Alex Continued
The ABA programme lasted for 2 years and during this time, Alex integrated slowly into mainstream school. After the first few months, Alex was statemented to receive the ABA programme, and the LEA provided full funding.
Alex enjoying his 5th Birthday party
Like many parents starting ABA I read the book 'Let me hear your voice' by Catherine Maurice. Her two children recovered from autism through ABA and I was sure we could achieve the same with Alex. Whilst the ABA was very successful, it was clear as we progressed through the programme that Alex still had some major issues. I revisited the biomed area and bought a book that became my bible 'Children with Starving Brains' by Jaquelyn McCandless.
Children with Starving Brains explains the DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) protocol for treating children with autism. It describes how you can test to establish the child's medical issues. It also discusses major treatment plans such as gut healing, supplementation and chelation. For the first time I read about mercury poisoning - the more I read the more I became convinced that mercury poisoning is a major contributing factor in the autism epidemic.
We visited a DAN! Doctor in the UK, and through testing, managed to normalise Alex's levels of key vitamins, minerals and Fatty acids. He started to become more sociable! For example, when we added Brainchild Zinc to his protocol, his helper at school rushed out to tell me what a fantastic day he had had, playing in the playground spontaneously with the other children.
Bonfire night with his best friend, Ben - the first time Alex could cope with the noise | Alex with his best friend Ben at Bonfire night. The first time he could cope with the noise of the fireworks. | |
Being able to go to the cinema as a family is great, and now Alex is up on all the 'in' subjects like Star Wars. Alex and Stephanie having fun together
After the ABA programme ended, we decided that we wanted to understand chelation therapy better. |
Having fun with sister Stephanie |
A new protocol had just become available in the US called td-DMPS. At this stage no doctors in the UK were prescribing DMPS. In a rash moment, I checked with Yahoo Group US buddies about the top DAN! Doctors over in the US. Dr Usman's name was mentioned by many. I rang up and booked an appointment. A month later, Alex and I flew to Chicago.
It was a great decision for us. We came back with MB12 injections, Lipo Glutathione, TMG and TD-DMPS. We have introduced them all in a very slow and controlled way. After six months of the treatment, Alex started to show steady signs of improvement. We are now in month nine, and Alex is progessing well: his concentration levels have improved, his language is becoming ever more complex. He has just entered the 'why'? phase in a big way. We have great conversations, one morning this week he told me all about a bad dream he had had. His imaginary play is continuing to blossom.
So where are we today? Alex is a happy, sociable, inquisitive boy again. He has a best friend and is popular at school. His language is pretty good but not yet age appropriate. He still has sensory issues, particularly with auditory processing and vision. These are impacting on his academic work and he struggles especially with reading and writing.
We have just started a new educational programme called RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) which focuses on emotional referencing, social coordination, declarative language, flexible thinking, relational information processing and fore-sight and hindsight. Alex has some of these skills already but they aren't 100% consistent yet.
Summer holiday 2005 with Dad We are using Cranial Osteopathy and brushing, the latter to work on a retained immature reflex which affects vision tracking and fine motor skills. We continue with biomedical treatments. In terms of our marathon, I guess we are approaching the 20 mile point. We have come a long way and are feeling quite tired and also financially much poorer. The finishing line is quite close now, and I know we will get there. It's been quite a journey and we have rejoiced at all the small steps along the way. If I had my chance to do it all again, I'd do nearly everything the same. I wish I had spotted the autism earlier. I also regret not starting chelation sooner. What have we learned? Alex's Mum: Christina Wood