Ask Autism Moms

I was searching online one day for more info about chicken broth and its glutamate contents – you know, just a normal day. I came across a blog post by Kaayla Daniel. Not only did we have the same name but her last name is my husband’s name. Anyhow, her post wasn’t about autism or anything like that – just about broth. But as I browsed her other pages I really liked the type of information she was researching. She seemed very knowledgeable in many different directions. So I sent her an email and asked her if she had heard about Laminine, which my son is taking, but no one really has much info about. It turned out that she was going to be a speaker at an online autism conference, one I never heard of, called Nourishing Hope for Autism Summit. Since I missed out on seeing the presentations online, I did some research of my own on what each of the twenty four presenters are about, to see if I could find any more enlightening opinions related to autism from these folks.

Julie Matthews, CNC
Wrote a book called: Nourishing Hope for Autism, for which the summit was named

James Adams, PhD
Lead of an autism/asperger’s team at Arizona State University: Autism Research Program

Martha Herbert, MD, PhD
Co-wrote Autism Revolution

Ben Lynch
Author of Dirty Genes

Tom O’Bryan
Author of autoimmune books and You Can Fix Your Brain and founder of The Gluten Summit

Dietrich Klinghardt
Founder of protocols to help children recover and a big wealth of info on his websites

Tom Malterre, MS, CN
Expert on functional medicine, website at: Whole Life Nutrition

Pete Evans
Believes that a keto diet can help with many conditions, website at: Pete Evans

Trudy Scott, NC
An expert in mood and anxiety.
I have to say when I saw the name of her site, I was impressed because my husband and I keep saying that there should have been a manual about what to do after we hit 30, to prevent things from breaking down in ourselves! Every Woman Over 29

Barry Smeltzer, PA
Functional medicine expert and camel’s milk info: Healing Provisions

Elisa Song, MD
Holistic pediatrician at Healthy Kids Happy Kids

Kaalya Daniel, PhD
A nutritionist and doctor looking past the norm. Camel’s milk research as well at Dr. Kaayla Daniel

Raphael Kellman, M.D. based in New York City, New York
The author of The Microbiome Diet: The Scientifically Proven Way to Restore Your Gut Health and Achieve Permanent Weight Loss. Website at Kellman Center
Specifically treats autism for each child individually at Autism at Kellman Center

Dominic D’Agostino, PhD
Proponent of the keto diet which he says, “reduces neuronal hyperexcitability, oxidative stress and enhances brain energy metabolism.”
Website at Keto Nutrition

Dr. Kurt Woeller, based in
Specialist in biomedical autism treatment, website at Dr. Woeller
But his website clearly links to a lot of other websites he created, and ebooks and what looks like fluff, which is hard to take seriously.

David Berger, MD – based in Tampa, Florida
Treats with medical cannabis
Website at Wholistic Family Care

Nicolas Pineault
Urges to get rid of EMF in the home
Website at Non Tinfoil Emf

Susan Owens
Head of Autism Oxalate Project, one website at Research Gate
Additonal oxalate research info here, here, and here.

Maya Shetreat, MD – based in Bronx, NY
Author of The Dirt Cure: Healthy Food, Healthy Gut, Happy Child
Specialist in mitochondrial dysfunction, website at Dirt Cure

Nicole Beurkens, PhD – Based in Caledonia, MI
Specialist for improving behavior through nutrition
Website at Horizons DRC
“Some patients come to us having sought help for many years and having worked with many professionals; yet they are still experiencing significant symptoms. These types of cases can be very complex, and require through evaluation and treatment planning to get to the root of the problems. Our team specializes in working with these types of complex cases.”

Jill Carnahan, MD – Based in Louisville, CO
Specialist in functional medicine, treating histamine problems, mold, mast cell activation syndrome
Website at Jill Carnahan

Zen Honeycutt
Founder of Moms Across America
Proponent of eating non-GMO, organic, and preventing use of glyphosate and herbicides to stop allergies and autism symptoms
Website at Moms Across America

Kiran Krishnan
A microbiologist specializing in probiotics for neurological health
Interview with Kiran here.

Teresa and Roger Harding
Specialists in selling doTerra
Teresa Harding

I thought I would post a small update about Gavin. We have been working hard and took the iPad away again. I could no longer fly by the seat of my pants. As Gavin gets closer to four years old, I am increasingly worried and afraid that we’re not moving quickly enough. Maybe I am wrong in this thinking, but I just can’t help it. Also in the past few days, Liam was really helping Gavin a lot and being so incredibly sweet to him. It made me have an even higher drive to work harder for Gavin. Liam putting Gavin into his priorities lately was remarkable to say the least.

Today was the fifth day or so of not using the iPad to eat, or using it at all. Gavin is already making different consonant sounds and things are looking up, up and up. I want him to be in our world all of the time – not just floating from one iPad moment to the next. It’s not easy to feed him sometimes without it, but it’s certainly not the worst thing ever. It could be worse, and it’s not! I am so happy to do it. I want him to be able to go back to therapy, or to preschool, and be able to eat with everyone normally and share experiences. We are getting there.

On top of those feel goods, today’s to do list was conquered and we should experience even more gains soon. That sweetie pie is doing so well. I love him so much. I want him to still use the iPad for the educational games that he loves, but so far I am enjoying this time of seeing him free from screens and it’s hard to let him have it as a reward just yet. It’s the closest thing I have to seeing him frolic at our non-existent farm and run around with spicy chickens, smiling in the three months of Oregon sunshine.

On to the things:

1. Renewed my childcare background check with Oregon (in case anyone needs it if I volunteer)
2. Emailed Keli about Gavin — who knows if there is space in her preschool but just had to check. Wasn’t confident to ask a few months ago.
3. Filled out many documents for The Evergreen Center — appointment is August 29th, 10 to 12 PM
4. Contacted The Pierson Center – going to get an appointment with them too. Gavin and I are going to start going everywhere again and find more answers.
5. Ordered ingredients to start Gavin on the Nemechek Protocol. The Nemechek Protocol consists of 3 things:

Inulin
Pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fish Oil containing DHA and EPA

And it involves eliminating:
Omega-6 Oils
Probiotics
Digestive Enzymes

“Changing your diet to a cleaner one is very helpful and can give you great gains, but those gains eventually plateau because diet alone doesn’t solve the root issue, which is bacterial imbalance.

Left unchecked, bacteria will simply continue to filter into the small intestine.

Dr. Nemechek suggests that you have to reestablish neurological control of the intestines in order to see lasting results. That’s why the Nemechek protocol addresses the gut AND the brain.

While the oils work to balance the Omega-3:6 ratio, the inulin works to push small intestinal bacteria back into the colon where it belongs, while also feeding the good bacteria. Basically, the good bacteria that’s supposed to be in the small intestine feed off the inulin. This results in an acid being produced that the trespassing bacteria don’t like, which makes them revert back into the colon where they belong.

Studies also indicate that inulin can have powerful immunomodulating effects. (Modifies immune function)”

One time on Twitter, I posted about how I cried when I read the story about Elmo Mom. In a very short amount of time, I had replies from over ten adults with autism themselves, and a few parents. They told me I should be ashamed for bringing attention to the article because the mother had simply abused her child. I believe the mom was trying to help her child overcome a fear – this is something we do as parents mostly every day, even with neurotypical children. Do I think she should have held her son on the ground for thirty minutes? No. If he didn’t want to go in that much, I would have already left and done something I knew he enjoyed and he could have just watched an Elmo episode on TV. I don’t think it was that worth it. But helping a child get through something they are afraid of can help a them overcome their fears if done slowly and carefully over time. And it doesn’t always happen in one day, one month or even one year. That is why the article made me cry and I talked about it. I cried because I know how desperately she wants to help her child have a comfortable life and how much she wants to enjoy her child and his childhood. I cry because so many of us parents are in a dark despairing place on some days – while full of hope and inspiration on others! There are so many things we have to do as autism parents that are simply harder on us and our children. As parents we want our autistic kids to be able to talk and function in life. We want them to enjoy life to the fullest. We worry everyday for them. Yes, they may not be looking at the world like we are and sometimes that is utterly beautiful and astounding. But we want the best for them as an adult too – and being stuck to an iPad and not understanding what is happening around them is no life. It’s not what I imagined for my son. It’s not what I imagine for anyone.

There are many people, including parents of children with autism, that believe we should not try to “cure” autism. They do not believe anything is broken. I don’t think that either but I want to improve my child’s life. I’m not getting hung up on what exactly to label what I’m doing. I’m just doing what I think will make my son happier in life. If we remove the label of autism, the label of ASD, the label of mentally disabled, and the label of neurotypical from everyone – we are left with one thing: people living their lives successfully and happily for as long as possible.

I have compiled a long list on what we can do to help our children or those we know who are dealing with autism. And dealing is such a small word for such an exhausting and seemingly never ending undertaking. For two years, myself and my family have been trying to help my youngest child overcome autism. It will always be a part of him, but we hope he will be able to talk one day, have friends, and not depend on us for daily life. Most of all we want him to be friends with his big brother. It hurts us everyday that he and his brother do not talk or play even though they are two years apart in age. If I could give my oldest son one gift, it would only be to give him a little brother who he can talk to and be best friends with. It’s our dream and we want to make it a reality. For these past two years, we have been recommended many things to try. We have also stumbled across things that we had never heard of. For some of the things that seem to help, we often wonder why did no one tell us sooner? Or many times per week I keep asking myself, “Where is the manual? Where is the list of rules?” None of the doctors I have taken the time to visit could take me by the hands and just say “Okay! This is what we are going to do!” It’s just a combination of trying some things, some shrugs, some smiles and time passing by.

Every parent of a child with autism, on any level, should have a list like this so they can make sure they have exhausted all efforts to make their children with autism comfortable, sleep well, and lead happy, playful lives as children. Hopefully that happy and balanced life will let their minds focus on learning, speaking, and understanding. And ultimately – flourishing.

These are some of the things that we have tried, and other parents have tried, to heal their children of autism and my explanations of each one. May you be able to cure, heal and flourish. My whole heart and thoughts are with you and your little ones battling with the ups and downs of autism! If you have anything else to add to this list please send a message to me.

Before you dive into this list, I’ll start with this:

Those who think they do not have time for health will soon have to find time for illness. There is a silent healing process happening in the body just like there can be a silent destruction process – then you suddenly find signs of disease. The body processes are working in harmony until there is disharmony.

May you find your harmony for you and yours, through the power of suggestion, and because of the suggestion of miracles.

1. • Gluten Free Diet and Casein (Dairy) Free Diet – GFCFIf you suspect your son or daughter has autism, this is what you will hear about and likely want to try first. There are many success stories where parents say this is all they did and their children started talking or conquered other milestones. Everyone is different and it may work for you in a few months or may take longer. It did not work for us but I think it was worth a try! We removed dairy and gluten for about three months at one time and did not see much of a difference in any behavior. At the time of writing this, our son does sleep better than ever, sometimes even through the whole night. He has been off of dairy for four months. This is the longest we have tried removing at least one thing and will continue. In case it helps him feel more comfortable or is a contributing factor to better sleep, I’ll take it! I believe that being on a GFCF diet helps anyone feel better, child or adult. It’s a key to solving many health issues and doesn’t hurt to try. If an entire family can be on board with it, that’s even easier to make sure your child stays on the plan.
   • Biomedical Plan Based on DNA Testing
     Depending on why you think your child has autism, medical or genetic cause (or maybe both), you can approach the healing process in different ways. If you believe that it was caused by genetic mutation, then there are different types of supplements that you should take that are called active or inactive forms since everyone can process them differently in the digestive system. You would not want your child to take something regularly, waiting for results or signs of change, only to not realize that it’s passing right through the system. I’ll write a post about all of this later but get your DNA tests done for yourself and your children so you can compare them all.
   • MAPS Diet
     Since I think the diet is step one to making your child feel comfortable and learn more easily, I’ll go over all of the different types of diets next. The MAPS diet is
   • GAPS Diet
   • Paleo diet
   • Nemechek Diet
     Please look into the Nemechek Protocol! It’s a very simple protocol that heals the gut (heals SIBO) and inflammation in the brain. A lot of people with autistic children are seeing results. The protocol is basically fish oil, inulin (a fiber) and EVOO.
   • No Glutamate Diet
     REID program
     unblind my mind
   • Simple Carbohydate Diet (SCD)
   • No nightshades diet
     * Tomatoes
     * ­White potatoes
     * ­Eggplant
     * ­Okra
     * ­Peppers
     * ­Tomatillos
     * ­Sorrel
     * ­Gooseberries
     * ­Ground cherries
     * ­Pepino melons
     * Tobacco
     * ­Paprika
     * ­Cayenne pepper
     * Capsicum
     Note that blueberries, goji berries and huckleberries all include similar alkaloids. They are not nightshades, but it may be important to eliminate them at the same time.
   • Vegan diet
     “Meat is not essential to a healthy diet. Supplement with good vitamins and enough fruits and vegetables and he’s golden. Good luck. Don’t complicate things for yourself.”Protein is very overhyped. Humans don’t need a tremendous amount. Beans, lentils, pasta made from beans/lentils/veggies, any veggies he will eat, pasta sauce, smoothies with spinach tossed in ( it honestly can’t be tasted), etc. “
   • Yasko
   • Autoimmune Diet
   • Dark Green Vegetable Diet
     This is supposed to detox your body if your daily diet is 50% dark leafy greens and at least 8 glasses of water per day.
   • Grazing
     “I’ve heard grazing is the way to strengthen adrenals. Eating small meals every 1.5 to 2 hours. Medical medium has a whole list of “adrenal snacks” to use that balance sodium potassium and sugar. The only one I remember is celery, date, and apple.
     Vitamin C is critical for the adrenals as well as the suggestions above.”
   • 22 amino acids
     are the building blocks of life
   • Biomedical Intervention (Adding fish oil, vitamins, minerals)
   • Heavy metals testing and treatment
     “Have you tried hair heavy metals test? Hair test shows what the body stores, blood shows what is circulating and urine shows what the body is excreting. Our Urine and hair test were different and hair showed presence of mercury and lead.This mom recovered her child with using probiotic enemas. I’ll be starting it soon but thought I’d share her story. Picky food and constipation could be related to missing good gut bacteria.Our son was extremely picky and we found incredible success with stem cells. It almost immediately got rid of his distended belly and eliminated his pickiness.””The book “outsmarting autism” is by far the best resource I’ve found. It tells you what order to approach things & why. It makes the most of your time, money & mental energy. It’s a bit overwhelming, it’s a very thick, info dense book, but it is truly an incredible resource. Go slowly if you read it, otherwise you will get overwhelmed.If your child is getting magnesium and zinc in a multi or other supplements, than the most important mineral during detox is molybdenum. That is the one which calms herx reactions and supports mitochondria. You can supplement that separately until chelate mate comes back in stock.
     “
   • Silica water
   • Collagen
   • Astragalus, nervous system, myco, liver flukes
   • black walnut green hulls extract for internal parasites
   • Reflorastation
   • methylated b-vitamins
     B-6 (P-5P) P5P is simplest form, and typically well tolerated and needed for cbs mutation support. More complex forms of b6 may not metabolize correctly. folonic acid hydroxy or adenosine b12 COMT mutation
     CBS gene mutation
   • Spirulina, Chorella and Cilantro
   • Biofilm Defense
   • toxic fungi mold nosode
   • plant stem cells for immune system
   • Glutathione
     • NAC is a sulfur-containing amino acid that acts as a stabilizer for the formation of protein structures, and promotes the formation of glutathione. N-Acetyl-Cysteine
   • Luecovorin
     leucovorin injection instead of tabs
   • folinic/methylb12 subQ injections
     3 days a week.
   • Insitol
   • Black current seed oil
   • inulin

   • Floor playtime

   • 280+ hours HBot

   • Cranial sacral

   • Chiro

   • Heilkunst homeopathy

   • Bioray supplements

   • Footbaths

   • water kefir/ kombucha
   • Blood sugar stability: Blood sugar being stable can help sleeping throughout the night
   • Laminine
     Laminine is a food supplement. It’s like eating a concentrated amount of nutritious food plus the proprietary OPT-9 that contains Fertilized Avian Egg Extract which contains FGF. FGF has a stem cell like behavior that can repair cell damage.”
     This can be taken by adults and children with other issues, even cancer. A cancer patient is recommended to take up to nine capsules of laminine per day.
     A general dosage recommendation is two capsules with breakfast and one capsule with dinner.
   • Youth Tissue Extract
     From the Swanson website product listing for YTE Extract Capsules: “Med-Eq has resumed production of the original Norwegian formula so we can once again make this remarkable mental and physical revitalizer available to American consumers. A veritable nutritional powerhouse, Youth Tissue Extract is a unique combination of amino acids, glycopeptides and oligopeptides extracted from fertilized chicken eggs at the crucial pre-embryonic stage when these vital nutrients are most concentrated. The result is an invaluable nutritional resource that can help you rejuvenate and revitalize body and mind to optimize your energy and stamina.”
   • Liposomal Vitamin C
   • Iron
   • Probiotics
   • Digestive Enzymes
     digesting fats is a common problem in autism GI issues.
   • Zinc
     picolinate

   • Copper- Rebalancing copper and zinc can help. Copper is the metal that is associated with Estrogen, and zinc is associated with Testosterone. Raise  ceruloplasmin to improve bound-copper status, and get rid of unbound copper. Ceruloplasmin is a protein made in your liver. Ceruloplasminstores and carries the mineral copper around your body.Ceruloplasmin carries 65% to 90% of the copper found in blood. Copper is vital to many processes in your body. These include building strong bones and making melanin. And raise zinc levels.

   • Vitamin D
     “Vitamin D has 2 main purposes. How you use it depends on what your purpose is. If you are trying to help with calcium absorption and strengthen bones , then take vitamin d3 and vitamin k2. D3 helps with extraction of calcium from the foods we eat. Vitamin k2 moves calcium to wherever it’s needed. DO NOT supplement with calcium unless advised by a doctor. It’s usually poor absorption of calcium and not lack of calcium that’s the problem. Vitamin d3/k2 combo should fix that. Too much unabsorbed calcium causes lots of problems and throws magnesium off balance too.Now the second reason for vitamin d, is to help with sleep, anxiety, hyperactivity, depression etc. this is the sleep cycle that needs vitaminD to produce enough serotonin and thereby melatonin.Liquid forms of D3 are easy to use and readily absorbed by the body. But softgels are equally effective and have higher dosage availability readily. Some MAPS doctors advise taking up to 2000 IU and even more to get the most out of it. Even at dowsed of 5000 IU it’s been proven not to be toxic but i would stick to 2000IU and below.”
   • Calcium citrate
   • Calcium and magnesium
   • Action-B 50
   • Fish oils
   • Evening primrose oil
   • Getting sleep patterns in check because when we sleep, our cells regenerate.
   • DMG and TMG
   • Advanced CoQ10 Ubiquinol
   • PhenolGest enzyme or phenol enzymes for high fruit eaters
   • Burbur Pinella for liver support
   • Trifala for gut support.
   • S. Boulardii
   • Sulforaphane (Broccoli Sprout Extract)
     “Sulforaphane fixes neurodegeneration.” avmacol
   • Aloe vera juice aloe vera juice I mixed it with mango juice
   • Turmeric
   • Quercetin
   • Acetium – http://www.biohithealthcare.com/products/acetaldehyde-binding-products/products/13/acetium-capsule
   • Systemic enzymes are enzymes that not only aid digestion but also support bodily functions in every tissue and organ. … Systemic enzymes promote normal healing and repair in the human body naturally without the side-effects associated with drug products.
   • IG 26 – Hyperimmune Egg- https://www.xymogen.com/formulas/products/452
   • Bromelaine
   • Olive leaf extract 2 capsules 3x/day – and added astragalus –
   • Pine bark extract – pycnogenol
   • Lion’s Mane
   • Bravo yogurt
   • Lithium Orotate
   • Bentonite Clay
   • Lypazyme
   • Lauracin monolaurin
   • Magnesium malate
     during the daytime
   • Magnesium glycinate
     during nighttime
     “Magnesium glycinate has helped to calm her. “
   • Saccharum Officinale
   • Chelate Mate
   • molybdenum
   • Super Nu Thera
   • Inulin
   • Pylori-Plex
   • Curcumin
   • Neuro-brain therapy
   • B12 Shots

   • stinging nettle tea

   • L-glutamine
   • L-carnosine
   • L-lysine
   • L-Cystein
   • HGH Somaderm
   • Iodine def?
   • High Dose Vitamin A Up to 20000 iu a day for 2 days. Vitamin a good for eye tics

     500IUs of Vitamin A per pound, per day. His stimming has gotten better.

   • Bioray Loving Energy
   • Adrenal Cortex Extract
     250mg int he morning and 100 mg when he gets home
   • Goldenseal
   • TRS activated zeolite drops. One drop in water may help bind and remove the toxins and help him relax. Starting low and slow is important so not to overload his detox paths more. Please look at my page Autism Redefined as your son may belong to this unique ‘High Inflammation Type’ and there are many diet and environmental steps that can be addresses once you get his pain levels down.
   • Body Biotics
   • Megasporebiotic
   • Cytoflora
   • Gutpro

   • nystatin

   • thiamine (B1).

   • leucovorein,

   • deplane,

   • oncoplex,

   • carnisine,

   • carnitor,

   • enhansa,

   • gutpro probiotics,

   • cal-mag,

   • dessicated beef liver,

   • ubiquinol,

   • d3,

   • fish oil,

   • trienza,

   • buffered vitamin c

   • bactrim

   • Valtrex

   • Speak oil

   • oxytocin nasal spray

   • inflaquell

   • IGG Powder

   • Difflucan
   • Nystatin
   • Candex or Candidase
     (sugar-eating enzymes) – used on empty stomach, they dissolve the outer cell wall of yeast. Some find it helpful to use with an antifungal from above.
   • Aquaflora candida high potency 9
     Half teaspoon 2x a day on empty stomach.
     After 4 to 7 days u will have dieoff.
   • GPL-TOX or the Genova CORE
   • New Beginnings yeast control pack
     New Beginnings also has a yeast control pack which has 4 different herbs. You start one, do it for a week and then rotate to the next one for a week, lather, rinse and repeat. The package lasts about 3 months.
   • Allicin max / Allimed / Garlic extract with allicin
   • Caprylic acid
     – dissolves the membrane of the yeast cells.
   • Prosynbiotic
   • Biocidin, Interfase from Klaire Therbiotic complete
   • MesoSilver brand colloidal silver
   • Minocycline
     Minocycline is a second-generation, semi-synthetic tetracycline that has been in therapeutic use for over 30 years because of its antibiotic properties against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. It is mainly used in the treatment of acne vulgaris and some sexually transmitted diseases. Recently, it has been reported that tetracyclines can exert a variety of biological actions that are independent of their anti-microbial activity, including anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic activities, and inhibition of proteolysis, angiogenesis and tumor metastasis.
   • Lactic acid yeast
   • Oil of Oregano (OoO) – Strong herbal taste. High in phenols.
   • Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) – Very bitter taste. The liquid must be diluted properly or taken in tablet form. High in phenols.
   • Pau d’Arconot phenolic.
   • Berberine & Uva Ursi – both antimicrobials & weaker antifungals
   • Mitochondria Support: Levocarnitine and CoQ10
   • Mitochondria Support: multivitamin
     Mitothera by Prothera
   • Methyl Folate 5-MTHF
   • Sonrise
     “When I suggested Sonrise, you might not even need to implement a full blown program. Just by reading Autism Breakthrough, giving them a call and requesting free materials, and watching YouTube videos, it’s easy to start implementing their philosophy in your daily lives. We never had the playroom as they suggest, we simply made Sonrise our way of life. That associated with qigong massage and GFCFSF diet got my son’s original 97 ATEC to plummet to 58 in one month. Not saying it will be the same for everyone, but it’s about a complete mind shift which changes the entire energy around autism, the child, and the entire family. You’ve already given ABA a fair try. Maybe Sonrise would shake things up in a good way?”
   • Sensory Diet A sensory diet of activities is the best thing for that. 4 straight months of input every 1.5-2 hours will organize the brainstem to an optimal level of functioning. It needs to be tailored to the kid. use a timer to stick to a schedule of different activities and do them all one by one. that way you make sure everyday they are reading, writing, coloring, painting, sorting, stacking, and doing physical activity at the end of it all before eating. “Kudos to you for doing so much! A good, quality diet is huge.. maybe add on more exercise-like activities (swimming, nature walks, parks/playgrounds), more activities to get body moviing? Maybe therapeutic listening in conjunction with OT/movement activities… not sure how old your child is, but growth always helps too”“His little body might need time to heal. As he gets older consider teaching methods that are more gentle like Son Rise, floortime, rapid prompting, facilitated communication. I believe as parents we need to avoid soul crushing methods. He is “in there” I can see it in your photos. Label everything in your house. He will pick up on the vocabulary. Throw baby talk to the curb and he will shock you in a few years! Reconsidering the Ion Cleanse.
   • Nurtured Heart Approach
   • Qigong massage
     Not sure if you have tried it yet. Qigong Massage for Your Child with Autism: A Home Program from Chinese Medicine https://www.amazon.com/…/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_SX94xb740BXD6
   • Movements That Heal
   • Biofeedback
   • Neurofeedback
   • Integrated Listening
   • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
   • 5 day Safe&Sound Protocol (SSP). It delivers calming to the polyvagal system and auditory is hugely affected.
   • Neurosomatic therapy
   • ion cleanse
   • Homeopathic Suramin
   • Stem Cell Transfers
   • Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Therapy
   • Healing through other means
     I saved this for last. I read a book called Horse Boy. My blog post about this is found here. The boy is led on a trip by his parents to see multiple shamans for healing. “A shaman is a healer who moves into an altered state of consciousness to access a hidden reality in the spirit world for purposes of bringing back healing, power, and information. … Shamans believe that all problems, physical, emotional or mental, have their root cause in spiritual imbalance.”

This is really what I learned in the past few weeks. I was reading more about yeast and dietary enzymes. As usual I have no idea what I am doing or what is helping since I still don’t give Gavin one new thing at a time. But at this moment, he has been taking two crushed dietary enzymes in his lunch each day for over two weeks. This is also blended into his puree with fish oil (cod liver). He has been taking that for months now.

Enzymes.

Enzymes are macromolecular biological catalysts. Enzymes accelerate chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products.

When you read that, you think well holy moly – of course this should work for anyone. I am not sure what is happening exactly but it does seem like Gavin has been different since taking the enzymes regularly. He likes to lay in the floor a lot and play more by tumbling around. This is new. Most of the time he likes to run very fast and often runs into the couch and bends over into it, his head goes down and sometimes he squishes his stomach into the couch. He hasn’t been doing this very much anymore – he would rather roll on the floor. I see this as a good thing – and this is where the yeast thing comes in.

I joined some Facebook groups about autism, for the first time. My brain is so busy I have avoided things like that but now I see them as a treasure of information and communication. Yesterday someone posted a description of their son that sounded just like Gavin. Months ago, for months, Gavin was chewing his shirt collars constantly. He still has pajama shirts with tiny holes at the top. He just couldn’t stop chewing. But he does still chew his blankets when settling down for a nap, bedtime or when he wakes up. So the blanket thing is still happening. But for about five months now – no more shirt chewing. So something in him has calmed down. Was it because he has been off dairy for 3 months now? That is the biggest solid change but I have no idea.

So the parent I mentioned, they said their son was chewing shirts, and running into couches and putting their head down. This reminded me of Gavin so much. They said they fixed both of these behaviors by giving their son Trienza enzymes. This was eye opening to me because we have been using chewable Klaire Labs enzymes. One of our naturopaths said it would work better if he chewed it but that’s not happening. So I crush them into his food. Still trying to figure out if I should give him one tablet with each meal, or if it’s enough to give him once a day?

When you search online for digestive enzymes it seems there are three most popular ones.

1. The one we are taking
2. Trienza

Through the power of suggestion, and because of the suggestion of miracles, I immediately ordered Trienza yesterday just to start trying it. The ingredients differ in these ways:

So maybe, just maybe, something in Trienza is going to work way better with Gavin.

I have never gave Gavin melatonin to help him sleep. The thing is, he falls asleep pretty easily. I change his diaper at 2 AM (yes, I have an alarm every night for it!) and I’ll get him to drink some water at that time. I’ll wait until he is done and I’ll take the bottle and say “Okay baby, go back to sleep.” He always does and then he will wake up lately at 5 or 6, sometimes 7.

But a week ago, I gave him herbal drops called Deep Sleep. I put the dose in his water at night after dinner. I just wanted to see if maybe they would help him sleep longer in the mornings. Let me tell you. They did not help him sleep at all. The first two nights were normal but he didn’t sleep longer. Nothing was different. But on the third night, he woke up at 3 AM and was awake for two hours. He finally fell asleep after I gave him water twice. He slept til 8 AM. He was not very normal during the day, very hyper and often frustrated.

The next night I gave him the drops at night again. The same thing happened and he was awake at night for over two hours before being able to fall asleep again.

On the following night, I did not give him the drops. He still woke up for over two hours. The days were still hit or miss with his mood being overstimulated. It seemed like the effects of the herbs were still in his system?

The next night rolls around and still without drops. Finally, that night he slept normally.  I am convinced the drops caused those night awakenings. He is back to normal now. The question is, why did this happen? As an autism parent you’re always seeing different patterns and trying to connect the dots.

Something in these drops were not liked by his system or his brain. Was it the bit of alcohol suspension? The valerian? I don’t see how any of the other herbs could have been disagreeable. I am leaning toward the valerian.

Ingredients
Deep Sleep® contains extracts of: fresh California Poppy (plant)1, fresh Valerian (root) 1, fresh Passionflower (herb tip), fresh Chamomile (flower) 1, fresh Lemon Balm (herb) 1, fresh Oat (seed in milky stage) 1 and Orange (peel) 1. Other Ingredients: U.S. Pharmacopoeial alcohol

To make sure that this was not just a coincidence, I’ll give him the drops again in a few days. (Still recovering from those wakeful nights, plus I had my thyroid biopsy this past week.) I want to see if the drops were really the reason he woke up those nights. It’s so perplexing because all of the ingredients are supposed to be calming to someone with autism or ADHD. So I will update this post when I try the drops again. I feel like I have to in order to know what is good for him and what is not, even if we are going to have some tough experimental nights ahead.