‘Recovering’ from autism
Another inspiring story of success for a family implementing Biomedical Treatments for Autism for their son:
“I am a stay-at-home mother to three boys (Daniel, Charlie and Joe) and my husband is a Federal Prosecutor in Chicago. Our eldest son had life-threatening asthma at age 2 and our middle son has autism.
I run a state-wide support group called “Illinois Biomedical Kids” where parents draw support and guidance from one another as they successfully treat their children with autism.
In August of 2005, there were 20 of us. Now, two years later, we are almost 200 parents strong.
My husband and I are very thankful we decided to look into the science ourselves and not simply take the “experts” word for it. Through the medical treatments aimed at detoxifying their bodies of heavy metals and regulating their immune systems, my boys are doing extremely well today.
My eldest no longer has asthma and my son with autism is mainstreamed in a 2nd grade classroom. Fortunately, he received intensive therapy through Early Intervention from age 10 months and once we began treating his underlying medical problems, he has flourished in home Applied Behvior Analysis (ABA) programs. He is a well-liked member of his class with many friends. My youngest, under-vaccinated boy, has neither autism nor asthma.
I know the word “recovery” strikes a resonant chord in many individuals within the autism community. We aren’t trying to change who our children are-we are simply not ignoring the very real medical problems they have.
For instance, all the mainstream doctors I approached (including the very talented allergy/immunology team at Children’s Memorial Hospital) assured me that my son didn’t have any problems with milk and could not explain why he threw up almost everything he ate and had severe gastric reflux as a 6-week-old infant. However, when I finally bit the bullet and took milk products out of his diet, he stopped throwing up.
I remember when he was 3 years old, he used to have to sleep next to a bed pan every night. By simply replacing milk and wheat products with healthier, easier to digest alternatives, he not only became healthier but his language and cognitive skills improved dramatically.
I know this because his diet was the only thing we changed within a six-month period of time and we had his language tested right when we started the diet and then six months into the diet. His expressive language scores jumped 10 months with absolutely no speech therapy and a very difficult family move during this period of time.
The same improvement was seen by all who worked with him when we began chelation (using chemicals to remove excess or toxic metals) as well as hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Transition tantrums ceased and his congitive skills soared.
Is Charlie cured now? I don’t consider him to be, but I really believe it depends on who you ask. Many people would never guess he was ever as severe as he was and he has playdates with all neurotypical peers who don’t see him as anything but another playmate.
Once we paid attention to his medical issues, educational and therapuetic issues fell into place and the difficult social skills and language taught through many hours of therapy were finally ’sticking.” It no longer feels as if we are pushing a boulder up a steep hill.
I also know a lot of parents with “recovered” children who choose not to talk about it. Perhaps many of us resist using the word “recovered” because it implies that the journey is over.
For those of us who have entered the realm of biomedical treatments for our children, it has become impossible to go back and pretend that we don’t know better when we make parenting choices based on convenience rather than health. To pay close attention to the diets of our affected children and ignore the processed food we feed our “neurotypical” children. To ignore our own health.
I’m truly thankful that my son is at the point when I can take a little bit of time for myself now and then, yet this is unfortunately not the case for so many parents whose job is to ensure the very safety of their child, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. My son may not have lost his autism diagnosis yet.
However, when I consider the fact that just a few years ago, he could not hold down the food he ate, he stimmed alone for hours on end, he could not carry on a simple conversation, and he tantrumed to the point of kicking my then-pregnant belly repeatedly when transitioning from one activity to the next, I marvel at the endless possibilities within his little 8-year-old body and can’t help but hope for his future. For all of our children’s futures.
source: chicagotribune.com