Apparently, autistic children have strange sleeping issues. From 11 months, Elisha has had issues with sleep. At times I had thought he was having night terrors. Then at times I was very convinced he was having night mares. These days, he has some good nights in which he sleeps all the way through the night and some tough very sleepless nights. Last night was pretty rough. I had an opening shift at work this morning. So Ryan had to get up with Elisha. Elisha went to sleep last night at 7PM and woke up at midnight. Elisha did not go to sleep until either 6 or 7AM (he may not have even gone back to sleep at all). I went in to check on him at 9AM this morning and he was sitting in his crib wide awake. I called his doctor today and asked about giving him melatonin. This really can't continue. I have never seen Ryan so tired. Poor guy.
http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/helping-your-child-with-autism-get-a-good-nights-sleep
Monday, January 26, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
School
So I have decided that I am going back to school. I am enrolled in an adult accelerated program to get my bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. My goal is to then get my masters in Special education and hopefully get certified in ABA. I start school January 19th. I am really excited that I will be able to learn techniques to help teach my son.
Changes
The very first change made was Elisha's diet. He is on a Gluten-Free, Casein-Free diet. We have read a lot of books about diets and supplements. Ryan and I decided to place Elisha on this diet because of the convincing studies done by ARI (Autism Research Institute). Data collected from more than 26,000 parents who completed the ARI questionnaire, found that 66% of the children got better/showed improvement with the GFCF Diet. We feel that if it works for Elisha, wonderful. If it doesn't work, he's eating really healthy. It has been a challenge. However, this change is probably one of the easier changes. He has been Gluten-Free, Casein-Free for 3 months now.
We also had his urine and stool tested for Candida and metals. They found Candida in his system and a high level of Lead, Nickel, Platinum, and Tungsten. So basically, when Candida is present his digestion does not work properly and therefore can not absorb nutrients properly nor can his body excrete metals as a typical, healthy person/child would.
So the first task is to deal with the Candida. We have been giving him Proboulardi which is a pro biotic that helps kill of the bad yeast. I have done some reading (Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall) about Specific Carbohydrate Diet. The idea is to consume only monosaccharides, which is already broken down for digestion, so that the intestine can heal itself. The difficulty in starting the diet is that it must be follow rigidly for it to work properly. I am not ready to start it with Elisha. Each day that passes, though, I feel a sense of guilt. If time is critical when dealing with Autism, with whatever approach one takes, I don't want to waste time.
Elisha has been on Proboulardi for a month and a half. We will probably retest him for Candida in another month and a half. If it is gone, then we will start the chelation to help his body get rid of the metals.
Since we have begun everything, we have noticed that his eye contact is almost back to normal, he responds a little better to his name and he is starting to use words again. The progress is slower than I had hoped. However, any progress is very good.
I have started to read about Applied Behavior Analysis. It is the "breakdown of all skills into small discrete tasks, taught in a highly structured and hierarchical manner." The difficulty with children with Autism is that imitation, which comes quite naturally to typical children, is not present in children with Autism. If imitation is a huge tool by which we learn, then learning does not come without a lot of work.
I would really like to start ABA with Elisha. However, the task seems so overwhelming. I feel so unqualified for this job. I definitely feel a lot pressure to do everything perfectly. This is a matter of the well-being of my child. Applied Behavior Analysis therapists cost around $250/hr which comes to $480,000/year (if the child receives 40 hrs a week of therapy, which is recommended if the child is lower functioning). Also, there are only select cities in the country that have these specialty therapists. So hiring a ABA Therapist is out of the question. This then leaves me and Ryan to apply this technique. Like I said, I feel completely unqualified for this job.
He does receive 45 minutes, once a week, of speech therapy and occupational therapy. It does help. However, it definitely is not enough for what he needs. I am thankful that at least he receives some outside help.
We also had his urine and stool tested for Candida and metals. They found Candida in his system and a high level of Lead, Nickel, Platinum, and Tungsten. So basically, when Candida is present his digestion does not work properly and therefore can not absorb nutrients properly nor can his body excrete metals as a typical, healthy person/child would.
So the first task is to deal with the Candida. We have been giving him Proboulardi which is a pro biotic that helps kill of the bad yeast. I have done some reading (Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall) about Specific Carbohydrate Diet. The idea is to consume only monosaccharides, which is already broken down for digestion, so that the intestine can heal itself. The difficulty in starting the diet is that it must be follow rigidly for it to work properly. I am not ready to start it with Elisha. Each day that passes, though, I feel a sense of guilt. If time is critical when dealing with Autism, with whatever approach one takes, I don't want to waste time.
Elisha has been on Proboulardi for a month and a half. We will probably retest him for Candida in another month and a half. If it is gone, then we will start the chelation to help his body get rid of the metals.
Since we have begun everything, we have noticed that his eye contact is almost back to normal, he responds a little better to his name and he is starting to use words again. The progress is slower than I had hoped. However, any progress is very good.
I have started to read about Applied Behavior Analysis. It is the "breakdown of all skills into small discrete tasks, taught in a highly structured and hierarchical manner." The difficulty with children with Autism is that imitation, which comes quite naturally to typical children, is not present in children with Autism. If imitation is a huge tool by which we learn, then learning does not come without a lot of work.
I would really like to start ABA with Elisha. However, the task seems so overwhelming. I feel so unqualified for this job. I definitely feel a lot pressure to do everything perfectly. This is a matter of the well-being of my child. Applied Behavior Analysis therapists cost around $250/hr which comes to $480,000/year (if the child receives 40 hrs a week of therapy, which is recommended if the child is lower functioning). Also, there are only select cities in the country that have these specialty therapists. So hiring a ABA Therapist is out of the question. This then leaves me and Ryan to apply this technique. Like I said, I feel completely unqualified for this job.
He does receive 45 minutes, once a week, of speech therapy and occupational therapy. It does help. However, it definitely is not enough for what he needs. I am thankful that at least he receives some outside help.
Allergist
Some time after Elisha began displaying symptoms of Autism, I noticed he would break out in a rash all over his body whenever he took a bath. It started mild. I tried different types of soaps thinking that he was sensitive to whatever I was using on him. Then one day I gave him a bath with just water. I did not clean him with soap, just let him play in the water. He still broke out. With each bath it seemed to get worse and he would cry and scratch his whole body.I had someone from the water company come out and test our water. According the regulations it is safe. So I made an appointment with an allergist to see if he was allergic to something in the water. After all, I can't continue to bath him in something that produces a painful rash nor can he stop bathing altogether.
The allergist was nice, but gave minimal effort to help me. I told him what was happening. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring this picture to show what it looked like. It's not hives. So his belief is that Elisha has Urticaria. Urticaria is a "disorder characterized by the rapid onset of itchiness, redness, and swelling of the skin within minutes after exposure to a cold stimulus." So he did a test where we put an ice cube on Elisha's arm for 7 minutes to see the effect it would have. Nothing happened. However, he maintained that Elisha has Urticaria. I assured him that his baths are a 95 degree temperature . He was not persuaded. His advise was to give Elisha Claritin before taking a bath. I just wonder, is that the common advise an allergist gives to patients who might be allergic to something. I guess than anyone allergic to peanuts should continue to eat peanuts, but just take Claritin or Benedryl before they eat it. Grrr... The allergist would not do an allergy test on Elisha and the other day I received my glorious bill for a half effort job.
I installed a filter in the bath tub. It has helped. I don't know what is in the water that does this to Elisha's skin. I am just glad that something helped.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Signs of Autism
It was probably back in March or April that suspicions arose. Elisha began to lose eye contact. He could make eye contact but it was brief. He stopped responding to his name and then he lost already acquired skills, such as speech. I went back and looked at videos before the symptoms manifested. I found a video that I love. It was recorded when he was about 13 months. Notice his response. This was him before:
I love Elisha. Here is a video that I took a couple months ago. If you notice in the following video when I call Elisha's name, Isaac immediately looks at me, while Elisha never responds. Elisha at age 24 months:
I love Elisha. Here is a video that I took a couple months ago. If you notice in the following video when I call Elisha's name, Isaac immediately looks at me, while Elisha never responds. Elisha at age 24 months:
August 15, 2008
August 15, 2008 was the day I was told my toddler, 23 months at the time, has Autism. Much has transpired since that day and I have gone back and forth about creating a blog about our journey with Autism. Honestly, sometimes I feel like all I do is talk about Autism. I feel like people may be sick of hearing about it. So I start a blog and then delete it. I will write notes on facebook and then delete them. My emotion during this time is not pleasant.
However, in the midst of it all, I know that God has allowed us to have a child with Autism. I see Him in the middle of this. I do have some really difficult days, which produce a shameful attitude. Nonetheless, I have hope and optimism that God will be glorified and we will see great things through this.
For my friends who read this, please keep us in your prayers. My greatest struggle is entrusting this to God. By default, I will strive without rest to do what needs to be done. The sad effect of such behavior is that Christ is placed second.
However, in the midst of it all, I know that God has allowed us to have a child with Autism. I see Him in the middle of this. I do have some really difficult days, which produce a shameful attitude. Nonetheless, I have hope and optimism that God will be glorified and we will see great things through this.
For my friends who read this, please keep us in your prayers. My greatest struggle is entrusting this to God. By default, I will strive without rest to do what needs to be done. The sad effect of such behavior is that Christ is placed second.
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