Developmental Pediatrician

Today we had Tyler undergo an evaluation with a Developmental Pediatrician. This was the appointment that we wanted initially, but ended up with a Pediatric Psychologist instead. Both Ryan and I were very amazed at how much time this doctor spent with Tyler vs. the psychologist. The psychologist asked Tyler all of one question, but spent the other hour and a half talking to us. Don't get me wrong. Asking the parents about the history of the child can be very important. But without interacting with the child you can miss a lot.

Basically the Developmental Pediatrician agreed that, while there might be a slight bit of A-Typical behaviors with Tyler (i.e. scripting movies), that overall we are dealing with a speech and language piece of the puzzle. This was encouraging to hear because it validated what I had determined myself. She didn't have any real suggestions for continued care; just keep doing what we're doing. I'm not sure what we'll do when Ryan separates from the AF since I'm pretty sure that not all insurance companies will pay for speech therapy. Right now my goal is to see what his teacher is doing and work to copy that at home.

That's all for now since I'm really tired and would like to go to sleep. Is it bedtime yet?

DSM-IV

In preparation for Tyler's evaluation with a developmental pediatrician I looked up the all-knowing, always confusing, ever elusive DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders version 4). This is what caught us off-guard the most at his appointment with the pediatric psychologist and probably frustrated us the most. The psychologist didn't interact with Tyler at all but instead asked us some questions and went through a diagnostic check-list in the DSM-IV. On the way home I rethought some of my answers and wondered if I had answered correctly. I had no way of knowing....until now. I found the DSM-IV online!

After looking over the checklist I came up with 3 things that fit Tyler. You need at least 6 (out of 12) to qualify for any form of PDD. So now I am even more anxious for this second opinion!

Anyone There???

It's been 3 months since my last update on Tyler. We have kept him on milk and finished the supplement program. For a while everything seemed good. His ST came back from maternity leave and was encouraged by his progress. Then, about mid-September he started to regress. More random statements. More SI behaviors. More things that I can't explain. I was discouraged, to say the least.

We discussed this with his ST and she said that she has seen at least 2-3 kids in her care get a lot of benefits from going gluten free. She also said that if we change anything to be sure that we DON'T tell her.

Last week I emailed Dianne Craft to see if she had any suggestions. She recommended putting him back on the program along with doing a six week trial gluten free diet. I had already considered this so....here we go. We have a lot of family coming in town for the next 3 weeks, so during that time he'll be taking vitamins and be back to casein free. After that he'll go gluten free.

Week 9

We are holding steady with the vitamins and supplements. We also have added milk back into Tyler diet this past week. This is where I'm confused.

I can't say that I've seen any concentration differences with Tyler this last week. However, I have been thinking about trying dairy free again in a few months when I am working with him every day doing school work. Perhaps even have Ryan sneak him some milk after 6 weeks so I don't know to be looking for it. Where the confusion comes in is with any physical symptoms. Many children on GFCF diets have a physical reaction to dairy. So if they get some they'll complain that their stomach hurts. In trying to find out if Tyler was having any of these things going on this week I asked him if his stomach hurt. He said no.

However, a couple of times over the last few days he has said that something with milk hurts his stomach. Just now he didn't want to eat his BBQ Beef sandwich (which he usually likes) because he said the cheese hurt his tummy. Now, I'm not entirely convinced that this is not the power of suggestion, so I am trying to figure out how seriously to take him. Any thoughts? He wanted a cookie after lunch but when we told him that they had milk in them (I used real butter this time) he opted not to have cookie. He started eating his cheese so he could get his cookie then decided that he would rather not have a cookie at all.

Week 8

Today marks the final week of adding something new into Tyler's diet. This week we are adding Pycnogenol into his daily vitamins. Specifically, Maritime Plus. The goal of this product is to increase focus and concentation. Tyler has been doing OK in this area, but then again I haven't been doing school with him lately to see if he's been any better lately. His problem is that, since he can't process everything you're saying, he tends to tune you out. It takes a great deal of concentration on his part just to focus and process what you're telling him. After the end of this week we just keep giving him everything that he has been taking for another month.

This past week was Bible School, and the report from his teacher is that he did great! I was with a younger class so I only observed him during the group singing time. He really love the songs and all of the motions that went with them.

Last night and today I have added some regular milk back into his diet. The only thing that I've seen so far that might be connected is that he was in a bad mood at church today. His bad moods are difficult to deal with, and overall he hasn't had as many lately. But that could be a coincidence and more directly tied to the fact that we changed the routine slightly. He has a notebook that he takes to church and he is allowed to draw pictures in it (usually of pirates). Last week we let him draw pictures for a while, then we gave him a piece of paper with the words "God" and "Jesus" written on it. Actually, I held the paper and it was his job to tell me if the pastor said either of those words. He did pretty well last week. We tried again this week, but we started with that instead of letting him draw first. He was OK at first, but unfortunately "God" and "Jesus" were not two key words for today's sermon so he lost interest after a while and wanted to draw. When I insisted that he pay attention he got frustrated with me and was in a bad mood for about the next hour. Next week I'll be sure to ask the pastor ahead of time for words that will keep him busy making tally marks.

Here's a picture of him during the VBS closing program (he's in the lime green shirt)

Week 7

This week we're adding in lecithin to Tyler's diet for the purpose of calming the nervous system. After this we only have 1 week left of adding things, then we will hold steady for another month with everything that he has. After this week I do plan on adding some milk back in to see what happens.

From Dianne Craft's website on lecithin:

There is another important fatty acid, lecithin, that helps the body digest and utilize the fats and oils that are so important to efficient brain and nerve function. Perhaps the greatest recent discovery is the use of lecithin to activate a sluggish mind, and improve memory. It accomplishes this by providing the body with the ingredients necessary to produce the vital neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. This is the neurotransmitter that is responsible for memory storage and retrieval, and the effectiveness of nerve signals in many areas of the brain.

One of the most exciting areas in which I have seen lecithin make noticeable differences is in the improvement of auditory processing function in children. I have received many reports from speech pathologists and parents telling of greatly improved auditory processing (hearing and remembering) in children who take this natural soybean product. My experience is that when lecithin is taken alone, it is very helpful, but when taken along with the essential fatty acids (fish oil, flaxseed oil, evening primrose oil) and Vitamin E, it produces marked results. Because of its fat emulsifying properties it helps the child's body digest the extra oils, thereby making use of them properly. Many children who have suffered with numerous ear infections benefit from the regular use of lecithin. The "cilia of the ear," (the tiny hair-like parts of the ear) are frequently damaged when many ear infections have occurred. It is known that the highest concentration of Vitamin A in the whole body is in the "cilia" of the ear. Lecithin increases the body's absorption of this vital Vitamin A dramatically. Thus it is very healing to the areas in the ear structure and brain that affect efficient auditory processing function. In the MIT study referred to earlier, in testing adult subjects in learning and memory tasks, it was found that the subjects taking lecithin daily showed "improvement of thinking and intelligence." Since we know that the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for auditory storage, and we often refer to it as the "thinking hemisphere," we can see how any substance that improves auditory processing would also affect the thinking ability of the brain. The MIT study also referred to substantial improvement in the area of speech. Again, this is mainly a left-brain function. This is a very exciting application of research, since auditory processing problems are historically difficult and lengthy to treat. Dr. Levinson, a neurologist from New York, in his book Total Concentration, states that he frequently uses lecithin to help both attention and learning in his young patients.

She also has some information about lecithin and how it relates to hyperactivity. You can read the whole article here.

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....