My Family's Journey With Autism -Part 6

 Part 1  Part 2   Part 3  Part 4   Part 5



My son was now 5 1/2.  We decided to buy ourselves another year, by enrolling him in 1/2 day  kindergarten at a private school and in the afternoon being part of the public schools pre-k program.  This was the best of both worlds in my opinion and turned out to be a great choice for him too.

Since we moved, we lost the wonderful facility where he was getting speech and occupational therapy.  But he was doing so well in both areas, we decided to take a break and see how he did without it.  We created a sensory room in our home, with a rock climbing wall, swing and many manipulatives they used at therapy, so I was confident we could do sensory therapy at home if needed.

His first day of school, I was a basket case.  I cried my eyes out.  I remember sitting in the car, thinking how far he has come.  I was so proud of him.   He made friends and he had a fun personality that even the older kids in the school knew who he was.  School work came easy for him, except for handwriting.  It was totally illegible .  One time when questioned, by the teacher, about what his paper said, he looked at her and said, "Can't you read Spanish?"  He has a funny, quirky personality that others really liked and won most of his teachers over with his silly remarks and loving ways.  

Even though, he was doing well, his attention span still suffered and he processed information slower then others.  So, he might get his pencil and paper out 5 mins after the teacher said to and was always falling behind in schoolwork  He also, didn't see the point of doing work that he already knew the answer to in his head.

Right after he turned 6, which is in the middle of the school year, if was time for another yearly evaluation.  This time the doctor said:

he does not technically meet criteria for Autism  or Asperger's (you can't technically be diagnosed with Asperger's with a history of language delay), so I would diagnosis him with PDD-NOS, though only very mildly affected.  I feel his difficulties, come from Attention Deficient Disorder. 

One of her suggestions, was medication. Now, I know many people achieve great results with medication, but I am not willing to jump on that bandwagon, just yet.  I believe their is a strong correlation, between what we put into our body and our behavior.  Since we had moved I had yet to find a holistic doctor in the area and when I researched, I was blessed to find a DAN, Defeat Autism Now, doctor down the street from my son's school.  We made an appointment and were relieved to hear this doctor did not want to run anymore tests.  His advice was, we left out some critical steps when treating him the first time the tests were run and that was completely healing the gut and chelation, the removal of heavy metals and toxins, through chelating agents.

Now, chelating, is a very controversial step in "healing"autism and I was scared to try it.  I had a close friend's son have a bad reaction to the same chelating agent that my son was going to use.  I do not advise doing this on your own, but only under an experienced doctors watch.  My son, however, had no ill side effects.

So the first step was to completely heal the gut.  My son was given many healing herbal supplements to take, as well as his continued use of probiotics, fish oils and supplements to support his neurotransmitters.  Though we had avoided artificial flavors, colors and additives, I still bought a majority of our food processed.  We  starting eating as much "real" food as possible, minimally processed  and as much organic as possible.  We saw amazing changes during this time period.

He had even more impressive gains in social and communication skills.  He desired to play sports and stayed focused during the game.  He went from wanting to watch TV or play video games all the time to knocking on the neighbors doors to organize a soccer game. He had more energy and focus at home and school.  His handwriting improved dramatically and he started to enjoy activities like coloring and drawing.   It was like a different kid at home and at school.  His teacher even asked if we put him on medication.

Now, we were at the next school year, the one we are presently in now.  We decided to put him in all day kindergarten at public school, even though academically he was ready for first grade.  We thought, he fit in better socially with the younger kids.    He enjoys school, his teachers are great and he has fairly good behavior.  He stills struggles with doing work, if he already knows the answers.    He is less impulsive and can focus on his school work with minimal redirection. 

We had seen such great improvements and now it was time for chelation therapy.  I was nervous for this,  but, we decided to continue anyway, after I  found out the doctor used this supplement on his own kids.  We started chelating in December of 2012 and took the supplement for 3 weeks.  I can honestly say, we had no ill side effects, but we also didn't see any major changes either. He was still the kid I described in the paragraphs above.  So, we actually just finished his second and final round of chelation.  He is currently only on fish oil, probiotics and a multivitamin.  I do give him digestive enzymes if we eat fast foods, or processed foods.  We continue to eat 80%  "real" foods.  Which means I prepare or make 80% of what we eat.  He does get birthday treats at school and eats the school lunch a couple times a week, but at home, things are pretty healthy and mostly homemade. He does not receive any speech or occupational therapy outside of what he gets a school, which is minimal. He is still little and remains in the 1% for height.

He turned 7 in January and it was time for his yearly evaluation, this time I found a group, through a friend, called the National Association of Childhood Development, they evaluate children and based on their strengths and weaknesses develop a program that is led by the parents to help them achieve there greatest potential.  Their educational director,  said my son was

"highly intelligent with auditory processing difficulties"

They sent us home with activities and a program we can do to help him make gains with his auditory processing.  She also said, he was probably very bored in school, because he was several grade levels ahead in math and reading and public school was not the best schooling option for him, homeschooling was.  So, for the last month and for the remainder of the year, I have been homeschooling him in the morning and he only attends half days at public school.  I am praying about what we are going to do next year, but I am leaning towards homeschooling, which is something I have always desired to do, but I'll save that story for another blog post. 

So, this is the end of our journey, thus far.  We still face struggles, but all parents do.    I feel hopeful in his progress and one day think, just like my other children, he will do great things. 

If you have a child on the spectrum I urge you to look at diet and removing as many toxins from their environment too.   It was very beneficial to us, as well as, sensory integration and speech therapy.  If you disagree with a doctor, get a second opinion but most of all, know that it is possible for their diagnosis to change as they get older.  Never give up hope or searching for answers!

 Thanks for reading our journey and for all your sweet comments you have blessed me with.  I honestly have felt God's presence with me this whole journey and the glory goes to Him, not me.   Below is one of my favorite songs that comforts me, with each hiccup we face in this journey called life.  I hope you enjoy it!   

Pin It