Our journey in healing my son's body + brain to overcoming his diagnosis.
Last year we were heading down a dark path, our son was hardly verbal (about 5 total words), his body was under immense stress and we were all struggling.
Things were getting harder day after day... and as time was passing, I knew that I was losing my baby.
We often feel overwhelmed when a diagnosis or illness is hanging over our heads and instead of diving in, we fall back. We do everything our therapy sessions or doctors advise, but then we stop there. Therapy is amazing, however it is only a very small fraction of most of our lives.
I encourage anyone to do their research on creating a healing environment for a body to thrive. Diet, hobbies, and socializing are just a few places we began when successfully overcoming a diagnosis like autism. We are often told, this is the diagnosis and there is not much else you can do. It can be extremely discouraging when someone tells us we are powerless, yet it only becomes the truth when we believe them.
I am here to tell you, if I accepted that reality my son would not be the little boy he is today.
There is always something we can do. The desire to want better is all it takes to make that first step, making just one small change today opens the door to a future with endless possibilities.
Starting small is how we grew to become successful, I chose one thing I felt I could consistently follow, and from there I followed my son's lead. It is incredible how our bodies eventually tell us what they need to heal however, it is our job to do the listening.
This is me empowering you to dive in. Whether it be for your own healing or for the healing of your child. It can be overwhelming when we look at where we are today, and where we dream to be. But after completing our last evaluation, I have experienced these dreams becoming our reality.
If you are interested in pursuing the possibilities and would benefit from some external support, click here for 1:1 sessions. I look forward to guiding you in making your dreams become reality too.
2/2/2021
We are a couple days over 3 weeks into our "healing diet" and the results have been incredible. I have made some tweaks along the way, and I decided to transition from a strict SCD/GAPS diet to a healing diet. I made these adjustments based on my instincts and watching my child's food journal. We still follow the main principles of SCD legal foods. Nothing is processed, no gluten and no dairy (except aged cheeses).
Since starting this diet my sons stomach issues seem to have resolved within these 3 weeks. I do want to add it was BRUTAL for some time and we certainly went through a detox phase were I considered giving up.
Now that he seems to be feeling better, we have noticed an increase in language and focus. He is less distracted and very easily redirected. He will attempt new words on a daily basis, which was not the case before. His pronunciation is clearer as well, some words are still hard to understand but overall things are improving.
We keep a food journal as well as monitoring behaviors to track our progress and reference if needed. Referencing our food journal has helped me make some modifications to our diet, things like- cutting back on fruit consumption for a few days. I believe Nico is sensitive to natural sugars so I have been preparing meals/snacks accordingly. We now have a yogurt maker and will start introducing our natural probiotics slowly.
1/16/2021
We are almost a week into SCD!!! I am so thankful that we kept on and were persistent even when feeling like throwing in the towel and microwaving chicken nuggets. This diet is proven to be a lot of work, especially at first, followed by a ton of cooking. I think once we find our rhythm with these new food guidelines it will be much more manageable. My son is requesting eggs frequently now, so I am trying to implement new strategies to encourage eating other foods. The past couple days there has been evidence of die off symptoms, which can be hard to handle at times, but at least it lets us know that the diet is working! I introduced a few additional foods but nothing too exciting. (coconut milk and almond butter) He has still been taking the probiotics and fermented cod liver oil. I am continuing to notice an over all calmness since this diet has started. Sleep is better and attempts of new words have improved as well. He is overall happier and less distracted. I find he is playing very functionally and when he would start to get off path he was redirected with ease. Transitions have always been tough for us, but Nico is learning how to cope with them. If you are considering this diet, I suggest to have a few tricks up your sleeve for the rough times. We have been using fidget toys and water play! Water play has been a life saver for the moments I could use a mental break.
1/12/2021
Tomorrow morning will make it officially 3 days into our diet. It has been a bumpy ride but I am starting to see results, and mental clarity! I did the introduction diet for 2 days and today I added in some banana pancakes, homemade applesauce and avocado. I also added in two fresh pressed juices today, diluted 50%. We did experience some of the die off behaviors, bad enough at one point I began questioning everything and losing faith in my countless hours of research. My advice to anyone out there doing this, trust your gut. Eventually I found my confidence again and I know this is healing my son.
Some of the changes I am noticing are improved mood and overall calmer in general. Improved quality of sleep, more at ease getting to sleep. Pronunciation of words seem to be clearer as well, he is requesting things more confidently and clearly. I am excited for this journey and hope this helps anyone out there thinking of doing this.
1/10/2021
Today is day one of the SCD diet. SCD stands for Specific Carbohydrate Diet. You can read more about it here. We have gradually been making transitions in nutrition since late October of 2020 (we completely eliminated milk from our severely milk addicted child). I believe our transition into SCD wasn’t as brutal with the “die off” stage because we have been slowly but consistently working towards this style of eating over the last few months.
To start off my son’s day, we began with fresh pressed carrot juice as that can help with constipation, so I made that first thing and offered it. He maybe had 1 oz total and was not interested. He opted instead for his normal water from our Alexapure. His first meal consisted of scrambled eggs. I put a touch of organic olive oil in the pan and scrambled 3 eggs with just a dash of salt for seasoning. We are keeping all seasonings mild for now, a pinch of salt or nothing at all. While he was enjoying his eggs, I began to form hamburger patties made from grass fed organic beef over parchment paper. Once the patties were formed, I sprinkled them with minimal salt and broiled for about 15 min (until cooked through).
I was anticipating him eating a lot as he usually does in the first half of the day, so I wanted to be prepared and have options. Shortly after the eggs were gone, he was looking for more food. Next I offered chunks of hamburger with water to wash it down. He had two servings and was enjoying it. During this time I started cooking up homemade broth for dinner. I had been saving and freezing organic chicken bones over the past week or so for this purpose. We put all the bones (about half a big ziploc full) in the pot, two peeled purple carrots, and a few stalks of celery. I filled the pot with water (about 3/4 full) and seasoned well with salt. I am going to use this for lunch and dinner paired with chicken and soft pieces of carrot. His options for after nap are going to be, the remaining hamburger, eggs, or chicken broth with chicken meat or carrots. This is all he will be offered today but I know having the variety will help me push through the hard parts. It is important that if you chose this diet, to stick to your guns even when they are screaming on the floor for a processed snack bar or fruit that isn’t approved yet. Just think to yourself, this is those bad germs telling him they are getting weaker! That’s a good thing!
Stay positive mama, we will get through this!
*Side Note- Nico's behavior has been AMAZING pre naptime. As I said I believe the die off stage to be minimal due to our improved eating habits these past few months. He was very calm, much more than previously. He played in the kitchen with his threading shape toy and asked or signed for help several times when he needed it. He was counting his shapes, multiple times I heard him saying various numbers. He did not stim once!!! YAY! He did not cry once other than the protein bar incident.
Eventually we came into the dining room and then the living area where he quietly played more with his trucks and cars very “functionally”. After some playing and a little TV, I started letting him know nap was coming (he was showing signs of readiness as well).
As usual, when I say nap he signs to eat. So I had also hardboiled a few eggs anticipating this situation, as well as more pieces of hamburger. He opted for the meat again, so we went with it while calmly doing our shape threading toy. After we cleaned the toy up, we got all our loveys ready for nap. He was out by 12:05 and I will wake him up by 3 if he doesn’t get up on his own.
Comments