Through Good Times and Bad Times

Recently I've posted quite a few positive things about Tyler. Currently I'm being reminded that we still have a long way to go. While his speech and other things seem to be progressing faster than they were before, there are still a few other areas that haven't seem to changed at all. For example, just now he got very upset that the buckets that were purchased for the beach were being used outside. They are for the sand. Not dirt. No matter what I said could convince him that it was OK. I finally sent him to his room to calm down. It's the type of being upset that, to most people, would sound like the child just needs some more sleep. Or something. It's as though he is incapable of getting a grip. Like the world is overwhelming. Anytime I've felt like this it usually means that I need to start taking my supplements again to get everything to even out. I just don't know how to help him sometimes....

Week 6

I think that I mentioned before that in years past, Tyler would NOT watch the fireworks and he would block everything out by closing his eyes and burying his face in my shoulder. The last show we went to included us having to leave as quickly as possible and Tyler was very nervous about everything else that night.

All this past week Tyler was very excited about going to the fireworks show. We got to the field around 7:00 so we had to wait for about 2 1/2 hours for the show to start. Even though we knew what time it was the show still started without warning, so it did surprise Tyler a bit at first. This is a picture of Tyler at the beginning of the show:

After a few minutes we pulled out the ear protection and he watched for a while that way. During one of the slower moments his daddy convinced him to pull of the ear protection since it wasn't that loud. Here is a picture of how Tyler enjoyed at least half of the show:

After a bit Ryan told Tyler that the finale was coming up and that he could put the ear protection on if he wanted to. He did and he enjoyed every minute of it! When it was over he said, "I LOVE fireworks!" Meanwhile, I think I cried through half of the show!

This week Tyler adds high amounts of fish oil to his daily vitamin intake. The last time that he was taking fish oil we could see several changed in him, but this is in a much high dose so I'm optomistic.

The other thing that is happening this week is it ends our 6 week trial of being dairy free. However, Tyler will be in VBS all next week so I think I'll wait until that is over to put some dairy back in so I'll be able to monitor him better for changes.

1 in 100

Recently, I read an article that estimates the autism rate in the US as 1 in 100. As always, this number is debated as it is different than the number the CDC has published. However, this got me thinking.

1 in 100. Wow. Does that seem high to anyone else? Why have the numbers grown so much? I have a few theories of my own, but nothing that I can prove. My theories include things like:

• The qualifications for autism have widened so that they include children that would not have previously been included.
• More people having their children "officially" diagnosed in order to benefit from the outpouring of programs available
• Vaccine link
• Food link
• Environmental link

I won't go into each of these to explain my theory on them. I think that you may not find it interesting at all, or would just write me off as crazy. That's ok. I can handle it :-)

After I was thinking about 1 in 100 for a while something else struck me as odd. 1 in 100? Is that all? What I mean is this: I can name 10 children right off the top of my head that have some form of autism. These children belong to friends of mine. I did not meet them in some type of autism support group. These are just children that have crossed my path over the natural course of 7 years time. The 10 children that I can name doesn't even count all the children that I worked with in high school when I was in day cares and school age child care programs. However, I don't think that I would venture to say that I know 1000 children, even if I counted all of the child care kids. Not that I'm going to sit here and count them, but I'm pretty sure that I would fall short of 1000.

What do you think? Is 1 in 100 high or low?

Out of Sync?

Tonight I picked up The Out-of-Sync Child and The Out-of-Sync Child has Fun from our local library. I was pretty proud of myself because I actually thought to get them from the library instead of buying them off of Amazon! Someone recommended these books to me a while back and they've been on my wish list ever since.

I started scanning through the books tonight and I must admit that I'm mixed between baffled and frustrated. This just doesn't seem like Tyler. Maybe he just has a few sensory integration (SI) things going on. He is simply not the typical SI child. Then again, maybe there isn't a "typical" non-typical child? I would really love to get The Mislabeled Child, but our county libraries don't carry that one. I just figured out how to request a book from other libraries in the state, so we'll see how long it takes to get it in!

In the good news I did the yeast test with Tyler and it came out good! I'm going to keep testing him for the next couple of days, but for now it looks like I don't have to worry about the low carb/low sugar diet. This is a big relief on one hand, but it also means that the checklist for yeast overgrowth probably doesn't apply to him. So I suppose that it means one more thing that we know it isn't.....on to the next!

Week 5

Nothing huge to report this week. Tyler remains very dilligent to talk about what things have milk and what he can and can't have. Last week we also had son #2 tested for Celiacs disease. While I hope that it comes back negative I have no idea how to explain some of his physical differences otherwise.

This week add 100mg of B complex in with everything else. Many parents have reported great improvements with their children when they are on high doses of B vitamins. One reason why this could be true is because B vitamins help build the serotonin in the brain.

My mom found an old home movie this past week. As she was watching she was very surprised to see that one of my brothers (a different one than I usually think of in regards to Tyler) had very similar mannerisms to Tyler. I'm anxious to see it now but unfortunately it's on an old tape so we're not quite sure how to get if off to preserve it before the tape self-destructs even more.

I'm anxious to see how everything goes this weekend with the fireworks show! In years past Tyler couldn't handle the noise so he hid his face to block it all out. I'm going to have the ear protection with us but I'm really hoping that I don't have to pull it out. Hopefully I'll remember to get some pictures to show you all how it goes!

Dining Out

Today is DH's birthday so we celebrated by experiencing our first dining out experience with food challenges! We went to Longhorn Steakhouse, which has a gluten free menu, but other than that did not list any other allergens.

I let the waiter know right off the bat that we would be difficult people when he brought the bread and I asked if it had milk in it. He was very nice and even brought me the label off the box so that I could be sure. He also checked with the manager about the chicken tenders (they had breaded and grilled on the kids menu). Tyler ended up with a hamburger without a bun (he wasn't sure and couldn't find out) and fries. The meal also came with a couple slices of an orange. When Tyler saw that he immediately asked, "Does orange have milk in it?" I smiled and told him no. I heard the waiter chuckle a bit, so I don't think he was too put out by all the extra work we were putting through. We did give him a bit extra on tip since he really was quite helpful :-) Overall, I was glad that we were at a place like Longhorn Steakhouse instead of Applebees since I didn't think that those servers would have as much time or patience to answer all of my questions!

After that we came home and had a cookie cake and ice cream!

Week 4

There have DEFINITELY been changes in Tyler. His conversations have improved by leaps and bounds, although I know that we are still just getting a tip of the ice burg. Tonight he said something that made me want to a) Leap for joy, b) Laugh at him (it was funny!), c) Cry, d) All of the above.

This week we'll add Mineral Rich by Maximum Living. I've been anticipating this one since this one tends to help with several different SI behaviors. Dianne Craft says, "Mineral Rich helps tremendously for children with 'SI' symptoms, Sensory Processing problems (loud noises bother them, transitions are hard, picky eater, tags bother them, chewing on clothes, socks have to be just right, etc)." This supplement is high in magnesium, which is nature's tranquilizer. It should also help with his constipation problem.

I'm also encouraged that he is understanding that he can't have milk. Tonight we were talking about my husband's upcoming birthday. Tyler asked if ice cream has milk in it! I told him that this was a very good question, and that while most ice cream does have milk, I had bought some ice cream with no milk just for him. We then went on to have a conversation (two-sided conversation!!!) about what to do if someone offers him food and what he needs to say to be sure that it's OK to eat! This time last year this type of conversation would NOT have been happening. I might have tried to tell him such things, but it would have been far from a two-sided conversation.