He's really six years old?

My little man turned six yesterday.

We had a great day as a family, decided to take the kids to the Imagine Children's Museum. David nearly spent the entire hour and a half in the "bus" there, he is fascinated with buses lately.

David may drive bus someday...

Another big thing that happened yesterday, was David rode a bike for the first time. If you desire to see how he did...check out our video here. He had so much fun. He sang a song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally (a free app we downloaded for his iPad). It's quite fun.

David does seem to tie everyday life into things he's seen on television, which in some cases has been really helpful. For instance... getting David to take all of his vitamins and supplements was helped tremendously by Sid the Science Kids video on smell, follow that link, select investigations and arrow down to "What's that Smell?"

David is fascinated with the tiny Tupperware Midgets I have, and tied that to the cups in this investigation. He gets 3-4 midgets of juice with all of his supplements in it. One day my husband went to pour them into his normal sippy style cup and David said "Want this one?" and pointed to the midget. Then he said "cup #1 has...popcorn", Troy (my husband) poured another one and David grabbed it and said "cup #2 has... cinnamon" quickly drinking each one and awaiting the next... it's worked for months now!

Anyway- maybe some else out there has a child that makes unique abstract correlations with stuff and can find this useful?

David watches Wild Kratts and one brother wears blue and the other wears green. David's blankets are blue and his brothers are green...so their blankets are Martin and Chris (Kratt). See what I mean about abstract, it totally loses me and Troy or our childcare if we aren't paying attention. Some we still don't understand... but he's making or seeing some kind of connection...fascinating. I want to learn how he thinks more every day, so I can understand.

You learn something new everyday...

We have really started hitting occupational therapy hard this summer for David.

We are seeing someone every other Friday. We've added someone every Monday and now we've started every Tuesday as well.

This new therapist (Tuesdays) is great, she works out of her home. She was great with David and had a lot of wonderful info to offer me.

Namely, she suggested a book called Raising a Sensory Smart Child - it's a great tool for parents and how to learn about sensory processing disorders prevalent in children on the spectrum. I love this book! I'm learning so much about proprioceptive, vestibular and all the other senses and how they work with each other.

There is a sensory questionnaire to help determine your child's needs and how to find a therapist to help. It teaches the difference between hyper sensitive and hypo sensitive. Great tips for everyday challenges in the home and ideas to help your child's "sensory diet".

I highly recommend this book.

We are now working with two occupational therapists and one physical therapist for David. They are all working together. We will be starting Integrated Listening very soon, we have decided to buy the program outright, though not all programs, just 1-2 as the OT sees fit...we can add more programs later if needed.

I am praying for a good summer, I know we will learn a lot about how to help David's sensory issues so when school comes we have a calmer more attentive child.

I am also looking at ways to recreate a few of the items that the OT uses that David responds so well to. He loves the industrial size sit n' spin someone made for the center there, and I can't find directions on-line. I know my family will help me build one.

I am also looking at a way to recreate the bubble/light tower and ways to control programmable Christmas lights for David.

Once I have directions and lists of materials I will gladly post here if you desire to create a sensory section for your child to relax at home. We already have a "cocoon" swing, but David loves the lycra (layered) swing at the OT...she made it and will give me the materials list and knot instructions to make one for home.

More to come...

Eating and nutrition for David

It's been a rough road this last few years. David is a very picky eater, eating mostly white or brown foods...which equals tons of carbs. You weren't able to tell before, but since the Enhansa worked so well, he's put on the weight.

Dr was concerned about him getting more protein, and preferably not soy. She was going to send me some samples to try and the manufacturer didn't have any. So, I ventured out on my own to try and get him more protein.

I tried Silk's Fruit & Protein, which David loved...downside to that was TOO MUCH SUGAR, 22 grams to be exact...oops! When you are treating yeast, you really have to watch the sugar intake. Finally, I broke down and ordered a full size of what the Dr had been recommending...Thorne Research's Vegalite. They make it in a vanilla or chocolate powder. I of course ordered chocolate, we add it to Pure Almond Milk (original or vanilla).

I use a hand blender to mix it thoroughly and David loves it. He does a full serving (10 oz of fluid) and 1 scoop of the powder...he gets 23g of protein and only 1 g of sugar.

I also made an "executive decision" and went back to canned veggies with no salt instead of frozen. David loves veggies, but apparently only canned, because he wouldn't touch the frozen ones and we were wasting money.

I'm still concerned about the possible aluminum connection, but I am thoroughly rinsing all the veggies when they come out of the can and storing leftovers in an airtight container.

If his aluminum count goes up... we'll truly know the culprit.

David enjoys Ian's chicken nuggets 3-4 nights a week now, and waffle the rest... but ALWAYS with veggies. Tonight he decided that he wanted me to mix carrots, peas and green beans for him to enjoy. I was glad to do it...

Aluminum Be Gone!

Big celebration on Thursday...we went from 10 in aluminum to ZERO. We have conquered the aluminum in David's system.

We are continuing to focus on arsenic and will do the same thing we have been doing with the suppositories and glutathione precursors to help David's body eliminate the arsenic as well.

Die off reactions from the yeast seem to be irritability and hyperactivity... some days are better than others. We'll continue with a new medication that's stronger after this Nystatin runs out...and then retest stool to see where we stand (in about 2 months).

Dr. is really impressed with David's response to many of the treatments we have tried since November. Did I mention all the intestinal issues/swelling have disappeared since we were on the Enhansa- it worked!

David's a hefty 72 lbs. now and we are tackling a lot of OT this summer to help his core strength and fine/gross motor skills. Praying we will start ILS (Integrated Listening System) in July with an additional OT... to help get things ready for school.

We have lots of reading homework to do through the summer, fine/gross motor and sensory stuff to work on... it'll be a busy few months.

But when is it not busy?