Saturday, November 7, 2009
I think he might have an almond allergy
So, the only thing new lately is the introduction of almonds and I'm seeing his eczema act up and it had been gone for awhile...it's all over his upper arms and a little on his face. This is a bummer because he really likes the almond butter from Almondie. Plus he's been irritable and rigid...so, that's a big sign that it's not working out. I'll have to get busy finding something fun and yummy that will take his mind off of wanting the almond butter....bummer.
Isaac's other Treatments Besides the Diet
I mentioned in my last post that I give him multi/vitamin-multi/mineral supplement....this is my choice (not a requirement on the diet). Because of the 'Leaky Gut Syndrome' the food he eats aren't absorbed and turned into nutrients, or least very little....that's another thing in the chain reaction, malnutrition. So, this supplement I give him his specially formulated for children on the autism spectrum...meaning it's formulated for what has been found to be lacking in someone with autism.
So, this is what I give him daily:
- Pro-Child (capsules from GI Pro-Health)
- Acidopholis (from GI Pro-Health- they are the only company with supplements and such that comply with the SCDiet and autism)
- MB12 Nasal Spray (prescription only)
- the home-made yogurt (up to 9 tblsp. now)
- S. Boullardi (from GI Pro-Health, it has to be given in between meals, this a friendly strain of yeast that kills off the bad strains in the gut)
- Activated Charcoal (many brands are SCD compliant, he gets this on an empty stomach just before bed, this absorbs 'debri' from the yeast in the gut (candida) that gets killed off and toxins)
- Epsom salt baths (2 cups of epsom salts in a warm bath, he has to be in for at least 20 mins..this also helps with drawing out toxins and impurities out of the body...something autistic people need all the help they can get because their immune system does not do this for them)
- When he's in bed, I rub anti-fungal oils on the bottoms of his feet and cover with clean socks (this helps draw out fungus and toxins from the gut) I rotate the oils every few days using GSE (grapefruit seed extract), Oil of Oregano and Neem oil.
The only thing mentioned that you can't buy over the counter is the MB12 nasal spray. Thankfully his doctor was very open-minded and checked into it for me and complied. It has helped him tremendously. I feel that it must help the efforts of all the friendly bacteria reach the gut and do their job.
So, this is what I give him daily:
- Pro-Child (capsules from GI Pro-Health)
- Acidopholis (from GI Pro-Health- they are the only company with supplements and such that comply with the SCDiet and autism)
- MB12 Nasal Spray (prescription only)
- the home-made yogurt (up to 9 tblsp. now)
- S. Boullardi (from GI Pro-Health, it has to be given in between meals, this a friendly strain of yeast that kills off the bad strains in the gut)
- Activated Charcoal (many brands are SCD compliant, he gets this on an empty stomach just before bed, this absorbs 'debri' from the yeast in the gut (candida) that gets killed off and toxins)
- Epsom salt baths (2 cups of epsom salts in a warm bath, he has to be in for at least 20 mins..this also helps with drawing out toxins and impurities out of the body...something autistic people need all the help they can get because their immune system does not do this for them)
- When he's in bed, I rub anti-fungal oils on the bottoms of his feet and cover with clean socks (this helps draw out fungus and toxins from the gut) I rotate the oils every few days using GSE (grapefruit seed extract), Oil of Oregano and Neem oil.
The only thing mentioned that you can't buy over the counter is the MB12 nasal spray. Thankfully his doctor was very open-minded and checked into it for me and complied. It has helped him tremendously. I feel that it must help the efforts of all the friendly bacteria reach the gut and do their job.
Friday, November 6, 2009
What I Believe Autism is - a Medical Disease
I'm not the only one who feels this way, by any means....I know I'm not the first to feel this way....I have come to this opinion through experience and research... yes, it's out there if you look for it. Why is it not mainstream knowledge? Well, unfortunately I believe it hasn't been accepted in the medical community because to accept this is to accept and admit that vaccines are dangerous and play a role in autism. What role do they play?....
Children who are born with a gene that makes them vulnerable or susceptible to immune dysfunction, however it's triggered. Meaning, it could be triggered instantly or take time like a well filling up and then suddenly spilling over....depending on the individual's immune system's capacity to handle toxins. This can happen in the womb. It's impossible at this time to know which one comes first....the immune dysfunction or the inability to digest food properly, but it happens....like a chain reaction...I'll talk more about this later.
So, vaccines play a role in that they don't cause autism, they compound the problem of autism....and that's because of the immune system dysfunction. Couple that with the rise in the amount of vaccines given and you have more chances that someone with that gene will have their toxic overload capacity filled up and spilling over sooner than later in their life. What do toxins have to do with vaccines?... there are toxins in them....why? because they found that the immune system didn't react to the virus itself so they had to add toxins to get a reaction from the immune system....well, that's all well and good supposing that your immune system is going to 'react' the way it's 'supposed' to to the vaccine! If you're immune system doesn't function properly, what happens? Those viruses and toxins remain in the body wreaking havoc...namely to the GI tract. (gastrointestinal tract)
Alright so, back to the GI tract being a chain reaction to the immune system and again, don't know which reaction comes first. The GI tract is 75% of your immune system, they work hand in hand...if one is not working right, the other is not working right. Damage is caused to the intestines by food not digesting properly and the undigested food that sits in the gut eventually becomes rancid... which creates a breeding ground for bacteria (the unfriendly microbes that exist in everyone's gut) begin to rapidly over-grow and friendly bacteria (like what's found in yogurt) is killed off....or perhaps it is killed off by the use of antibiotics and pesticides and THAT is the cause of the food not being digested properly?
Well anyway, all that yucky stuff happening in the gut eventually eats away at the lining of the intestines and creates tiny holes known as 'Leaky Gut Syndrome' so, all the yucky stuff just mentioned along with regular food just eaten starts to leak out of the intestines into the body where it's not supposed to go! Beside the horrible fact that all that yucky stuff is leaking out, if that isn't bad enough....the next reaction in the chain is the food you eat is leaking out before it has time to digest. Food is supposed to be digested and turned into nutrients before reaching the body...this is what causes food allergies (because the immune system recognizes it as foreign invader) AND it has been noted that the proteins found in wheat and dairy (gluten and casein) when those proteins are in the body and they reach the blood/brain barrier that the brain reacts similar to that of heroin! That's why the gluten free, casein free diet shows progress...however this diet does nothing to heal the damage in the intestines.
I believe this right here is the cause of autism, ADD, bi-polar, depression and every learning disability and every mental illness....it's all related, I believe that....it just varies in the level of brain development (or lack thereof) that the person has had and other individual and circumstantial environments and situations (reaching their 'toxic tipping point') that make for different diagnosis, there is one same thing that is happening in all cases....this yucky stuff is reaching the brain and wreaking havoc...further impairing the immune system to do anything right and all the toxins, bacteria, viruses that come their way to the person worsens their condition because the immune system doesn't fight them off! So, whatever viruses, toxins and bacteria do to the brain...that's there too! I would say major 'brain fog'....like when you're really sick and you just want to lay there in your own world....and any light, noise or other stimulation bothers you.....mmm this sounds like something that is found in autism...no wonder they can't focus and behave strangely!
This diet plays a major role by removing the worse culprits which is the food that is hard to digest and that the bad bacteria feed on....introducing friendly bacteria back into the gut slowly with the home-made 'true' yogurt and enables the body to start to heal the intestines and slowly bring the immune system back into normalcy. It is a 'true' yogurt because it is fermented for at least 24 hours (to digest all the lactose and denature the casein) in a controlled temperature with the right bacteria (and only the right bacteria).
So, any of this being taken seriously by the general medical community would always lead them back to the reality that vaccines compound the problem....so their just not going to even go near it! Think of the billions of dollars, not to mention the lawsuits, the panic and hysteria that would ensue if they gave any of this credibility! So, they just won't...period. So, parents of autistic children like me who have witnessed vaccines damaging their children wage a silent war, trying to get word of danger out there....but, mainly it's falling on deaf ears unfortunately. They have done a good job of reassuring that there is no link between autism and vaccines and that parents like me are just reaching for anything to blame to help us feel better. Like this recognition of our children being sacrificed for 'the greater good' makes us feel better?!!
I'm not saying that vaccines haven't saved lives, they have...it's a fact. But, it's getting way out of hand and it's become a subject of greed for the most part. They won't even look at the possibility of holistic medicine being something that would support the immune system in preventing disease by fighting it off....which is something that other cultures have recognized for centuries...but our culture won't give it any credibility...it has to be what is the newest and latest scientific discovery. Anyway....I'm going way off now... :-) but, these are just things that I think about and wonder about. At the very least, the vaccine schedule should be reduced, it's out of control.
Children who are born with a gene that makes them vulnerable or susceptible to immune dysfunction, however it's triggered. Meaning, it could be triggered instantly or take time like a well filling up and then suddenly spilling over....depending on the individual's immune system's capacity to handle toxins. This can happen in the womb. It's impossible at this time to know which one comes first....the immune dysfunction or the inability to digest food properly, but it happens....like a chain reaction...I'll talk more about this later.
So, vaccines play a role in that they don't cause autism, they compound the problem of autism....and that's because of the immune system dysfunction. Couple that with the rise in the amount of vaccines given and you have more chances that someone with that gene will have their toxic overload capacity filled up and spilling over sooner than later in their life. What do toxins have to do with vaccines?... there are toxins in them....why? because they found that the immune system didn't react to the virus itself so they had to add toxins to get a reaction from the immune system....well, that's all well and good supposing that your immune system is going to 'react' the way it's 'supposed' to to the vaccine! If you're immune system doesn't function properly, what happens? Those viruses and toxins remain in the body wreaking havoc...namely to the GI tract. (gastrointestinal tract)
Alright so, back to the GI tract being a chain reaction to the immune system and again, don't know which reaction comes first. The GI tract is 75% of your immune system, they work hand in hand...if one is not working right, the other is not working right. Damage is caused to the intestines by food not digesting properly and the undigested food that sits in the gut eventually becomes rancid... which creates a breeding ground for bacteria (the unfriendly microbes that exist in everyone's gut) begin to rapidly over-grow and friendly bacteria (like what's found in yogurt) is killed off....or perhaps it is killed off by the use of antibiotics and pesticides and THAT is the cause of the food not being digested properly?
Well anyway, all that yucky stuff happening in the gut eventually eats away at the lining of the intestines and creates tiny holes known as 'Leaky Gut Syndrome' so, all the yucky stuff just mentioned along with regular food just eaten starts to leak out of the intestines into the body where it's not supposed to go! Beside the horrible fact that all that yucky stuff is leaking out, if that isn't bad enough....the next reaction in the chain is the food you eat is leaking out before it has time to digest. Food is supposed to be digested and turned into nutrients before reaching the body...this is what causes food allergies (because the immune system recognizes it as foreign invader) AND it has been noted that the proteins found in wheat and dairy (gluten and casein) when those proteins are in the body and they reach the blood/brain barrier that the brain reacts similar to that of heroin! That's why the gluten free, casein free diet shows progress...however this diet does nothing to heal the damage in the intestines.
I believe this right here is the cause of autism, ADD, bi-polar, depression and every learning disability and every mental illness....it's all related, I believe that....it just varies in the level of brain development (or lack thereof) that the person has had and other individual and circumstantial environments and situations (reaching their 'toxic tipping point') that make for different diagnosis, there is one same thing that is happening in all cases....this yucky stuff is reaching the brain and wreaking havoc...further impairing the immune system to do anything right and all the toxins, bacteria, viruses that come their way to the person worsens their condition because the immune system doesn't fight them off! So, whatever viruses, toxins and bacteria do to the brain...that's there too! I would say major 'brain fog'....like when you're really sick and you just want to lay there in your own world....and any light, noise or other stimulation bothers you.....mmm this sounds like something that is found in autism...no wonder they can't focus and behave strangely!
This diet plays a major role by removing the worse culprits which is the food that is hard to digest and that the bad bacteria feed on....introducing friendly bacteria back into the gut slowly with the home-made 'true' yogurt and enables the body to start to heal the intestines and slowly bring the immune system back into normalcy. It is a 'true' yogurt because it is fermented for at least 24 hours (to digest all the lactose and denature the casein) in a controlled temperature with the right bacteria (and only the right bacteria).
So, any of this being taken seriously by the general medical community would always lead them back to the reality that vaccines compound the problem....so their just not going to even go near it! Think of the billions of dollars, not to mention the lawsuits, the panic and hysteria that would ensue if they gave any of this credibility! So, they just won't...period. So, parents of autistic children like me who have witnessed vaccines damaging their children wage a silent war, trying to get word of danger out there....but, mainly it's falling on deaf ears unfortunately. They have done a good job of reassuring that there is no link between autism and vaccines and that parents like me are just reaching for anything to blame to help us feel better. Like this recognition of our children being sacrificed for 'the greater good' makes us feel better?!!
I'm not saying that vaccines haven't saved lives, they have...it's a fact. But, it's getting way out of hand and it's become a subject of greed for the most part. They won't even look at the possibility of holistic medicine being something that would support the immune system in preventing disease by fighting it off....which is something that other cultures have recognized for centuries...but our culture won't give it any credibility...it has to be what is the newest and latest scientific discovery. Anyway....I'm going way off now... :-) but, these are just things that I think about and wonder about. At the very least, the vaccine schedule should be reduced, it's out of control.
Isaac's Typical Daily Menu
For breakfast:
2 scrambled eggs in coconut oil
pomegranate
6 (that's the dosage) Pro-Child multi-vitamin/multi-mineral from GI ProHealth http://www.giprohealth.com
Snack:
8 tblsp. of the home-made yogurt (as directed at http://www.pecanbread.com)
pomegranate
Lunch:
baked chicken OR ground beef with garlic, spinach and all natural sea salt (Real Salt - that's the name of the brand)
steamed green beans and carrots
Snack:
celery and pecan butter (ground up raw pecans with a little sunflower oil and sea salt) or almond butter (blanched almond butter from Almondie)
Dinner:
pretty much same as lunch....with variations in veggies...like broccoli and cauliflower
Treat:
pomegranate gelatin (gelatin made with Knudsen's Just Pomegranate Juice...the only one that's pure that I can find)
OR banana ice cream (just a blended up frozen banana - very ripe) - bananas are only occasionally because I have seen them be a problem when he has them too often.
OR a smoothie with the yogurt and pomegranate or apple cider (pure, fresh pressed apple juice with nothing else, the kind you find in the refridgerated section of the store) this is also diluted with 1/2 the amount of water.
If this sounds like a dramatic and extreme diet, it really isn't and remember it's temporary....adding everything one at a time very slow to watch for reactions. Anyone who is really sick, you have to give them very easily digested food....well, these kids have the most severe form of intestinal disease, that you have to look at it as you are nourishing them back to health. I have talked to Isaac in this way in a way that he can understand, but I'm very careful in the way I do it....I say things like 'Daddy has asthma and has to have an inhaler and other medication...you have sore's in your tummy and you need to be on a special diet". And I make the diet fun, we explore with foods and he helps me make treats...I emphasize the positive like it's adventure, trying a new thing one at a time. He's very smart about all of this, he amazes me.
So, anyway...this is his typical day....sometimes he will have treats that I make with pecans and some honey, like for Halloween and his birthday. I just have to limit that for occasional things for now as too much honey will feed the gut bugs that we are trying to kill off in his intestines. Those have to be reduced to a healthy balance or his intestines will not heal!
2 scrambled eggs in coconut oil
pomegranate
6 (that's the dosage) Pro-Child multi-vitamin/multi-mineral from GI ProHealth http://www.giprohealth.com
Snack:
8 tblsp. of the home-made yogurt (as directed at http://www.pecanbread.com)
pomegranate
Lunch:
baked chicken OR ground beef with garlic, spinach and all natural sea salt (Real Salt - that's the name of the brand)
steamed green beans and carrots
Snack:
celery and pecan butter (ground up raw pecans with a little sunflower oil and sea salt) or almond butter (blanched almond butter from Almondie)
Dinner:
pretty much same as lunch....with variations in veggies...like broccoli and cauliflower
Treat:
pomegranate gelatin (gelatin made with Knudsen's Just Pomegranate Juice...the only one that's pure that I can find)
OR banana ice cream (just a blended up frozen banana - very ripe) - bananas are only occasionally because I have seen them be a problem when he has them too often.
OR a smoothie with the yogurt and pomegranate or apple cider (pure, fresh pressed apple juice with nothing else, the kind you find in the refridgerated section of the store) this is also diluted with 1/2 the amount of water.
If this sounds like a dramatic and extreme diet, it really isn't and remember it's temporary....adding everything one at a time very slow to watch for reactions. Anyone who is really sick, you have to give them very easily digested food....well, these kids have the most severe form of intestinal disease, that you have to look at it as you are nourishing them back to health. I have talked to Isaac in this way in a way that he can understand, but I'm very careful in the way I do it....I say things like 'Daddy has asthma and has to have an inhaler and other medication...you have sore's in your tummy and you need to be on a special diet". And I make the diet fun, we explore with foods and he helps me make treats...I emphasize the positive like it's adventure, trying a new thing one at a time. He's very smart about all of this, he amazes me.
So, anyway...this is his typical day....sometimes he will have treats that I make with pecans and some honey, like for Halloween and his birthday. I just have to limit that for occasional things for now as too much honey will feed the gut bugs that we are trying to kill off in his intestines. Those have to be reduced to a healthy balance or his intestines will not heal!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Isaac's Diet
Isaac is now on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet as implemented for autism found at http://www.pecanbread.com
When he was diagnosed in March of 2006, I learned of the gfcf diet (gluten free, casein free - no wheat, rye, barley and no dairy) we saw immediate progress in that he stopped biting his arms and pulling his hair when he got angry....I watched the first time he went to bite his arm and it was literally like he had felt the pain of it for the first time!
HOWEVER, after a couple of years on the gfcf diet....we saw some disturbing behavior imerge and some behaviors that got worse. The biggest thing was that he would spin a sock in the backyard for HOURS! It was as if he became a shell of himself, regressing in his emotions and ability to communicate....he was very monotone and robotic one minute and then laughing hysterically over nothing the next. The only words he was using was to repeat something that he saw in a movie. Conversation was limited before, but then it had become non-existent!
So, I scrambled to learn about more ways to help him. I started putting him on every vitamin and enzyme that I read about helping autism and he improved slightly.
Then I stopped panicking and really got down on my knees and prayed for guidance....I was guided (yes, guided by God...I know this and no one else could tell me otherwise) I was guided to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet as found at pecanbread.com and I got the book, researched it and got started right away.
Through months of trial and error, trying to figure things out as I went and learning about Isaac's individual needs, for example I learned that he has a phenol intollerance and that it was linked to his yeast overgrowth somehow and that yeast was the main issue. Isaac has horrible boughts with what is called 'die-off' reaction, when the yeast is killed off in the gut and gets kicked up and makes his symptoms worse! He was so defiant and irritable that I thought I was going to lose my mind! There was even a moment that I thought, I can't take care of him...I can't be his mother, it's too hard! Someone else will do a better job, I can't handle him! It was bad! But, I kept feeling so strong that I needed to be patient and keep pushing through and not give up. I'm so grateful that I did'nt give up!!
Over a course of about a year, I kept trying to give him the home-made yogurt that is required on the diet as part of the healing, just starting out with an 1/8th of a tsp! I would give that to him and his symptoms got so bad, at times I thought he was slipping further away. So, I figured he wasn't ready yet and just stayed on the diet without the yogurt, just occasionally trying the 1/8th of a tsp. every couple of months....and for about a year is was the same thing! THEN I found out about what is referred to as 'the low and slow method' found at pecanbread.com...if they can't tolerate the 1/8th of tsp of yogurt.
Here is that method:
http://pecanbread.com/p/slowprobiotic1.html
It is because of using this method that now Isaac has slowly worked up the amount of yogurt he can tolerate....about every week I would increase it by a tsp. and then after 4 tsp. I increased the amount by 1 tblsp. every week. We are now currently on 8 tblsp. of the yogurt everyday and I've noticed that he can even have a bit more with his treat, like in a smoothie or a baked good of some kind. Since being able to incorporate the yogurt, he has made the most progess ever in his life! It's like we are starting to see the real Isaac imerging and not a shell of himself.
I will post his daily menu and all of his treatments in the next post.
When he was diagnosed in March of 2006, I learned of the gfcf diet (gluten free, casein free - no wheat, rye, barley and no dairy) we saw immediate progress in that he stopped biting his arms and pulling his hair when he got angry....I watched the first time he went to bite his arm and it was literally like he had felt the pain of it for the first time!
HOWEVER, after a couple of years on the gfcf diet....we saw some disturbing behavior imerge and some behaviors that got worse. The biggest thing was that he would spin a sock in the backyard for HOURS! It was as if he became a shell of himself, regressing in his emotions and ability to communicate....he was very monotone and robotic one minute and then laughing hysterically over nothing the next. The only words he was using was to repeat something that he saw in a movie. Conversation was limited before, but then it had become non-existent!
So, I scrambled to learn about more ways to help him. I started putting him on every vitamin and enzyme that I read about helping autism and he improved slightly.
Then I stopped panicking and really got down on my knees and prayed for guidance....I was guided (yes, guided by God...I know this and no one else could tell me otherwise) I was guided to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet as found at pecanbread.com and I got the book, researched it and got started right away.
Through months of trial and error, trying to figure things out as I went and learning about Isaac's individual needs, for example I learned that he has a phenol intollerance and that it was linked to his yeast overgrowth somehow and that yeast was the main issue. Isaac has horrible boughts with what is called 'die-off' reaction, when the yeast is killed off in the gut and gets kicked up and makes his symptoms worse! He was so defiant and irritable that I thought I was going to lose my mind! There was even a moment that I thought, I can't take care of him...I can't be his mother, it's too hard! Someone else will do a better job, I can't handle him! It was bad! But, I kept feeling so strong that I needed to be patient and keep pushing through and not give up. I'm so grateful that I did'nt give up!!
Over a course of about a year, I kept trying to give him the home-made yogurt that is required on the diet as part of the healing, just starting out with an 1/8th of a tsp! I would give that to him and his symptoms got so bad, at times I thought he was slipping further away. So, I figured he wasn't ready yet and just stayed on the diet without the yogurt, just occasionally trying the 1/8th of a tsp. every couple of months....and for about a year is was the same thing! THEN I found out about what is referred to as 'the low and slow method' found at pecanbread.com...if they can't tolerate the 1/8th of tsp of yogurt.
Here is that method:
http://pecanbread.com/p/slowprobiotic1.html
It is because of using this method that now Isaac has slowly worked up the amount of yogurt he can tolerate....about every week I would increase it by a tsp. and then after 4 tsp. I increased the amount by 1 tblsp. every week. We are now currently on 8 tblsp. of the yogurt everyday and I've noticed that he can even have a bit more with his treat, like in a smoothie or a baked good of some kind. Since being able to incorporate the yogurt, he has made the most progess ever in his life! It's like we are starting to see the real Isaac imerging and not a shell of himself.
I will post his daily menu and all of his treatments in the next post.
Why I am starting this blog
I've started this blog for two reasons, one because it will help me in documenting my son's progress and the other is hopefully in sharing what I'm doing, it might help someone else help their child or loved one. I'm not a Doctor and I'm not giving medical advice...I am a mother sharing what is helping my son, simple as that.
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