Re: Day 55 of GFCF - England - for

June 4, 2001

Hello, my name is . I live on the west coast of Canada ( a fellow member

of the commonwealth albeit a colonial :-) )with my wonderful wife Suzanne

born in Dublin ) and our three children; Daisy 3, Ruby 5, 7. I

know how difficult life can seem for your family at this time. I remember

holding my son when he was 2 1/2 and at the worst point in his regression.

He would wiggle and scream to be free of me if I tried to hold him. He

wouldn't let me read him a story or play with me. Sometimes I wondered if he

knew I was in the room. I found that to be very painful. Today is different

though, my son hugged me today and told me he loves me. The first time he

did this was 5 months ago, spontaneously. We had put on the gfcf

diet a month earlier. We are constantly astounded at the pace of s

development on this diet.We have seen more 1sts in 5 months than in the

previous 5years. We tried it when he was 3 but I think we missed many G\C

sources and so didn't see a noticeable difference. We are extremely careful

and rigid in controlling his diet now. The best program for parents to build

language for autistic children we've seen is from Hannen, (non profit ).

They have a book specific on teaching language\communication to autistic

toddlers . There is an excellent video that goes with it. www.hannen.org Our

son is highly verbal and it was the only effective thing we did for him

until 6 months ago. I believe the best thing beyond what you are doing now

is to also look at starting a home based ABA program. If you don't know what

this is and/or want some info just drop me a line back. I have no doubt that

ABA is critical for any child under 6 and is the best hope for achieving

normal functioning, properly implemented before 4 complete recovery is a

reality for over 40% of autistic children. (I think diet is an unaddressed

factor for many of the children who don't fully recover but make large

gains - opinion )We are starting a program right now. We didn't earlier

because we didn't know, just like the diet. (We live in a small ignorant

community where everyone drives a pickup truck.)

The best thing anyone ever told me is that my autistic son was a blessing

who had special gifts for me. I was skeptical at the time. But now I have

realized his gift to me, I would have taken parenthood for granted, spent

less time with my family, been more selfish if not for my sons autism. It

focussed me on my role as a father and helped me put to rest many selfish

behaviors. I am a better person, and our family and home the stronger for

it. Still I woudn't wish it on anyone.

Best wishes for our children,

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