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!