Day 1 and 2 of SCD

For those of you not familiar with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) it can get kind of complicated and I would bore you with all of the details. (If you are interested I have links under Great Links that are informative resources. ) My family started the SCD in hopes of fully recovering Haiden from PDD-NOS and helping out daughter with her yeast issues. It has been a very long two days! Day 1 wasn't too bad, I was just starving and the kids were sick of eating the same thing all day. Haiden has a good understanding of what and why we are doing this but Ella thinks we are just depriving her of all her favorite foods. Today, well, today was an incredibly rough day. Haiden woke up with an upset belly and wouldn't eat. Ella woke up very emotional and refused to eat. By lunch time, Haiden was doing much better and ate a hamburger but Ella refused to eat until dinner time. Most of the day was spent with the kids laying around the house and Ella crying. They both felt warm but I never took their temperature. I felt very fatigued so I know they didn't feel good. Tomorrow we will be able to add some more foods and hopefully things will get better. Some family and friends may think I'm crazy for doing such drastic things but I have a child recovering from autism and I will doing anything (safe of course) to help him out of this! As for Ella, she has obvious yeast issues that are impeding her physical and emotional well being and if I can make her better, I will!

Crazy Christmas

We spent Christmas this year in good ole Tell City! Although it was exhausting, I loved seeing all of my family and friends! There were several meltdowns from Ella and a few "autistic" moments from Haiden but all in all we had a fabulous time. Haiden did very well not speaking his mind when opening a gift. He showed appreciation for everything and tried not to compare the number of gifts he got with other family members. We are so blessed to have such an amazing family!

My mom and Mason. She was an enormous help and we couldn't of made it through the holidays without her! I love you Mom!

Christmas at my Dad's house.

Christmas at Brian's parents. The picture sums it all up! That is my niece and nephew, Amaya and Levi.Christmas at my mom's house. My mom, grandma (Granny), and grandpa (Gramps).

My step-brother got my little brother a tool belt with baby gear since he is going to be a daddy in May. I thought this was such a neat idea.

My brother and his girlfriend, Chelsea, let me take some pictures of them. Thanks guys!

By the way, my brother had his tonsils taken out last week!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Good News

Good News! We have our Haiden back! I have stopped the B-12 shots and all supplements, he also had a session of craniosacral therapy today. I'm going with my instinct on this one. After Christmas we will be starting the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in hopes to heal our guts and strengthen our immune systems.

On a side note, my fabulous husband gave me an early Christmas present, a new Nikon camera! (Actually it was suppose to be a surprise but I ruined it.) Anyways, I've decided to pursue my interest in photography and attempt to turn it into a small side job! (I know Mom...you are probably thinking I am crazy.) I have a lot to learn but I am having so much fun taking a bunch of pictures of the kidos while I practice trying to get different shots. I've posted a few pics below. Please let me know what you think. I love comments! Also, if you want to be my guinea pig we can set up a time and you can get a bunch of free pictures!

Set Back

Last Friday we started Haiden on a new B-12 shot. On his previous B-12 shot he started acting, well, kind of weird. So Friday night while he was sleeping I gave him his new B-12 shot in hopes of helping his cognition and language skills. Since then Haiden has made drastic changes and they haven't been good changes. He started acting (there's not a nice way to say it) weird. At school on Monday he had his first negative note sent home since the beginning of the school year. At home he started becoming defiant and acting loony. He had dark circles under his eyes, pale skin, and bright red ears. On Monday night I still hadn't made a connection and after he went to sleep he got his second B-12 shot. Again on Tuesday he had another rough day at school and home. I started to think that there could be a connection between his B-12 shot and the change in behavior and appearance. Well today he comes home from school with another negative note. He was disrespectful, refused to do tasks, kept chewing on his shoe laces, and spinning on his head. Now if you know Haiden, you know that is not our child. He is a very respectful and compliant child. He has his quirks but chewing on things and spinning aren't his quirks. I called our DAN doctor, Mary Lou Hulseman, and they said the B-12 shots could definitely be causing the odd behavior! So I've stopped the shots and now I'm hoping to get back on track! Oh the trials and tribulations of autism recovery.

Fine Motor and Creativity

I've mentioned in a previous post that Haiden has really improved with his fine motor and creativity skills. Before Kindergarten he hated to color and would just scribble the entire paper with one color. Now he loves to color! Mrs. West has done a wonderful job teaching Haiden how to color, this is something I took for granted. I never thought he would needed to be taught how to color a picture but for kidos on the spectrum this is very true. The picture of Mickey Mouse on the top is a picture he colored in the Spring of 2009. The picture of the skateboard he colored a few weeks ago.

DAN Doctor Visit

We had an appointment with Haiden's DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor, Mary Lou Hulseman. I love our appointments with her because she makes me feel so good about everything we are doing. Helping Haiden recover from autism has been a rough journey especially when the majority of the medical community doesn't agree with our approach. It is so nice to go to a doctor who supports us 100% and validates my beliefs. I could spend hours talking to Dr. Hulseman about vaccines, environmental toxins, and how the CDC is so corrupt. Like I've said before, she is the only doctor I currently trust and everything she has recommended has helped Haiden.

Before each visit we have to complete a ATEC (Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist). Before we started the biomedical treatment Haiden's score was a 61. (The higher the score, the more "impaired" the individual.) Last May, after doing biomedical treatment for one year, Haiden scored a 24! Last week, Haiden's ATEC score was a 13! THIRTEEN! I wanted to jump up and down, scream, run around, celebrate! People this stuff is real! It is possible to recover and/or improve your child's physical and emotional health! This should be on the NBC nightly new, 20/20, and 60 minutes! Unfortunately it is still controversial and the majority of the public believe and trust their doctors who tell them that Autism Recover is a bunch of bull. In fact, our former GI doctor at Riley told us just that! I am so glad I trusted my instinct instead of him!

So our next steps for Haiden are to

1. start a supplement called cytozyme to help his adrenal fatigue

2. try a different type of B12 shot

3. Begin the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet)

4. check vitamin A and D, cysteine, sulfate and packed red cell test, urine OAT

5. treat lead toxicity

6. add proEFA for motor planning

We continue down our road to recovery!

Of course I couldn't add a post without pictures of my little angels.

Off Topic but Embarrassing

With the holidays approaching I decided it was time to have a toy clean out. I explained to the kids (only Haiden really understood) that we were going to give away some of our toys to kids who don't have toys. Haiden decided he wanted to keep his toys and didn't think he needed to give any toys away. After much coaxing and encouragement, Haiden agreed that giving to those less fortunate is a very thoughtful thing to do. So I brought all the toys downstairs into the playroom to organize and decide what to keep and what to give away then....I wanted to crawl under a rock and cry!

Not only did I feel overwhelmed by the mess but I felt embarrassed. Do my kids really need this much stuff? Having three kids means having three different age ranges of toys but that is still no excuse for all of their stuff. So I went to work and 2 hours later we had 7 trash bags full of toys to give away.

Disclaimer to Parents and Grandparents: I am so sorry if you see toys that you have bought!

And the end result! You can see the floor again!

An Eventful Week

It was another eventful week in the McKinney house with speech therapy, library class, Mom to Mom group, Family Day at Haiden's school, and the IU football game. By the way, have I mentioned how much I love my Mom to Mom group? It is so uplifting to be surrounded by christian women who share a lot of the same values and support!

We received Ella's three month progress report for speech from her speech therapist. It stated, "When I met Ella she had many vocalizations but a very limited number of meaningful verbalization's. She was using 6-8 words that were intelligible and a few other words that were unintelligible if you did not know the context. On 11/9/09 Ella was verbally saying 98-100 words spontaneously. Ella is always attentive, pleasant, and willing to participate during the sessions. She has great eye contact and uses a lot of facial expressions. Ella has made wonderful progress in expanding her vocabulary base." You don't get those kinds of results with just speech therapy!

Haiden had Family Day at his school last week and I forgot my camera! They made these cute Indian hats and sang several songs to the parents. Everything was going so well until we did the family project. For the project we had to make a turkey out of an apple, toothpicks, and marshmallows. Ella was absolutely devastated that she couldn't eat the marshmallows so she made quit the scene. Haiden did so well and I was so proud of him! Keep it up bubby, you are going to beat this!!! I just know it!
Haiden let Ella have the turkey we made. As you can see she is very proud!

Mason laying on the floor playing with his toes. This is how he always starts out.

And this is how he usually ends up! He continues to melt mommy's heart.

We took all the kids tailgating for the IU/Purdue football game! I took Ella and Mason home around game time and Brian took Haiden to the game. Thank you to our friends Steve and Stacie Haak for bringing Brian and Haiden home! A side note: Lesson #258 in parenting- not a good idea to take a 5, 2, and 5 month old tailgating. You live and learn I guess. They had a blast but Brian and I were beyond exhausted!

Tailgating before the IU/Purdue game. Rosser, Brian, Ely, and Steve.

Haiden played football for about 2 hours straight while at the tailgate! Thank you Drew for playing football with Haiden, he loved it. Our friends Tony and Sarah Pappano have a 4 year old son, Anthony, that also played football with Haiden. They had a blast!

Daddy's little boy!

A Great Read

I wanted to share this post by a mom whose blog I follow called Yesterday I Hated Autism. Very motivating!
http://alterna-mom.blogspot.com/2009/10/yesterday-i-hated-autism.html

Conference and My Favorite Things

I had Haiden's parent/teacher conference and I couldn't of imagined it going any better! So I have to brag. Academically, Haiden has mastered all Kindergarten skills and is doing 1st and 2nd grade Language Arts and Math. Socially, his teacher said he has made tremendous gains. When he is in a tough situation he uses all the skills that have been taught to him. I am so proud of Haiden and so thankful for the wonderful staff at White Lick Elementary!

So my mom bought me a wonderful book called The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook and I love it! The book explains why these kids can't have certain foods and what happens to their bodies when they do. It also has over 100 recipes that are coded so I know right away if it has a forbidden food in it. I made some pumpkin bread and pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins that were gluten/casein/egg/soy free. I have to say they were delicious! While I was making the bread and muffins I was looking at all the substitutes and thinking how some of these things have become my favorite ingredients. If I didn't have these substitute items then my kidos wouldn't be able to have as much "normal" food. It also helps in social situations. For example, the Sabelhauses invited us over for dinner and I wanted to bring an ice cream cake for Brian's birthday. Since Haiden and Ella can't have ice cream cake, I brought their muffins. When it was time for cake they ate their muffins with no fuss. Little things like that are so nice!

Brian was not too thrilled that I wanted him to blow out candles on his ice cream cake! Happy big 3-0 babe!

Here are the gluten/casein/egg/soy free pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins made with rice flour, potatoe flour, tapioca starch, GFCF chocolate chips, pumpkin puree, sugar, egg replacer, and rice milk

Some of my favorite substitute ingredients. Rice milk, gluten/casein free bread crumbs, egg replacer, DeBoles rice noodles, casein free rice cheese, coconut milk yogurt.

Our DAN Doctor Visit

Last Spring I asked our DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor, Dr. Mary Lou Hulseman, if she would be willing to see Ella. Even though Ella isn't autistic, she has had many delays and throws insane tantrums and well on her way to an ADHD diagnoses. Dr. Hulseman agreed and we were able to sit down with her and start a plan of action for our little princess last week. Dr. Hulseman cringed when she reviewed Ella's first year of life and all of her illnesses. She thought it was interesting that Ella's most serious illnesses occurred a few days after a vaccination. I think all of our family remember the Christmas Eve in the ER, that was 4 days after receiving a vaccination. If we would of continued the recommended vaccination schedule, Ella would be long gone. Dr. Hulseman is the only doctor in this entire world that I currently trust so her opinion and plan of action is very important to me.
Now some people may think that I need to stop blaming the vaccines and realize it could be a genetic issue. Well to those people you are right and wrong. After a ton of research and conformation from Dr. Hulseman, here is what has happened to Haiden and Ella. I do not have a strong immune system, poor gut flora, and yeast overgrowth therefore I didn't pass on good gut flora and too much yeast to my children which then results in a weakened immune system. (About 85% of our immune system is in our gut.) So then Haiden and Ella received the Hep B vaccine when they were less than 24 hours old. Their little bodies were unable to get rid of the toxins from the vaccine due to a weak immune system so they started getting very sick. They continued to get sick, vaccinated, and put on antibiotics. The antibiotics ripped any good gut flora out and their bodies couldn't fight off the yeast overgrowth. The yeast overgrowth results in a leaky gut. Once you have a leaky gut all kinds of scary things can happen with attention, mood, and the ability to communicate. This is the vicious cycle that is happening to our babies and we are losing them to autism, ADHD, OCD, and ODD.
So with Mason, we aren't vaccinating him (until he is 14 when the immune system is fully developed) and we are starting him on a probiotic. He is our only healthy baby and our only baby to meet milestones on time!
Now back to our plan of action with Ella. Dr. Hulseman wants blood, stool, and urine test to confirm some things but she believes Ella definitely has an overgrowth of yeast. Like I said before this results in a leaky gut which wrecks havoc on the body. The good new is that this is fixable but the bad news is it isn't easy. We have to put Ella on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. We are all going to go on the diet because it will benefit Haiden as well. Basically we have to starve all of the bad bacteria and yeast in the gut so it dies off and their bellies can heal. No more carbs, sugar, or starches. (All of Ella's favorite foods).
Dr. Hulseman has wanted me to put Haiden on this diet for about six months but I have put it off. She believes if we do the diet for one year then Haiden and Ella's guts will heal to where they can eat gluten, casein, soy, and egg again. I put this diet off partially due to the fact that we had Mason and it has been pretty crazy around here. Also, I didn't feel educated enough so I was very uncomfortable. So my new goal is to become an SCD expert and we are all starting this diet after the holidays. Wish us luck!

A Lot of News

Well it has been way too long since I've been able to update our blog. Our internet is now working so I have so much to catch up on.
Haiden has had a wonderful two weeks. He has been doing great in school handling social situations and continues to be my little prince charming at home. He made up a song for Mason that goes to the tune Daydream Believer. He loves to sing to Mason and try to get him to smile. Soccer season is now over and Haiden is ready for the spring season to begin.
Ella continues to make improvements as well. She has been repeating everything, saying two and three word phrases, and a lot of spontaneous speech. She also continues to be a handful at home but makes me laugh everyday.
Mason has been meeting some new milestones. He can now roll over from belly to back and back to belly. He has been making new sounds and has three teeth coming in. He also found his feet this week. We started him on solids this week and he still isn't quite sure what to do with it.
The kidos have been keeping me very busy. We go to the library once a week and I've joined a moms group at our church. The moms group is amazing and I absolutely love it! It is also a good time for Ella to be around other kids her age. Brian got me a membership to the gym so after the kids are in bed I head to the gym. I have to drag myself there and I really don't look forward to it at all but once I'm there I feel so much better.
Brian has been keeping busy with work. He has been working extra long hours lately but we are so proud of him. He does a wonderful job providing for a family of 5!
I want to give a huge THANKS to my mom. She watched Ella and Mason so we could take Haiden to the IU football game and she came up for Grandparents Day at Haiden's school. Also my grandparents celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary and my grandpa celebrated his 84th birthday! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Granny and Gramps got Mason this adorable pumpkin sleeper. He wore it to the Haunted House at the museum. We took the kids there on Halloween day when they have the friendly hours. The lights are on and all the characters hand out treats as you walk through the haunted house. The kids had so much fun!

Getting ready to go Trick or Treating! Haiden was the blue Power Ranger (He has never seen the show but he wanted the costume). Ella was a princess and Mason went as a pumpkin.

Haiden is showing off his perfect week. He earned all his magnets on his responsibility chart.

My little pumpkin at the Zoo Boo. Two weeks ago we took the kids to the Zoo Boo with our friends the Tuttles. The kids get to dress up in their costumes and the Zoo has all kinds of fun activities.

Mr. Haiden at the Zoo Boo.

She even poses! Our little princess at the Zoo Boo.

Brian and I took Haiden to the IU football game. He can probably give you a play by play of the game.

My AMAZING kids! I am so blessed!

Oh yes I did! I had to.

Granny and Gramps got Mason this exersaucer which he loves. Thank you Granny and Gramps!