Autism and Avery

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

I cannot thank you enough for all of the supportive posts about Avery

possibly having autism.

I will be responding to each of your posts individually over the next

couple of days but I couldn't let it go any longer without thanking

all of you for everything.

As you can all imagine and probably relate to as we are all in the

cyber world together, I have spent hours and hours reading on the

topic of autism on the internet. This is of course why I haven't

taken the time to reply to all of your messages.

If any of you know what it is like to " self-diagnose " your own child

and be sure of it, that sort of gut feeling only a mother can know

(well some dads too!)well that is what I have come to do over the

past few days.

I am pursuing a doctor's appointment with his pediatrician and have

spoken with his physical therapist, speech therapist and his

cognitive intervention teacher and I have received some support but

not much. I haven't showed them all of my documentation yet but the

speech therapist seemed to feel like I might be on the right track as

she has been after Avery to speak for months to no avail.

Anyhow, I am going to pursue taking him to group therapy and possibly

switching him to an OT that he really seems to like. I need to try

something new.

I have also decided that it was worth a shot to try the gluten free

casein free diet with him.

Avery hasn't had milk in a couple of days. He was obsessed with it

before. He is now making eye contact, actually eating more and

putting things in his mouth like I have been working with him to

(that pulling it out with both hands while biting, thanks for the

suggestion) and he did that for the first time. He also said bye bye

and waved his hand several times. He has played with a couple of toys

that he has never touched before. He got them out of the toy box!!!

At lunch today he ate probably the equivalent of a small can of

beans. He already loves beans but has never eaten so many. He is

drinking some juice and some 7-up but won't drink the soy milk at

this point. We'll see.

He dumped a basket of plastic eggs out on the floor and put the

basket on his head!!! Never has he done anything like that before.

Sorry to go on and on. Not sure what to think. Taking him off of the

milk so far has seemed to be a good decision. Still watching him

closely because I'm so worried about his Mito and how a change in

diet will affect that. I'm wary and cautious but omtimistic.

Thanks again everyone. I will be posting to you individually like I

said. Take care all.

Becky

Avery's Mom

[Guest guest]

Becky,

Re: the autism. The one thing to remember is that autism falls within a

SPECTRUM. Some tendancies strong here and some not at all there. A

child or person can be diagnosed on the autistic spectrum without having

ALL of the symptoms. Or each symptom to various degrees. That was hard

for me to see in the beginning, as well as many doctors. Since my son

fairly appropriate in the pediatricians office with toys, he seemed fine

to him. In the end his diagnosis is PDD-NOS or some call him " high

functioning " autism. It is on the autistic spectum. Also he varies,

somedays so appropriate, other days so out of it.

(silly talk, solo play, non-interactive, odd pervasive movements, weird

eating habits, etc.)

Re: the milk. This was an obvious bad thing for my son. After eating

cereal with milk, his autistic tendancies magnified. He won't drink any

of the soy milk products at all. He loves cereal (large % of his diet.)

He likes a milk substitute product called Vitamite. It does have some

dairy protein, but I know many dr.'s following the DAN (defeat autism

now) protocol suggest it. It can be found at most grocery stores.

Best of Luck