it continues...February 2010-May 2010

Once we had David's blood work done...I was so anxious to meet the Dr. and get the ball rolling on a battle plan for treatment. 

 

On 2/2/2010 David and I met our new Dr. to help us treat David with natural medicine. She is a pediatrician who practices an integrated approach. We took an hour and she answered my questions, we researched vitamins on-line and she got to see David be David. I got the answers that I needed to feel like I was moving forward in our journey to heal David, so I was good. I had more questions soon enough, but now I write them down and email her and it's nice to have that connection. Test findings were:

     ~Vitamin D was low, but within referenced range

     ~Lactic acid was high.

     ~Ammonia was high, but within referenced range

     ~David had a gluten intolerance, casein/milk was not a concern but Dr. suggested a GFCF diet for 3 months to see how he would respond.

Attached is an interesting article on the Opiate Theory (among others- in case you'd like to do some light reading.)  Basically, one of the reasons we decided to stick with the GFCF diet is because of an interesting section in the book I was reading. 

     ~Even if our kids aren't allergic to gluten or casein they can have a different kind of response which would come from only being able to partially breakdown the proteins of gluten/casein (as they are very complex). If not broken down properly into simple amino acids for the body to use, the "chunks" of protein left act like neurotransmitters that act like opiates (morphine-like substances) in our kids brains. This may be why a child is a milk-a-holic or won't stop eating tons of cereal/cookies etc. anything else with sugar/gluten. They can actually get stoned off of it.

     ~I was asked recently asked if I noticed a big difference in David when we went GFCF. I don't think it was a major difference, but it was enough. I was also asked why we have stayed on the diet if the difference isn't that noticeable.  The bottom line to me was this : David has trouble ridding his body of things it needs to get rid of, I don't want to make it anymore difficult until we get his body healed- so we are staying GFCF for now.

The Battle Plan- Start GFCF diet and start supplementing:

Vitamin D & Omega 3's = Arctic-D Cod Liver Oil by Nordic Naturals is what we chose. 

Multi-vitamin free of gluten/casein that had no artificial colors/sweeteners. 

      ~We started with Super Nu-thera by Kirkman as it comes very highly recommended, but since David's supplements were in juice/milk and he didn't enjoy the taste (more went to waste then drank.) We decided to switch to Vita-Kids by Douglas Laboratories. David enjoys these vitamins to this day. I linked you to my favorite site to get these vitamins- excellent Customer Service! 

Probiotic to help with "gut support", we went with Culturelle. 

Zinc was recommended, we went with a liquid.

Antioxidants were also recommended (These are tart, they go best in juice (one of our favorites).
Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA)- we chose Source Naturals we use a pill splitter and crush between 2 metal measuring spoons. 
Vitamin C- we chose a powder by Nutricology, easily mixed in juice. 
Digestive Enzyme (to be given in PM- not with Probiotic!) I found one that specifically targets the GFCF proteins just in case. 

On 3/15/2010 I had my first meeting with the school to discuss David's progress. We moved him to full day and he would now attend 5 hrs a day 4 times a week. We also had a motor skills assessment done and added occupational therapy once a week in school. A sensory assessment was done as well, it was observed how visual David was and his behavior changed dramatically once a visual schedule (PECS) was implemented at school!

     Comments from David's report card: Counting to transition David between activities is really working. He has learned to share and request toys from peers. David responds to his name and stops what he's doing when he hears his name. We are working on the screaming when he is mad.

On 4/7/2010 We decided David would benefit from ESY (Extended School Year) through July, so he would have less time in between end of school and start of next school year and hopefully retain more of what he had learned. We also started to use the PECS system at home to help with transition, the school provided everything I needed to get started and even helped with laminating whatever I needed.

4/20/2010 Follow-up regarding GFCF diet w/ Dr. recommended to try re-adding a bit of milk to David's diet and see what happens. We tried yogurt and eventually string cheese...David became exceedingly hyper over the next week. We decided to remove casein/milk until a later time.