when he smiles at us or hugs us it makes us smile. What little girl doesn't love hugs and cuddling. It's also one less ongoing match we won't have to referee. :-)
I just thought it was sweet that a 7 year old could pick up on something so simple and true.
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