2/19/08 Update
It has been busy busy for us lately! Minnie had all her Early Intervention evaluations last week. She is 20 months old and I was concerned with her speech and some sensory issues with her. Some points of concern are: toe walking at times, spinning at times, lack of age appropriate speech, lack of imaginative play, unable to jump, problems with motor planning (major clumsiness to the point of daily injury), tantrums and sleep disturbance at night. She was evaluated for speech and at that time had a boost in her language so she just barely qualified but the therapist felt that with help she would catch up to age level within 6 months. She than had an early intervention evaluation and it seems Minnie’s skills are scattered. Meaning in some areas she is extremely advanced while in others she has some delays. For example she can string small beads on a shoe lace which is advanced fine motor skills. However, she gets confused with cause and effect. When shown how to make a toy pop up by pushing a button she couldn’t figure out that if she pushed it she could make the toy pop up. Instead, she kept telling the therapist to “open.” So weekly she will be getting 1 hour speech, 1 hour occupational therapy, 1 hour group therapy and 1 hour in home early intervention therapy. (Basically half of what Mickey got.) I do not think she has autism. She has alot of great skills and makes great eye contact. However, she is uncomfortable around kids, spins more than I would like (at least once a day), she has alot of tantrums and she does some jibberish just like her brother. I am worried she may have PDD-NOS which is pervasive developmental disorder not other wishe specified. It basically means on the Autism evaluation they do not meet enough of the criteria to have full autism but they have enough symptoms that puts them on the spectrum with the less title of PDD-NOS. I am debating whether to get her evaluated or not. At this point the diagnosis would do nothing more than confirm my instincts. We may qualify for respite care (paid babysitter) for her which we desperately need!! Mickey already qualifies for it and lord knows our marriage needs a little attention and we both could use frequent breaks from the kids. I am dealing with the kids disorders from a biomedical perspective so the labels really don’t mean a whole lot right now. After age 3 it matters because with the label you qualify for more services that really help the kids alot that we would otherwise not be able to afford. I am a huge believer in the early intervention program and we have had AMAZING results with Mickey’s therapy. So if the time comes and Minnie needs to be evaluated to qualify for services we may do the Autism/PDD-Nos evaluation. It doesn’t come as a huge shock to me. I am dealing with it fine because my heart tells me in the end my kids will be just fine. It just means alot more work for me! It is worth it in the long run and I have faith every thing happens for a reason. There are many blessings that come with this disorder and I am just trying to focus on those.
Mickey is doing AWESOME in school. I had a meeting with his teacher who told me Mickey is excelling and his “top of the class in all areas: speech, intelligence, compliance, behavior..” (Those were her words!) Music to this moms ears. She said he is a model student and never has any issues with him. She said she is concerned this he is too advanced for his current class and may end up picking up some behavior issues from other students since his class has alot of behavior problems. She would prefer him in the advanced class for the just speech delay class with no other behavior issues. However that class is only 2 days a week. We both agreed that 4 days a week has been great for his socialization and routine. So as soon as I can figure out both kids therapy schedules he will move from 4 days in the moderate class to 2 days moderate and 2 days advanced. He LOVES school and is happy when I drop him off and pick him up. Every day he tells me what he did in school (I confirmed it with his teacher and he has been telling me everything accurately!) He said he does dancing, marching, colors, reads books, sings the fishy song, jumps in the ball pit, does the monkey bars, made a heart.. etc It is so great to be able to hear him tell me how his day was! Today I asked him how was your day today. He answered, Fun! I had alot of fun today!” As we were leaving he told his school friend, “See ya alligator!” The other day as I was walking out with Mickey, another mom, with a son on the spectrum, said I just can’t believe he has autism! He is so verbal, makes great eye contact and even hugs you! I said, 5 months ago he was a different kid. Biomedical and the diet has saved him. I can not tell you how good it feels that people are in disbelief that he has autism. It is at the point I really don’t have to tell anyone. He still has his quirks and there are times I am reminded that he still has autism, but for the most part he is doing so great!
We have been doing SCD with my son, age 7.6, high func. autism (prev. pdd-nos w/add & adhd). SCD plus probiotics and killing the yeast with dr protocol of nystatin and killing of c. diff. with flagyl. Major improvements in school. still has lots of amino imbalance issues and metals we are working on, but what great progress in a month. We are low oxalate diet too.
what i would tell other moms and dads, get the testing done, fig. out where your kids biomed problems are, and work with any doc. who can help you to address those issues and make positive changes. EI is essential and FBA’s at school can help, but it is so much better to address the underlying problem than to just rely on the label or blame the label. The schools seem to favor meds ie. straterra, ritalin, etc. But why put a band-aid on an underlying problem instead of addressing and trying to fix the imbalance and making them better, once and for all, instead of setting them up on more drugs for life?