Re: Update on (looong!)

[Guest guest]

Dear Dear Darla,

What a star you are, you are doing incredibly well and so is that lovely little Boy! Well well done (keep repeating myself, just trying to express my happiness at your wonderful post). Thats a lot of gains in a short period honey... Amazing progress and you are right to take notice of these, document them and pat ourselves on the back, it is sooo encouraging and thank you for posting to help others too!

It is all so overwhelming, you are right but so worth it and I hope financially you will be able to make it work. Its tough for sure, to make ends meet sometime...How about looking into to applying for some funding maybe from The Caudwell Foundation, might be worth a go!

Do you think he possibly has bowel problems too. This also can be associated with night waking. Also its been so hot (there, not here, unfortunately!!) Perhaps its down to this too. For us Zinc helped a lot and we use a little melatonin to help with sleep too.

Have you done any testing Darla? I think this helps to address specific problems that your child has...maybe something for the future, because right now its all amazing and you are ding an absolutely sterling job!

It will continue, when I think back to what was like at that age, she is unrecognisable, she had no language, distended tummy, screamed constantly, never slept, would hardly eat and was also a milk-a-holic! She was also a book baby and would just sit and turn pages over and over and over... Now we still have lotsa problems dont get me wrong but her favourite thing at the moment is getting daddy to video her singing a song or dancing. Then she gets it loaded onto her computer so she can watch herself and sing along again to it. She has just learned 3 songs for her school show. Never thought we would see this kind of thing. And you will too, have lots of gains. So keep that diary its sonice to look back and remember.

Keep up all your great work Darla.

Lots of Love and Flowers

Caroline

xxx

[Guest guest]

Hi

Darla,

I haven’t read all ’s

update yet because I was distracted by you saying you are now only speaking

English to him. I just wanted to say that ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE advised us to

stop speaking Lithuanian to Tom but we kept on speaking it (my husband is

Lithuanian and only speaks to him in Lithuanian – I speak to him in

English). And I honestly believe we made the right choice. At one point we

mearly gave up but my friend who lives in Paris visited us with her two

children, one of whom had severe language delay. This little girl had recently

started getting speech therapy in French and as her French improved so did her

English. Tom’s not yet verbal enough or bilingual enough to show you a

fantastic story but I do not believe that Lithuanian has held him back. In fact

I think it’s been good brain/ vocal exercise for him. How important is

your other language to you? if you want to talk to me at all about this I would

love to talk to you. my number’s 01752 265085. incidentally, anyone else

out there who is bringing their ASD child up bilingually, I would love you to

phone too.

Sara xxx

Update on (looong!)

It's

only been almost 6 weeks now since we first realised that our son had

ASD. I'm feeling a bit discouraged, frightened and down so I thought

I might write about the interventions that we've made and the incredible

progress that has made in such a short time.

I

started keeping a diary on him 5 weeks ago.

Here

are the changes that we've made:

1

dramatic reduction in our vocabulary to noun/verb only and stopped speaking

bi-lingually to him - we are only speaking English (6 weeks now)

2 AFP

Peptizyde - very erratically will take this, just trying to get 1/2 capsule

down him a day but not always succeeding!! (5 weeks now)

3

Bio-Kult probiotic - worked up to 1 capsule (4 weeks now)

4 Transitioned

to 1/2 Kallo rice drink, 1/2 regular infant formula - drinks 8 to 9

bottles of infant formula a day so this reduces him to half the caesin he was

previously ingesting. (3 weeks) also trying to get him to eat GF

crackers, etc. but not totally eliminated gluten yet.

5 Reduced

Gaviscon Infant from 2 sachets per bottle to 1 sachet (3 weeks) (this is reflux

medication)

6 Physiotherapy

- two sessions and increased vestibular and other sensory stimulation (3 weeks)

7 Zinc

Drops (6 days)

8

Reduced Losec PPI (reflux med) to half previous dose (5 days)

Honestly,

I can't believe the changes. The single most notable and consistent

change was with the start of the probiotic. He immediately brightened up

with it and when I increased from 1/2 to 1 he had more energy and less

frustration. He is a very low energy boy with lots of whining and wanting

to be held, etc. His stools have consistently darkened and bulked up (from

bright yellow diahreah) and are now averaging two a day rather than 5 or 6

a day. The vinegar smell is gone from his stools (although today he

had a bad diahhreah vinegary one for the first time in a few weeks).

Six

weeks ago, (10 days after his 2nd birthday) his dad and I sat in the SLT's

office trying to think of ANY words that he could understand to demonstrate his

receptive communication skills. The only one that we could think that he

half understood was *bye bye* otherwise he had NO receptive

communication. He also had almost no expressive communicative skills

(other than biting, hitting, hair pulling, tantruming!!). In the last 6

weeks he has progressed to taking our hands to objects, to demonstrating that

he wants his coat off, his shoes off, he wants me to put him up down, that he

wants me to button his top button, and then on to echoing what we are saying.

He has said: up (uh) down (dah) cracker (kah kuh) Let's go (skooo!) who's here?

(sss heeah?) squirrel (skaa) and a few others that I didn't write down.

One day he spontaneously said Uh uh uh, dah dah dah when he went up and down

some steps. One night when I put him in his cot he yelled *dah dah dah!*

indicating that he wanted down! He is not, however, using this language

to request, only to label or echo.

He is

understanding enormous amounts of what we are telling him - on two occasions he

has even understood WAIT!!! This is a child who would tantrum

because he could not understand transitions or time. He now consistently

understands: shoes, byebye, cracker, nappie, milk, car, daddy, jacket, train,

and each day it is more and more. Recently he stopped mid-tantrum because

he understood that I would read a book to him AFTER I wiped his hands!!

In late

May I went to the high street to buy a toy for his 2nd birthday

and ended up in the coffee shop toilet sobbing my eyes out because there were

no toys that I could buy that would play with. (this is 10 days before

dx.) He would open/shut doors and drawers, turn on washing

machine/dryer/VCR/TV/Computer/dishwasher, switch light sockets on and off, run

in circles, whine to be held constantly, stare out the window, or beg us to

read books for hours at a time. Now he is pulling his train behind him,

doing puzzles, yesterday he hugged his dolly and said, *aaahhhh*!!!!!!,

he looks at books on his own, and he has made marks on paper with a crayon

rather than moving the crayons from one pile to another.

We

could not redirect him at all without a tantrum, this has pretty much stopped

unless he is tired. On 3rd of June when I started a diary he tantrumed

over 8 times - he is averaging 1 or 2 small ones a day now. Today at

lunch his dad and I talked about the changes and we were so amazed. Only

a month ago when he was taken to the park he would spend about 5 to 10 minutes

on the playground then want to go off on his stimming along the pavement.

He would stim incessantly. Today he played at the park with his dad, up

and down the slide, swinging, on the teeter totter, walking without constantly

*jigging*. Yesterday he chased a young boy around on a bike while

they both laughed. On Friday we were at someone's house (hi!) and he played

outside in the garden in a constructive way - riding the bulldozer, putting his

train in the bucket, raising and lowering the bucket and shifting the

gears! These are pretty incredible gains - just a month ago he could

not co-ordinate his feet to push himself forward on a toddler bike.

Unfortunately

his sleep is not any better. He has been up the past 7 nights, crying, wanting

to have milk, screaming and sweating. I'm hoping that Magnesium will help

his sleep but I don't feel that I need to start anything else for a few weeks

now.

His

compliance has increased dramatically, we believe this is because his

comprehension has increased so much. He still is very rigid about certain

things and is stimming some but can be redirected in most cases.

His PICA has also increased as has his repertoire of foods that he will eat

(and swallow! lol). He has even taken several drinks of water without

making himself vomit!!!!

Sorry

to carry on so much. I really needed to remind myself that we've come a

substantial way in a short time. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed with the

financial implications of starting a VB program and also feeling really low

that he won't eat enough food to sustain his weight without vast quantities of

milk.

Thanks

for reading, hope someone takes some encouragement from this. I know I always

find reading the gains very encouraging. Thanks so much for all of

your help, the people here have been a lifesaver and, most

importantly, have made a real difference in the quality

of our son's life.

Take

care,

Darla

London

DH Boban

DS 2 years and 1 month

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[Guest guest]

I’ve

now read the rest of it and I can’t stop crying. What an amazing little boy! It’s

so exciting as well as heart breaking isn’t it?

Sara x

Update on (looong!)

It's

only been almost 6 weeks now since we first realised that our son had

ASD. I'm feeling a bit discouraged, frightened and down so I thought

I might write about the interventions that we've made and the incredible

progress that has made in such a short time.

I

started keeping a diary on him 5 weeks ago.

Here

are the changes that we've made:

1

dramatic reduction in our vocabulary to noun/verb only and stopped speaking

bi-lingually to him - we are only speaking English (6 weeks now)

2 AFP

Peptizyde - very erratically will take this, just trying to get 1/2 capsule

down him a day but not always succeeding!! (5 weeks now)

3

Bio-Kult probiotic - worked up to 1 capsule (4 weeks now)

4 Transitioned

to 1/2 Kallo rice drink, 1/2 regular infant formula - drinks 8 to 9

bottles of infant formula a day so this reduces him to half the caesin he was

previously ingesting. (3 weeks) also trying to get him to eat GF

crackers, etc. but not totally eliminated gluten yet.

5 Reduced

Gaviscon Infant from 2 sachets per bottle to 1 sachet (3 weeks) (this is reflux

medication)

6 Physiotherapy

- two sessions and increased vestibular and other sensory stimulation (3 weeks)

7 Zinc

Drops (6 days)

8

Reduced Losec PPI (reflux med) to half previous dose (5 days)

Honestly,

I can't believe the changes. The single most notable and consistent

change was with the start of the probiotic. He immediately brightened up

with it and when I increased from 1/2 to 1 he had more energy and less

frustration. He is a very low energy boy with lots of whining and wanting

to be held, etc. His stools have consistently darkened and bulked up (from

bright yellow diahreah) and are now averaging two a day rather than 5 or 6

a day. The vinegar smell is gone from his stools (although today he

had a bad diahhreah vinegary one for the first time in a few weeks).

Six

weeks ago, (10 days after his 2nd birthday) his dad and I sat in the SLT's

office trying to think of ANY words that he could understand to demonstrate his

receptive communication skills. The only one that we could think that he

half understood was *bye bye* otherwise he had NO receptive

communication. He also had almost no expressive communicative skills

(other than biting, hitting, hair pulling, tantruming!!). In the last 6

weeks he has progressed to taking our hands to objects, to demonstrating that

he wants his coat off, his shoes off, he wants me to put him up down, that he

wants me to button his top button, and then on to echoing what we are saying.

He has said: up (uh) down (dah) cracker (kah kuh) Let's go (skooo!) who's here?

(sss heeah?) squirrel (skaa) and a few others that I didn't write down.

One day he spontaneously said Uh uh uh, dah dah dah when he went up and down

some steps. One night when I put him in his cot he yelled *dah dah dah!*

indicating that he wanted down! He is not, however, using this language

to request, only to label or echo.

He is

understanding enormous amounts of what we are telling him - on two occasions he

has even understood WAIT!!! This is a child who would tantrum

because he could not understand transitions or time. He now consistently

understands: shoes, byebye, cracker, nappie, milk, car, daddy, jacket, train,

and each day it is more and more. Recently he stopped mid-tantrum because

he understood that I would read a book to him AFTER I wiped his hands!!

In late

May I went to the high street to buy a toy for his 2nd birthday

and ended up in the coffee shop toilet sobbing my eyes out because there were

no toys that I could buy that would play with. (this is 10 days before

dx.) He would open/shut doors and drawers, turn on washing

machine/dryer/VCR/TV/Computer/dishwasher, switch light sockets on and off, run

in circles, whine to be held constantly, stare out the window, or beg us to

read books for hours at a time. Now he is pulling his train behind him,

doing puzzles, yesterday he hugged his dolly and said, *aaahhhh*!!!!!!,

he looks at books on his own, and he has made marks on paper with a crayon

rather than moving the crayons from one pile to another.

We

could not redirect him at all without a tantrum, this has pretty much stopped

unless he is tired. On 3rd of June when I started a diary he tantrumed

over 8 times - he is averaging 1 or 2 small ones a day now. Today at

lunch his dad and I talked about the changes and we were so amazed. Only

a month ago when he was taken to the park he would spend about 5 to 10 minutes

on the playground then want to go off on his stimming along the pavement.

He would stim incessantly. Today he played at the park with his dad, up

and down the slide, swinging, on the teeter totter, walking without constantly

*jigging*. Yesterday he chased a young boy around on a bike while

they both laughed. On Friday we were at someone's house (hi!) and he played

outside in the garden in a constructive way - riding the bulldozer, putting his

train in the bucket, raising and lowering the bucket and shifting the

gears! These are pretty incredible gains - just a month ago he could

not co-ordinate his feet to push himself forward on a toddler bike.

Unfortunately

his sleep is not any better. He has been up the past 7 nights, crying, wanting

to have milk, screaming and sweating. I'm hoping that Magnesium will help

his sleep but I don't feel that I need to start anything else for a few weeks

now.

His

compliance has increased dramatically, we believe this is because his

comprehension has increased so much. He still is very rigid about certain

things and is stimming some but can be redirected in most cases.

His PICA has also increased as has his repertoire of foods that he will eat

(and swallow! lol). He has even taken several drinks of water without

making himself vomit!!!!

Sorry

to carry on so much. I really needed to remind myself that we've come a

substantial way in a short time. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed with the

financial implications of starting a VB program and also feeling really low

that he won't eat enough food to sustain his weight without vast quantities of

milk.

Thanks

for reading, hope someone takes some encouragement from this. I know I always

find reading the gains very encouraging. Thanks so much for all of

your help, the people here have been a lifesaver and, most

importantly, have made a real difference in the quality

of our son's life.

Take

care,

Darla

London

DH Boban

DS 2 years and 1 month

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[Guest guest]

>

> It's only been almost 6 weeks now since we first realised that our

son had

> ASD. I'm feeling a bit discouraged, frightened and down so I

thought I might

> write about the interventions that we've made and the incredible

progress

> that has made in such a short time.

>

> I started keeping a diary on him 5 weeks ago.

>

Hi Darla,

I have loved reading about your efforts with , and all those

wonderful gains he has made. Keep it up girl, no-one can say that he

would have made so many gains within such a short time on his own,

without any interventions that you have made. It really is wonderful

that you have kept a diary, I don't do that, even though I know that

I really should. Perhaps you can now be my inspiration on that point.

Congrats again,

Sue

[Guest guest]

Thanks so much, Caroline for your encouraging words. It is really good to hear about your daughter, . I can't imagine coming so far!!

Yes, I do think is a gut baby. The Zinc seems to give him energy rather than relax him though. I'm not giving that at night any more! Can you buy liquid melatonin? I take melatonin tablets myself from the USA but there is no way I can get these down .

He was up all night last night with fever and vomiting. Yet another round of viral infection, no doubt. He's sleeping now but he's feeling pretty poorly. I just hope that the probiotic and other supplements can help him fight this one off faster than in the past.

Regards,

Darla

In a message dated 09/07/2006 17:55:09 GMT Standard Time, CarolineTraa@... writes:

It will continue, when I think back to what was like at that age, she is unrecognisable, she had no language, distended tummy, screamed constantly, never slept, would hardly eat and was also a milk-a-holic! She was also a book baby and would just sit and turn pages over and over and over... Now we still have lotsa problems dont get me wrong but her favourite thing at the moment is getting daddy to video her singing a song or dancing. Then she gets it loaded onto her computer so she can watch herself and sing along again to it. She has just learned 3 songs for her school show. Never thought we would see this kind of thing. And you will too, have lots of gains. So keep that diary its sonice to look back and remember.

Keep up all your great work Darla.

Lots of Love and Flowers

Caroline

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 10/07/2006 14:38:01 GMT Daylight Time, rexel45@... writes:

Can you buy liquid melatonin? I take melatonin tablets myself from the USA but there is no way I can get these down .

Hi Darla

I use Life Extension melatonin which i get from my paediatrician. They are available in 1 mg or 3 mg capsules (eg. powder inside just like enzymes!). does not swallow capsules/tablets so I just guve in a little water 30 mins before bedtime. You can also get melatonin from Kirkmans.

HTH

Luv caroline

xxx

PS Is your mail being really odd, I wrote a post this morning which has only just appeared, weird!!

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 10/07/2006 14:38:01 GMT Daylight Time, rexel45@... writes:

Can you buy liquid melatonin? I take melatonin tablets myself from the USA but there is no way I can get these down .

Hi Darla

I use Life Extension melatonin which i get from my paediatrician. They are available in 1 mg or 3 mg capsules (eg. powder inside just like enzymes!). does not swallow capsules/tablets so I just guve in a little water 30 mins before bedtime. You can also get melatonin from Kirkmans.

HTH

Luv caroline

xxx

PS Is your mail being really odd, I wrote a post this morning which has only just appeared, weird!!

[Guest guest]

>>>Can;t remember if I replied before Darla or I was saving this post to savour (as I do LOL) but this is wonderful. I can;t belive how much you have done is so little time.

When you have a moment would you and DH consdier sharing your journey on the Stories of Hope on the Treating Autism site?

I also have a very good feeling about how this little boy is going turn out

Mandi x

In a message dated 09/07/2006 16:42:29 GMT Daylight Time, rexel45@... writes:

Honestly, I can't believe the changes. The single most notable and consistent change was with the start of the probiotic. He immediately brightened up with it and when I increased from 1/2 to 1 he had more energy and less frustration. He is a very low energy boy with lots of whining and wanting to be held, etc. His stools have consistently darkened and bulked up (from bright yellow diahreah) and are now averaging two a day rather than 5 or 6 a day. The vinegar smell is gone from his stools (although today he had a bad diahhreah vinegary one for the first time in a few weeks).

Six weeks ago, (10 days after his 2nd birthday) his dad and I sat in the SLT's office trying to think of ANY words that he could understand to demonstrate his receptive communication skills. The only one that we could think that he half understood was *bye bye* otherwise he had NO receptive communication. He also had almost no expressive communicative skills (other than biting, hitting, hair pulling, tantruming!!). In the last 6 weeks he has progressed to taking our hands to objects, to demonstrating that he wants his coat off, his shoes off, he wants me to put him up down, that he wants me to button his top button, and then on to echoing what we are saying. He has said: up (uh) down (dah) cracker (kah kuh) Let's go (skooo!) who's here? (sss heeah?) squirrel (skaa) and a few others that I didn't write down. One day he spontaneously said Uh uh uh, dah dah dah when he went up and down some steps. One night when I put him in his cot he yelled *dah dah dah!* indicating that he wanted down! He is not, however, using this language to request, only to label or echo.

He is understanding enormous amounts of what we are telling him - on two occasions he has even understood WAIT!!! This is a child who would tantrum because he could not understand transitions or time. He now consistently understands: shoes, byebye, cracker, nappie, milk, car, daddy, jacket, train, and each day it is more and more. Recently he stopped mid-tantrum because he understood that I would read a book to him AFTER I wiped his hands!!

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 22/07/2006 02:07:55 GMT Standard Time, Mum231ASD@... writes:

>>>Can;t remember if I replied before Darla or I was saving this post to savour (as I do LOL) but this is wonderful. I can;t belive how much you have done is so little time.

Thanks so much for the encouragement, Mandi, we really appreciate it.

When you have a moment would you and DH consdier sharing your journey on the Stories of Hope on the Treating Autism site?

Would love to! But we'll leave out the part about how grew horns and a tail when he went on the Bio-Care Multivit! ;-)

I also have a very good feeling about how this little boy is going turn out

Yay! That's great! If only you could see him this morning in his pink ballerina pajamas - they kept selling out of the boys pj's so I gave up and bought the pink ones. He looks beeeeaaauuuutiful.

Darla

[Guest guest]

Hi Darla,

You must be so pleased! Its amazing you've done so much in just six

weeks. Only chipping in to say, if he is echoing, have you looked

into the techniques of verbal behaviour? I don't know your child but

the way things are going, you could be teaching him to label and then

ultimately to identify the things he wants (mands). With biomed help

from this list, this has had far-reaching effects for my son. If you

want to discuss email me offline.

Biomed really works. It is true about the probiotics - my son has

made good progress on them. I read various bits of research and went

a bit overboard though, because in the states they were giving 9 a

day and seeing good results. We saw the same, and we saw Jay just go

go go! Then Jay went into regression, and another mum with a child

with ASD told me to switch brands. I was giving Jay BioKult and she

said to me she didn't want to believe BioKult was the cause, but

eventually with a lot of effort she traced it back to BioKult.

Incidentally I'm still not sure she was right, but I swopped to

Klaire labs version. If I had done what you did and kept a diary I

would be more sure - I would definitely say, if you can spare the

time, I'd keep the diary.

Good luck and keep going!

Eileen and

>

> It's only been almost 6 weeks now since we first realised that our

son had

> ASD. I'm feeling a bit discouraged, frightened and down so I

thought I might

> write about the interventions that we've made and the incredible

progress

> that has made in such a short time.

>

> I started keeping a diary on him 5 weeks ago.

>

> Here are the changes that we've made:

> 1 dramatic reduction in our vocabulary to noun/verb only and

stopped

> speaking bi-lingually to him - we are only speaking English (6

weeks now)

> 2 AFP Peptizyde - very erratically will take this, just trying to

get 1/2

> capsule down him a day but not always succeeding!! (5 weeks now)

> 3 Bio-Kult probiotic - worked up to 1 capsule (4 weeks now)

> 4 Transitioned to 1/2 Kallo rice drink, 1/2 regular infant formula -

> drinks 8 to 9 bottles of infant formula a day so this reduces him

to half the

> caesin he was previously ingesting. (3 weeks) also trying to get

him to eat

> GF crackers, etc. but not totally eliminated gluten yet.

> 5 Reduced Gaviscon Infant from 2 sachets per bottle to 1 sachet (3

weeks)

> (this is reflux medication)

> 6 Physiotherapy - two sessions and increased vestibular and other

sensory

> stimulation (3 weeks)

> 7 Zinc Drops (6 days)

> 8 Reduced Losec PPI (reflux med) to half previous dose (5 days)

>

> Honestly, I can't believe the changes. The single most notable

and

> consistent change was with the start of the probiotic. He

immediately brightened up

> with it and when I increased from 1/2 to 1 he had more energy and

less

> frustration. He is a very low energy boy with lots of whining and

wanting to be

> held, etc. His stools have consistently darkened and bulked up

(from bright

> yellow diahreah) and are now averaging two a day rather than 5 or

6 a day. The

> vinegar smell is gone from his stools (although today he had a bad

diahhreah

> vinegary one for the first time in a few weeks).

>

> Six weeks ago, (10 days after his 2nd birthday) his dad and I sat

in the

> SLT's office trying to think of ANY words that he could understand

to

> demonstrate his receptive communication skills. The only one that

we could think that

> he half understood was *bye bye* otherwise he had NO receptive

communication.

> He also had almost no expressive communicative skills (other than

biting,

> hitting, hair pulling, tantruming!!). In the last 6 weeks he has

progressed

> to taking our hands to objects, to demonstrating that he wants his

coat off,

> his shoes off, he wants me to put him up down, that he wants me to

button his

> top button, and then on to echoing what we are saying. He has

said: up (uh)

> down (dah) cracker (kah kuh) Let's go (skooo!) who's here? (sss

heeah?)

> squirrel (skaa) and a few others that I didn't write down. One

day he

> spontaneously said Uh uh uh, dah dah dah when he went up and down

some steps. One night

> when I put him in his cot he yelled *dah dah dah!* indicating that

he wanted

> down! He is not, however, using this language to request, only to

label or

> echo.

>

> He is understanding enormous amounts of what we are telling him -

on two

> occasions he has even understood WAIT!!! This is a child who

would tantrum

> because he could not understand transitions or time. He now

consistently

> understands: shoes, byebye, cracker, nappie, milk, car, daddy,

jacket, train, and

> each day it is more and more. Recently he stopped mid-tantrum

because he

> understood that I would read a book to him AFTER I wiped his

hands!!

>

> In late May I went to the high street to buy a toy for his 2nd

birthday and

> ended up in the coffee shop toilet sobbing my eyes out because

there were no

> toys that I could buy that would play with. (this is 10 days

before dx.)

> He would open/shut doors and drawers, turn on washing

> machine/dryer/VCR/TV/Computer/dishwasher, switch light sockets on

and off, run in circles, whine to

> be held constantly, stare out the window, or beg us to read books

for hours

> at a time. Now he is pulling his train behind him, doing puzzles,

yesterday

> he hugged his dolly and said, *aaahhhh*!!!!!!, he looks at books

on his own,

> and he has made marks on paper with a crayon rather than moving

the crayons

> from one pile to another.

>

> We could not redirect him at all without a tantrum, this has pretty

much

> stopped unless he is tired. On 3rd of June when I started a diary

he tantrumed

> over 8 times - he is averaging 1 or 2 small ones a day now. Today

at lunch

> his dad and I talked about the changes and we were so amazed.

Only a month ago

> when he was taken to the park he would spend about 5 to 10 minutes

on the

> playground then want to go off on his stimming along the

pavement. He would

> stim incessantly. Today he played at the park with his dad, up

and down the

> slide, swinging, on the teeter totter, walking without constantly

*jigging*.

> Yesterday he chased a young boy around on a bike while they both

laughed. On

> Friday we were at someone's house (hi!) and he played outside in

the garden in

> a constructive way - riding the bulldozer, putting his train in

the bucket,

> raising and lowering the bucket and shifting the gears! These are

pretty

> incredible gains - just a month ago he could not co-ordinate his

feet to push

> himself forward on a toddler bike.

>

> Unfortunately his sleep is not any better. He has been up the past

7 nights,

> crying, wanting to have milk, screaming and sweating. I'm hoping

that

> Magnesium will help his sleep but I don't feel that I need to

start anything else

> for a few weeks now.

>

> His compliance has increased dramatically, we believe this is

because his

> comprehension has increased so much. He still is very rigid about

certain

> things and is stimming some but can be redirected in most cases.

His PICA has

> also increased as has his repertoire of foods that he will eat

(and swallow!

> lol). He has even taken several drinks of water without making

himself

> vomit!!!!

>

> Sorry to carry on so much. I really needed to remind myself that

we've come

> a substantial way in a short time. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed

with the

> financial implications of starting a VB program and also feeling

really low

> that he won't eat enough food to sustain his weight without vast

quantities of

> milk.

>

> Thanks for reading, hope someone takes some encouragement from

this. I know

> I always find reading the gains very encouraging. Thanks so much

for all of

> your help, the people here have been a lifesaver and, most

importantly, have

> made a real difference in the quality of our son's life.

>

> Take care,

> Darla

> London

> DH Boban

> DS 2 years and 1 month

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks so much Eileen. It seems that you have confirmed our next decisions which is always a good thing! We are starting a VB program for on the 7th of August. Only two weeks - I can't wait! Also, I ordered Klaire labs pro-biotic from Nutricentre on Monday. has had a pretty bad run of gastroenteritis again and I think he needs another probiotic. His stools are back to being horrific. The bio-kult made a huge difference at first but then abated. I think he probably either needs rotation or a different probiotic.

Take care,

Darla

In a message dated 27/07/2006 02:26:43 GMT Standard Time, eileen_mclennan@... writes:

Hi Darla,You must be so pleased! Its amazing you've done so much in just six weeks. Only chipping in to say, if he is echoing, have you looked into the techniques of verbal behaviour? I don't know your child but the way things are going, you could be teaching him to label and then ultimately to identify the things he wants (mands). With biomed help from this list, this has had far-reaching effects for my son. If you want to discuss email me offline.Biomed really works. It is true about the probiotics - my son has made good progress on them. I read various bits of research and went a bit overboard though, because in the states they were giving 9 a day and seeing good results. We saw the same, and we saw Jay just go go go! Then Jay went into regression, and another mum with a child with ASD told me to switch brands. I was giving Jay BioKult and she said to me she didn't want to believe BioKult was the cause, but eventually with a lot of effort she traced it back to BioKult. Incidentally I'm still not sure she was right, but I swopped to Klaire labs version. If I had done what you did and kept a diary I would be more sure - I would definitely say, if you can spare the time, I'd keep the diary.Good luck and keep going!Eileen and

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 28/07/2006 09:13:40 GMT Standard Time, sarah@... writes:

>>>>Have only just read your post. Your account reminds me much of my when he was your 's current age! (Must be something in the name!!!) I remember was fascinated with anything electrical from the time he could crawl. We would usually find him not on his play gym but behind the television fiddling with the wires etc and he was forever turning the power on and off!!! >>>>>

It's so nice to hear someone else had such an odd infancy experience as ours! The playgym paled in comparion to the VCR!

>>>>Today is approaching 5 and starting mainstream school in September. He is a bright and loving child and where I thought his speech would never happen, now he doesn't shut up! In fact at his last nursery school review the teacher (who is very experienced with assessment placed children) said that if he was staying at the same school that he would be channelled into the "gifted" class. My husband and I nearly fell off our chairs!! I would not say is recovered, but my God how he has changed over the last 18 months.>>>>

This is so great to hear, so encouraging! Like others said, you should put your story on the TA site. I can't wait to hear speak, it feels like that is such an insurmountable goal. I can only imagine how much it will help to alleviate his frustrations.

>>>>What I am trying to say is that I note that you feel a lot of despair right now, wondering about the future, as I guess all the parents on this site do, but look at the gains you have made in a very short space of time and your is only two. The future is probably much brighter than you think and I am grateful to Mandi and everyone for this site, because I don't think my would have progressed so far without the help from everyone here.>>>>

Thanks so much, , for the encouragement. It's a tough old game, isn't it? It's good to be reminded that maybe I can allow myself some optimism, even on the hardest of days.

Take care,

Darla