Thursday, May 21, 2009
Experiment
Since we will be starting a new path with Tyler in June we had decided to take him off the supplements/vitamins that the chiropractor had put him on so that his body would be in it's natural state at the beginning of the program. He hasn't taken his vitamins for about a week. Wednesday night he had a MAJOR meltdown. One that left me with my eyes wide open trying to figure out what happened. It happened again twice yesterday. These thing used to happen frequently but had disappeared in the last 6-7 months. I remember back in October telling the chiropractor that Tyler had started to have a meltdown but he was able to be reasoned with rather quickly. At the time I attributed it to the changes we had made but part of me always wondered if I was looking for things to be different. After the last couple of days I can say with certainty that something that we were doing was helping. After the second meltdown last night I had him take a B-6 and an Omega-3. We'll see how he does today...
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Success!
Once upon a time there was a little boy named Tyler. Tyler was a seemingly normal developing child. The only thing his mom noticed was that he had very sensitive hearing. When he was 3 he went to an air show where he coped with the very loud noise by going to sleep to shut it all out.
After that air show Tyler would run for cover anytime he heard an airplane. Since he lived next to a flight line you can imagine the challenge. He also couldn't stand firework shows and would block them out by closing his eyes and burying his face in his mom's shoulder. He wouldn't cover his ears...just his eyes.
When he was 5 his parents decided to skip the big show and instead do some little things at home. They did go to a festival in the afternoon where someone decided to shoot the canon. The family had to leave immediately due to Tyler's anxiety level. That evening his dad pulled out the ear protection for Tyler while the family enjoyed some small, but loud exploding things. Tyler loved it.
Now Tyler is 6. His mom, wanting to beat the public crowds, went to a nearby AFB on the DOD day for the USAF Thunderbird show. This time she went armed with ear protection. The first time Tyler covered his ears due to the noise she brought them out and Tyler immediately put them on.
After a while Tyler was having a great time! When it got really loud he did tend to put his hands up too, but this may have been more of a habit than anything else. He would also take off the headset when the planes were not flying.
At one point he was so involved at watching (with some cool binoculars from our friends) that he didn't even seem to notice the noise! This picture was taken while planes were flying and he was between two speakers that caused the announcer to be jumbled noise instead on intelligible words.
Most people loved the show that day. Tyler's mom was beaming with the progress that her son has made.
After that air show Tyler would run for cover anytime he heard an airplane. Since he lived next to a flight line you can imagine the challenge. He also couldn't stand firework shows and would block them out by closing his eyes and burying his face in his mom's shoulder. He wouldn't cover his ears...just his eyes. When he was 5 his parents decided to skip the big show and instead do some little things at home. They did go to a festival in the afternoon where someone decided to shoot the canon. The family had to leave immediately due to Tyler's anxiety level. That evening his dad pulled out the ear protection for Tyler while the family enjoyed some small, but loud exploding things. Tyler loved it.
Now Tyler is 6. His mom, wanting to beat the public crowds, went to a nearby AFB on the DOD day for the USAF Thunderbird show. This time she went armed with ear protection. The first time Tyler covered his ears due to the noise she brought them out and Tyler immediately put them on.
After a while Tyler was having a great time! When it got really loud he did tend to put his hands up too, but this may have been more of a habit than anything else. He would also take off the headset when the planes were not flying.
At one point he was so involved at watching (with some cool binoculars from our friends) that he didn't even seem to notice the noise! This picture was taken while planes were flying and he was between two speakers that caused the announcer to be jumbled noise instead on intelligible words.
Most people loved the show that day. Tyler's mom was beaming with the progress that her son has made.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
New Plan
Recently it seems like Tyler has plateaued in his development. He had been steadily moving forward, but lately it has stopped and even seemed to go backwards a bit. I've even seen a few extra SI things happening. Things that I never noticed before now. I've been wondering lately if chiropractic care has done all that's it's going to do for the moment. I've also been somewhat questioning myself in going to a chiropractor who is not used to working with kids like Tyler. Maybe we should have tried to find someone who specializes in this kind of thing. Our chiropractor is great, but I tend to think that he has not been sure how to proceed at times and is too busy to spend a great deal of time searching it out.
About a month ago I had the opportunity to hear Dianne Craft speak on The Struggling Learner. Dianne covers many different types of learners on many different sides of the learning scale. She focuses on the smart kids who have to work extra hard. She focuses quite a bit on nutrition, but also goes beyond the basics and looks into our body chemistry. She has found that nearly all the kids she sees have, at one point in their lives, had large amounts of antibiotics. (insert her disclaimer that antibiotics have saved many lives, but we need to be aware of what it can do to the gut) She has laid out a 3 month program that kills yeast overgrowth, replaces it with good bacteria, then adds in large amounts of fish oil to help the brain. I learned that 95% of serotonin is produced in the gut. Lack of serotonin makes it very difficult for children to concentrate and relax. Tyler has many of the physical symptoms of low fatty acids. Everything that Dianne made sense and seemed to tie everything together that I've been reading and hearing for the past 2 years.
Here's the thing. When the psychologist evaluated Tyler there were many things that came out that seemed to be more genetics than anything else. At least that's the way I saw it, but to her it just tied everything together. Here's what I believe. Tyler takes after his dad and his uncle (my brother) in many things. Very organized. Sensitive hearing. Prefers to play alone. Very detailed oriented. None of these strike me as anything except things that I've seen all of my life. However, I also believe that there is something else that plugging into these traits and making it look like autism. So, in theory, remove that something and we'll have a child that is a mix of two boys in one.
Maybe I'm just in denial. It's possible. Yet, I found a blog the other day that is entitled, "Hoping, not Coping". That's how I see it. Finding the answer.
I've also read a bit on the Gluten Free/Casein Free diet and how that has helped many children. I have one friend that saw dramatic improvements in her son after putting him on this diet. I have another friend that saw the diet help one of her children and not do a thing for the other. I have hesitated about GF/CF because it overwhelms me. I had heard that it is best to only start one at a time that way you know which one is helping.
Having said all of this is the background for the next three months of our lives. We will be placing Tyler on a casein free diet in conjunction with following Dianne Craft's plan to rid his body of excess yeast while adding in fatty acid. After three months of that we'll evaluate on whether or not we want to add gluten free into his life. It takes the body 6 weeks to rid itself of casein but 6 months to rid itself of gluten. Taking out gluten seems like such a daunting task that I'm glad to have a few months to get ready for it!
Maybe it will help. Maybe it won't. But in the meantime I don't think that we'll be losing anything. If nothing else we'll have more answers and know what didn't work. Hopefully we'll see improvement and know what did work.
About a month ago I had the opportunity to hear Dianne Craft speak on The Struggling Learner. Dianne covers many different types of learners on many different sides of the learning scale. She focuses on the smart kids who have to work extra hard. She focuses quite a bit on nutrition, but also goes beyond the basics and looks into our body chemistry. She has found that nearly all the kids she sees have, at one point in their lives, had large amounts of antibiotics. (insert her disclaimer that antibiotics have saved many lives, but we need to be aware of what it can do to the gut) She has laid out a 3 month program that kills yeast overgrowth, replaces it with good bacteria, then adds in large amounts of fish oil to help the brain. I learned that 95% of serotonin is produced in the gut. Lack of serotonin makes it very difficult for children to concentrate and relax. Tyler has many of the physical symptoms of low fatty acids. Everything that Dianne made sense and seemed to tie everything together that I've been reading and hearing for the past 2 years.
Here's the thing. When the psychologist evaluated Tyler there were many things that came out that seemed to be more genetics than anything else. At least that's the way I saw it, but to her it just tied everything together. Here's what I believe. Tyler takes after his dad and his uncle (my brother) in many things. Very organized. Sensitive hearing. Prefers to play alone. Very detailed oriented. None of these strike me as anything except things that I've seen all of my life. However, I also believe that there is something else that plugging into these traits and making it look like autism. So, in theory, remove that something and we'll have a child that is a mix of two boys in one.
Maybe I'm just in denial. It's possible. Yet, I found a blog the other day that is entitled, "Hoping, not Coping". That's how I see it. Finding the answer.
I've also read a bit on the Gluten Free/Casein Free diet and how that has helped many children. I have one friend that saw dramatic improvements in her son after putting him on this diet. I have another friend that saw the diet help one of her children and not do a thing for the other. I have hesitated about GF/CF because it overwhelms me. I had heard that it is best to only start one at a time that way you know which one is helping.
Having said all of this is the background for the next three months of our lives. We will be placing Tyler on a casein free diet in conjunction with following Dianne Craft's plan to rid his body of excess yeast while adding in fatty acid. After three months of that we'll evaluate on whether or not we want to add gluten free into his life. It takes the body 6 weeks to rid itself of casein but 6 months to rid itself of gluten. Taking out gluten seems like such a daunting task that I'm glad to have a few months to get ready for it!
Maybe it will help. Maybe it won't. But in the meantime I don't think that we'll be losing anything. If nothing else we'll have more answers and know what didn't work. Hopefully we'll see improvement and know what did work.
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