Re: Expectations

August 27, 2001

-

I can only tell you about our own experience. Our son, who just turned 4 in

June, has been chelating (DMSA only, 3 days on 4 days off) for almost a year

now (in October). He has made such tremendous gains. He still has Speech

Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and individual Developmental Therapy, and I

know that we still have a long road ahead of us, but just to get him to the

point where he's at now in such a short period of time has made us very

happy and completely amazed all of his therapists. His OT and At-Home

Therapist have both commented on what incredible gains he's made in such a

short span of time compared to the average amount of time their patients

with autism take. His OT has been so impressed by his fast progress that

she has asked if she can tell parents of other kids about chelation therapy

and if she can refer them to us to find out how to get started.

It has even gotten to the point now, because I have gone off on my soapbox

about how much these metals are hurting our kids and where they're getting

them from, that his OT has actually been recommending that people not have

their kids vaccinated unless they personally read the ingredients for the

vial and it says no mercury.

Our son isn't talking yet, but he is trying now, and he wasn't even doing

that since his autism set in. He used to speak in 4 to 5 word sentences,

and then he lost all language. He is becoming more social, and actually

wanting to play with other kids now. He is very sweet and loving (always

has been), and even when he's stimming, you can see him look out the corner

of his eye at you if he hears his name mentioned in conversation.

Evening the playing field is definitely a big thing, don't underestimate how

important it is. If you haven't had your child tested already, I urge you

to do so, because the sooner you get started, the sooner your child is going

to get to that evened playing field.

Please keep us posted.

Kris

askeralkris@...

[ ] Expectations

> Hi,

>

> I'm new to this group (and new to chelation, 3rd round DMSA only) so

> please forgive me if this is a tired and/or painful subject here, but

> I'd really appreciate more experienced parents' insights.

>

> What result do we expect from the successful chelation of an autistic

> child?

>

> I read in this group's FAQ that we know of no child who has yet

> been " cured " of autism by chelation. It seems to me that even if, for

> a given child, mercury is the problem and chelation is the solution,

> and this biomedical intervention (and/or others) is a complete

> success, you still don't get a " cured " or " normal " child out the

> other end, because years of normal development have still been

> missed. The earth only spins in one direction, and the best we can

> achieve is for our kids to go forward on a better less-impaired

> basis, having more normal sensory and cognitive experiences of the

> world. Put another way, the best we can do is level the playing

> field, so that ABA or floortime or whatever educational and

> behavioral therapies our kids get, have a better chance to take hold

> and work. Maybe (I hope!) after successful chelation PLUS some

> interval of catch-up time enhanced by educational/behavioral therapy,

> a kid could meet the Young Autism Project definition of recovery

> (functioning at grade level without special support, and

> indistinguishable from peers in a group evaluation by a psychologist

> blind to which kid had autism). Is this a plausible goal?

>

> Prior to starting chelation my four-year-old son has had over a year

> of 40-hour/week ABA and almost two years of individual speech

> therapy. (He's also been on the GFCF diet about a year, and he did

> get better at the outset of the diet.) All these interventions have

> the quality (seems to me) of pushing a rope uphill. We are fortunate

> to have outstanding skilled and peristent people working with him,

> and to their credit they've gotten a whole lot of rope a long way up

> the hill, but I don't know that you can ever rebuild a child's mind

> completely by pushing information in there. The change we've seen

> with chelation is a marked increase in spontaneous language,

> curiosity, improvisation, mischievousness, and general desire to pull

> in the world -- and THAT, combined with ongoing ABA and speech, are

> how I hope we're going to get this child to the goal one day.

>

> Any comments?

>

> Thanks

>

> =======================================================

>

August 28, 2001

Dear ,

Hello, and welcome to the list.

>I'm new to this group (and new to chelation, 3rd round DMSA only) so

>please forgive me if this is a tired and/or painful subject here, but

>I'd really appreciate more experienced parents' insights.

I don't qualify as a parent (I have no kids) but shall go ahead and

tell you my opinion anyhow. (I'm doing chelation on myself, and

have been hanging around here for about a year.)

>What result do we expect from the successful chelation of an autistic

>child?

Generally I would say, expect improvement. But you already know

that--- you have a kid who is improving!

>I read in this group's FAQ that we know of no child who has yet

>been " cured " of autism by chelation.

I think the text you mention is not as helpful as it could be.

I would say that chelation leads to " significant

progress " for MANY children with ASD. Your mileage will vary.

I am certain I have read a couple of accounts of kids who no

longer meet the " criteria " for the dx of autism. However, what

you should expect is an adventure! That is, it is unknown

how much improvement will occur. Also, as your post suggests,

" cure " may not be the most relevant concept for measuring

progress.

> Maybe (I hope!) after successful chelation PLUS some

>interval of catch-up time enhanced by educational/behavioral therapy,

>a kid could meet the Young Autism Project definition of recovery

>(functioning at grade level without special support, and

>indistinguishable from peers in a group evaluation by a psychologist

>blind to which kid had autism). Is this a plausible goal?

I think it is a possible outcome.... and you may as well hope for this

or something better. Hoping for the best certainly

keeps ones spirits up, and hoping for the best is a practical thing

to do. The " tricky bit " is to have these hopes while not getting

too carried away with the hopes, and while knowing that chelation

takes a long time. It can be sort of a rollercoaster what with

hoping for the best while not knowing how long to keep hoping,

maybe not seeing progress, and a lot of waiting. (I say that from

experience: I experience my hopes and waiting as pretty taxing

at times.)

> The change we've seen

>with chelation is a marked increase in spontaneous language,

>curiosity, improvisation, mischievousness, and general desire to pull

>in the world -- and THAT, combined with ongoing ABA and speech, are

>how I hope we're going to get this child to the goal one day.

How wonderful! That's after 3 rounds? THAT SOUNDS GREAT.

Since you said you are new, I'll include some recommended reading---

these relate to the issue of progress seen by others, and I hope

you can use them as inspiration and information:

/files/KennysProgressReportsFrom

I love 's collection for a number of reasons, including

that it has lots of " the bad side " along with the " good side "

of the results they have seen with Kenny. I also love that is

includes some of her doubt and uncertainty as to whether the

chelation was the cause of early improvements they saw.

http://www.healing-arts.org/children/holmes.htm#results

This is info on the results seen so far with Dr. Amy's

patients. They report only on those who have been " at it "

for a while.

/files/LOVE_LETTERS

Progress reports and commentary on progress, from the people on

this list.

All success to you & your son.

best regards,

Moria

[doing chelation on mySELF: ALA only; I'm on round 15.]

August 28, 2001

Hi there,

Expect to see major improvements to recovery. Our daughter is recovered -

been chealating for over a year. We are about to test on wedneday to see if

there are any more metals coming out. Feel free to e-mail me privately for

details. Weatherman6001. We have a large support group in our area where

all the parents are chealating their children and all seeing results!

Jane Weatherman

August 28, 2001

> Hi,

>

> I'm new to this group (and new to chelation, 3rd round DMSA only) so

> please forgive me if this is a tired and/or painful subject here,

but

> I'd really appreciate more experienced parents' insights.

>

> What result do we expect from the successful chelation of an

autistic

> child?

>

> I read in this group's FAQ that we know of no child who has yet

> been " cured " of autism by chelation.

Actually I recall a few mentions of children ceasing to meet the

diagnostic criteria, which is a " cure " in a technical sense. They

were still not normal, however.

>It seems to me that even if, for

> a given child, mercury is the problem and chelation is the solution,

> and this biomedical intervention (and/or others) is a complete

> success, you still don't get a " cured " or " normal " child out the

> other end, because years of normal development have still been

> missed. The earth only spins in one direction, and the best we can

> achieve is for our kids to go forward on a better less-impaired

> basis, having more normal sensory and cognitive experiences of the

> world.

Chelating makes the brain work right.

Then use APPROPRIATE therapies, like vision therapy, auditory

integration training, sensory integration therapy, etc. to give them a

more normal sensory experience of the world (this does not happen with

many of the other therapies). Once their cognition and perception are

normalized, they will pick the rest up just fine. If these are not

normalized, all the other therapies in the world will never manage to

make them " normal. "

>Put another way, the best we can do is level the playing

> field, so that ABA or floortime or whatever educational and

> behavioral therapies our kids get, have a better chance to take hold

> and work. Maybe (I hope!) after successful chelation PLUS some

> interval of catch-up time enhanced by educational/behavioral

therapy,