Forgot to mention, Georgia had started eating eggs again. This may not seem like a big deal, but when your child will only eat 2 forms of protein and then all of a sudden won't eat one anymore, it's a problem.

She's been into cooking lately which I think is cute. Apparently one day she wanted Daddy to cook with her and the only thing we really had to cook that she could eat was eggs. She was excited to help make the eggs and when they were done Daddy decided to see if she would eat them. Georgia would start to put one in her mouth and if she would see Daddy looking she would put it back down. He told me that he forced himself not to look at her for several minutes and when he looked back the egg was mostly gone. Then she asked for two more eggs and ate them both. YAY! Sooo exciting!

Anyway, just thought U=I'd share that bit of good news.

A year with the DAN doctor - Month 1

Went to see the DAN doctor today and it went really well. Got some new probiotics as the old ones seemed to have lost their effectiveness. Also got some B12 so we can start injections. I'm excited about this because I have heard good things and we have been wanting to try it out.

Doctor said the keratosis on her cheeks is likely diet related. He said we may have to eliminate corn or soy. Soy is no problem...corn is a whole other issue, but if we must we must. Next time we will be looking at what blood work to have done. After seeing her Lead level (which her pediatrician told us was normal) he was not thrilled and told me that her pediatrician was wrong and the level should be 0 if at all possible. Good to know. He suggested higher doses of Vitamin C to try and get rid of some of the lead.

we'll see how it goes.

Look an egg, it's in a tree.

Today is Easter and we were excited to get GA into the fun of an egg hunt. Grandma sent her an Easter egg hunting dress and Daddy and I filled Easter eggs with fun little toys and stickers (since she can't have the candy). Unfortunately, GA decided to come down with a cold yesterday and has turned into the snot monster today. However, I refused to give in to the evil sickness. The sun came out and Kris and I went down to hide some eggs around the yard. We had to put the pretty Easter dress over her pajamas because it was a little chilly, but we headed out.

We decided to recycle her Halloween basket for GA to put her eggs in. Even though she wasn't as energy -filled today due to the cold, she was pretty excited to look for the eggs and put them in her bucket. She kept saying, "Oh, another egg." and "Do you see an egg? Yeah, there it is. I got it." It was adorable. My favorite was, "Look and egg, it's in a tree." She's so cute. After collecting her eggs we went and opened the eggs to get the little presents which she was happy about. We saved some of the eggs so that we can do another egg hunt with her NT friend from down the street once she's not sick anymore. I don't think she'll care that it's not Easter anymore.

Once all the Easter fun was finished, We all made dinner as a family. GA helped us make meatballs and GFCF pasta. She mixed the spices into the meat and rolled it into little balls that she put in her pot of sauce. We put rice in the meatballs which makes them have little spikes so she ran into the kitchen yelling, "PORCUPINE MEATBALLS!" Over all she had a good day of interacting with us even with the sickness. Last night I laid with her in her bed and she let me rub her head like she used to when she was a wee babe. It was nice and she fell asleep so fast, she must have been exhausted.

I think she has been less hyper this week, although it's hard to tell if it's the cold or the GABA. We'll go with both and see how she changes once she's healthier. We have an appt. with the DAN doctor Friday so I am kinda excited to see what suggestions he has for GA's treatment.

Anyway, happy Easter everyone.

Pinocchio eat your heart out...

Hello there,

Just an update on what's been going on around her lately. Georgia has been doing really well. Everyday she amazes me with her transformation into what I like to call "a real boy" Ok yes, I am aware that she is a girl, and that she is in fact real, but I am going with the Pinocchio reference here people so deal. Today Daddy bought her a new doll for her new dollhouse (to be posted about later) and she was very excited. She called it a "Girl doll" which is great because she is starting to label things properly. She then proceeded to quietly play with the doll in the house and outside of it. She gave her a purse and pranced her around acting out some scene or another....sooo cute...like a "real boy (girl)" The other day we were walking through the woods and she grabbed my hand and said, "Follow me, ok." to which my reply was "Ok" while trying not to cry because my beautiful baby had just spoken directly to me in a full sentence....like a "real boy."

Yesterday she found a hammer (yes, I know wonderful parenting) and she went to her new dollhouse and started pretending to hammer the nails in the roof. As she did this she said "Tap, tap, tap." She's soo smart.

George has been slightly less hyperactive lately. Don't know if that's because she may be coming down with a cold or if the GABA is starting to work....I like to think it's the GABA. Yesterday we went to the playground and she played on each thing there (usually she just spends the whole time swinging) and when she did the swing she barely stimmed at all. Usually the swing is a stim-heavy activity. That's a god start as far as I'm concerned.

The A Hope for Autism (AHFA) therapist came Tuesday and met with Georgia and talked with me about goals. She thought GA's eye contact was great now (she hasn't seen her for 9 months or so). I am so excited that they will be back with GA. She will be starting with 6 hrs of therapy a week which is great and she may be bumped up to 10hrs. Next Friday she is going to see the DAN doctor which I am really excited about. We have been wanting to take her to see him, but he has huge waiting lists and our insurance won't cover him. AHFA got us an appt. within 2 weeks and the time is donated so we don't have to worry about the bill, yay! Also they are trying to get Krikman labs (where we get all of GA's supplements) to donate supplements, which would be AWESOME. They are very expensive and insurance won't cover any of them. I am very excited to be starting with this pilot program with them. Maybe the DAN doctor can help us with our biomedical treatment and GA can improve even more.

Anyway, time to go make sure GA is not peeing on the floor (#1 goal for AHFA therapist: Potty training!)

Even though Georgia's ASD has always caused her to be a relatively independent child she still seemed to want to be around us while she did her own thing. Lately however, GA has been totally content to play alone in her room with the door shut. In fact she insists on it. If we enter the room most of the time we are quickly ushered out and she shuts the door again. Apparently her room has become a parent-free zone. Kris thinks it's because she now sees us as the fun-enders. I suppose that is true since we will come and take her videos away after a certain period of time, or make her take a bath, or sit at the table to eat, etc. Fun-enders, that's us.

While it makes me sad that GA does not want to be with us much anymore, at least I am happy with the way she is spending he alone time. I hear her in her room practicing her alphabet and counting so at least she's getting some benefit from her solitude.

*Update: so I'm sitting here wallowing in the fact that my baby hates me and once again she surprises me. She comes out of her room and gets her shoes and wants to go outside. Yay! we went to the playground and she took turns sliding with the other kids (yay again!) and then she kicked a soccer ball around very happily until she fell down and I thought she dislocated her knee (but she was fine after a little limping). Then I decided it was time to come home and she was ok with it. We played Simon says and the animal noises game....she was very cute. I love it when she talks to me. Now she is having some quiet time and having some cake (GFCF muffin which she calls cake and loves).

Supplement hell - update

Georgia is relatively stable on all her supplements at this point. Which means we will be adding another shortly. She has been off the Vitamin A/cod liver oil for a while and I have noticed a dramatic change in her eye contact. She has been squinting and looking out of the corner of her eye at things a lot more than before. She intentionally won't look at us when we get her attention. I wonder if it is actually uncomfortable for her to look right at us.

The Vitamin A is on it's way in the mail so we are excited to add it back in and track any progress. However, the Vitamin A is not the new supplement that is just being re-added. We are going to start her on an Amino Acid called GABA. GABA is a neurotransmitter that is important for controlling brain activity overload. The hope is that this will control some of her hyperactivity.

In the future, chlathlation (gentler metal detox than chelation) and possibly isopathies (which actually treat vaccine problems with the vaccines themselves). Wish us luck. I will keep you updated on progress with the new (and old) supplements.

The ups and downs of ASD

We have been seeing some great improvements with Georgia lately. At the same time however, we have seen some other habits come back or get worse. Her language is really coming along and she is taking instruction much better. Unfortunately she has recently become more solitary preferring to play in her room by herself instead of hang out with her dad or I. In addition she has gotten better at ignoring us when we are talking to her and has inappropriate emotional reactions like she used too in the beginning. She has started laughing at us when scolded, which is very frustrating. Not sure why this is happening again, but I guess it could be worse. She could be tantruming or stimming all day long instead.

Today was a good day though. She played pizza party with me and some of her toys. It was nice that she didn't shove me out of the room and shut the door (common occurrence around here lately). Afterward we played some number and alphabet matching games which she did very well on and seemed to actually be interested in (which is half the battle) I will try and get some video soon.

We had an incident at school where they were feeding her a GF food that they thought was ok, but the website says it may contain traces of milk. I realize this isn't the end of the world and that they were trying to help, but I wish they had run it past us before feeding it to her. Her system is so fragile and I need to be able to trust that she is sticking to her diet at school too.

I think that one of the most frustrating things about treating autism is that you are never 100% sure what causes a setback or a breakthrough. You can be pretty sure, but there are so many variables with our kids.
For instance: Is her poop weird this week because she's fighting a bug, or is it the possible milk traces in the food they gave her at school, or is it bacteria flaring in her gut because we have killed off most of the yeast? And are any of the above causing her behavior problems or is it that she's been out of vitamin A for a couple days while we wait for it to come in the mail?
Who knows.....

Anyway, our life is full of ups and downs for Georgia. All we can do is go with the flow and deal with things as the come.