I am the parent of a child with Autism.
I created this website for practice with keeping a blog.
I have since created another website called "Ideoforms Indications" at Blogspot to put a lot of the things I have posted in Forums and other places to consolidate them for my use. I have begun to post some information there on Autism.
http://ideoformsindications.blogspot.com
I think that one of the Forums I have regularly posted to might be closing down soon. I collect quotes and do some writing and opinion pieces and was using that Forum to do that. It was nice to have my favorite stuff in one place, but now that place is changing, and so I am copying postings to Ideoform's Indications.
Background on the Autism information on this site:
My son went through a treatment program funded through research. At one point I was asked to write down other treatments I had tried, and things I was doing to help his Autism symptoms. This is the original source of the Autism information on this site. Because its such a large amount of information, when I consult with parents and teachers about Autism treatments and what I did with my own family, I have found it easier to just refer them to this website instead of printing up everything each time. People can print out what they like, or just read it online.
I have used quotes in IEP meetings, and articles on various things I think will help someone working with an Autistic person to teach them and relate to them.
Eventually I am only going to maintain one site and will combine the two. I am linking this blog with that one, instead of moving all the posts to that site because I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
So this site has only a few of my recent items. For more information and quotes, please go to Ideoform's Indications.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
What's for dinner Saturday night?
A Gluten-free choice for dinner:
In my City, Wauwatosa, we have a new Farmer's Market this summer. Organic produce, live music, fresh made drip coffee, crepes made while you watch, the very BEST apple cider I have ever tasted (I hate the taste of preservatives.) Its close to my house and we take our bikes there every Saturday morning.
Farmer's markets are my favorite places because I get to watch puppies and children and cyclists. Our market is right on a railroad track and we get to see the trains close up. It's on a beautiful scenic bike trail, and also alongside the Menomonee River, by a bluff filled with old trees that provide shade. A tiny red historical building that just was remodelled sells candy nearby, and our favorite restaurant, Noodles, is just over the bridge.
My friend Linda runs a business making naturally gluten-free Mexican food using grass-fed, hormone-free meats. She sells them at the Farmer's Market in pans, frozen, and so every Saturday all summer, this has been dinner. My favorite is the vegetarain ones with spinach and black beans.
Linda Mulholland is the owner of Cocina DeLeon. Linda's enchiladas and side dishes are based on her mother's recipes from Monterrey, Mexico. In creating her recipes, Linda took the flavors she loved growing up; lime, salsas, chiles, garlic, corn tortillas, and Mexican cheeses.
18900 W. Bluemound Rd., Suite 117
Brookfield, WI 53045
In my City, Wauwatosa, we have a new Farmer's Market this summer. Organic produce, live music, fresh made drip coffee, crepes made while you watch, the very BEST apple cider I have ever tasted (I hate the taste of preservatives.) Its close to my house and we take our bikes there every Saturday morning.
Farmer's markets are my favorite places because I get to watch puppies and children and cyclists. Our market is right on a railroad track and we get to see the trains close up. It's on a beautiful scenic bike trail, and also alongside the Menomonee River, by a bluff filled with old trees that provide shade. A tiny red historical building that just was remodelled sells candy nearby, and our favorite restaurant, Noodles, is just over the bridge.
My friend Linda runs a business making naturally gluten-free Mexican food using grass-fed, hormone-free meats. She sells them at the Farmer's Market in pans, frozen, and so every Saturday all summer, this has been dinner. My favorite is the vegetarain ones with spinach and black beans.
Linda Mulholland is the owner of Cocina DeLeon. Linda's enchiladas and side dishes are based on her mother's recipes from Monterrey, Mexico. In creating her recipes, Linda took the flavors she loved growing up; lime, salsas, chiles, garlic, corn tortillas, and Mexican cheeses.
18900 W. Bluemound Rd., Suite 117
Brookfield, WI 53045
(414) 403-8650
Linda@cocinadeleongourmet.com
Anyway
Eleven Paradoxical Commandments
========================
"People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
The world is full of violence, injustice, starvation, disease, and environmental destruction.
Have faith anyway.
~ Kent M. Keith
Anyway, The Paradoxical Commandments
http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com/
========================
"People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
The world is full of violence, injustice, starvation, disease, and environmental destruction.
Have faith anyway.
~ Kent M. Keith
Anyway, The Paradoxical Commandments
http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com/
Rest In Peace
RIP Webster Rabbit
Webster, our family house rabbit, and for whom this blog is named, died last week.
He was very loved and will be dearly missed.
He was a six years old white rabbit with black pointy ears, black eyes, and a black cross on his back. We think he was a Himalayan breed of rabbit.
He was born at the Humane Society in Milwaukee, to a mother who was pregnant when she was brought there, and was one of 8 siblings.
He was litter box trained and lived in our house like a cat.
He was part of our family every day.
We had a funeral and he is buried in the back yard, with flowers over his grave.
Each of the boys wrote him a letter that is with him.
We lit candles and each shared good memories of Webster.
We remembered that he was the softest thing in the universe.
He always won a no-blinking contest with whoever tried.
He liked to play hide-and-seek with his blanket.
We would throw the blanket over him and say "Where's Webster?" and he would poke around under it, and just loved when we "found" him.
We remember that nobody could catch Webster if he didn't want to be caught. We learned that is why rabbits have such loose fur. When you grab them, the fur becomes almost "slippery" and they get away and you just have hands covered in a thin film of angora.
His job was family Greeter, and Watcher.
The job of being a prey animal is to Watch, or be dinner.
When he was naughty we called him "Hasenpfeffer." (The German word for Rabbit stew.)
Its a good thing he didn't know what that meant, but he knew when he was being "bad." Which wasn't that often.
He was a very good bunny.
He was silent except for sneezes. Every time he sneezed it was eleven times.
And for thumping. Remember the movie "Bambi?"
The rabbit in Bambi was named "Thumper" because he thumped to warn the other rabbits. Webster did this, too.
He started by thumping at the vacuume cleaner, but later on, faced it down and actually followed me around while vacuuming.
One time I was on a kick to learn everything I could about the practice of Fung Shui. Feng Shui is like a decorating style, but also has ceremonial aspects, one of which is the practice of "Space Clearing" which involves ringing a bell loudly to clear out old energy in your living space... we were ringing a large cast iron school bell in each room, and of course, couldn't really explain things to Webster. He got a lot of extra lettuce that day.
Webster liked to jump in our laps and watch TV with us. He also enjoyed going outside occasionally on a leash while we did gardening.
I grew special things in our small organic urban garden, just for Webster. His favorites were red leafy lettuce, parsley, cilantro, and carrot tops.
He always noticed when I missed giving him his special treat of five raisins per day. (Any more and he would get a tummy ache.)
His diet consisted of mainly organic thick rolled oats, rabbit pellets, fresh green things -- the greener the better, like broccoli, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and tons of organic hay.
We took Webster to the Animal Emergency Clinic in our area, but it was too late by the time we got there. The clinic was very helpful and examined him and helped us to deal with his sudden death.
I can't be sure, because the veterinarian didn't know, but I think he ate too much Kale the day he died. I had just been to the local Farmer's Market, and had bought a ton of organic Kale. He loved it and kept begging for more of it, but I think it didn't agree with him. Rabbits get sick so quickly that within a few hours of him acting just slightly funny, he had what looked like a seizure and he died.
There was no evidence that he had gotten into anything that he shouldn't of, since I searched the entire house for evidence of anything being left out where he could get into it. Our whole house is rabbit-proofed, but we keep the bedroom doors closed when he is out just to keep down the rabbit fur.
He was our first rabbit, and so perhaps we might do better caring for another one, but for now we are going to be rabbitless, and wait a respectful amount of time before considering another pet. I think it is good to miss the pet you had, so you can appreciate the place they filled in your life, and appreciate the benefit of any new pet's companionship even more.
I think a rabbit is a great pet. Before we got Webster, we checked out books at the library on caring for rabbits, and bought a book on the style of rabbit keeping called "HouseRabbits" at the Humane Society. We also learned from them tips on keeping a Rabbit. Webster came to us with an identification tag under his skin, and having been neutered/spayed (I can never remember which is which) he was better behaved from having been neutered, I think.
We went on the web and read up on house rabbits and their care before we brought him home. We bought all the things he needed a week before bringing him home, so he came to a house that was ready to become his home.
Our Humane Society gave us Webster at no cost, right after Easter, because they get a lot of rabbits after Easter, when families realize the time and expense of caring for a rabbit is more than they bargained for. It helps to research a pet before getting one so you don't interrupt each other's lives so much.
So for this reason, we are waiting some time to adopt again, and next time we are considering getting a bonded pair. Rabbits don't all get along well with each other, and they can fight and hurt one another if they don't. But a bonded pair can stay bonded for life, and they grieve terribly for each other if they are separated. So they are hard to adopt, because not everyone wants two. And the Humane Society tries to keep bonded pairs together.
The boys are older and busier and won't have the same amount of time to play with a pet, and so a pair can entertain each other.
These are great resources that we used before deciding to adopt our first rabbit.
House Rabbit Society
http://www.rabbit.org/
House Rabbit Handbook
How to Live with an Urban Rabbit
By Marinell Harriman
Webster, our family house rabbit, and for whom this blog is named, died last week.
He was very loved and will be dearly missed.
He was a six years old white rabbit with black pointy ears, black eyes, and a black cross on his back. We think he was a Himalayan breed of rabbit.
He was born at the Humane Society in Milwaukee, to a mother who was pregnant when she was brought there, and was one of 8 siblings.
He was litter box trained and lived in our house like a cat.
He was part of our family every day.
We had a funeral and he is buried in the back yard, with flowers over his grave.
Each of the boys wrote him a letter that is with him.
We lit candles and each shared good memories of Webster.
We remembered that he was the softest thing in the universe.
He always won a no-blinking contest with whoever tried.
He liked to play hide-and-seek with his blanket.
We would throw the blanket over him and say "Where's Webster?" and he would poke around under it, and just loved when we "found" him.
We remember that nobody could catch Webster if he didn't want to be caught. We learned that is why rabbits have such loose fur. When you grab them, the fur becomes almost "slippery" and they get away and you just have hands covered in a thin film of angora.
His job was family Greeter, and Watcher.
The job of being a prey animal is to Watch, or be dinner.
When he was naughty we called him "Hasenpfeffer." (The German word for Rabbit stew.)
Its a good thing he didn't know what that meant, but he knew when he was being "bad." Which wasn't that often.
He was a very good bunny.
He was silent except for sneezes. Every time he sneezed it was eleven times.
And for thumping. Remember the movie "Bambi?"
The rabbit in Bambi was named "Thumper" because he thumped to warn the other rabbits. Webster did this, too.
He started by thumping at the vacuume cleaner, but later on, faced it down and actually followed me around while vacuuming.
One time I was on a kick to learn everything I could about the practice of Fung Shui. Feng Shui is like a decorating style, but also has ceremonial aspects, one of which is the practice of "Space Clearing" which involves ringing a bell loudly to clear out old energy in your living space... we were ringing a large cast iron school bell in each room, and of course, couldn't really explain things to Webster. He got a lot of extra lettuce that day.
Webster liked to jump in our laps and watch TV with us. He also enjoyed going outside occasionally on a leash while we did gardening.
I grew special things in our small organic urban garden, just for Webster. His favorites were red leafy lettuce, parsley, cilantro, and carrot tops.
He always noticed when I missed giving him his special treat of five raisins per day. (Any more and he would get a tummy ache.)
His diet consisted of mainly organic thick rolled oats, rabbit pellets, fresh green things -- the greener the better, like broccoli, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and tons of organic hay.
We took Webster to the Animal Emergency Clinic in our area, but it was too late by the time we got there. The clinic was very helpful and examined him and helped us to deal with his sudden death.
I can't be sure, because the veterinarian didn't know, but I think he ate too much Kale the day he died. I had just been to the local Farmer's Market, and had bought a ton of organic Kale. He loved it and kept begging for more of it, but I think it didn't agree with him. Rabbits get sick so quickly that within a few hours of him acting just slightly funny, he had what looked like a seizure and he died.
There was no evidence that he had gotten into anything that he shouldn't of, since I searched the entire house for evidence of anything being left out where he could get into it. Our whole house is rabbit-proofed, but we keep the bedroom doors closed when he is out just to keep down the rabbit fur.
He was our first rabbit, and so perhaps we might do better caring for another one, but for now we are going to be rabbitless, and wait a respectful amount of time before considering another pet. I think it is good to miss the pet you had, so you can appreciate the place they filled in your life, and appreciate the benefit of any new pet's companionship even more.
I think a rabbit is a great pet. Before we got Webster, we checked out books at the library on caring for rabbits, and bought a book on the style of rabbit keeping called "HouseRabbits" at the Humane Society. We also learned from them tips on keeping a Rabbit. Webster came to us with an identification tag under his skin, and having been neutered/spayed (I can never remember which is which) he was better behaved from having been neutered, I think.
We went on the web and read up on house rabbits and their care before we brought him home. We bought all the things he needed a week before bringing him home, so he came to a house that was ready to become his home.
Our Humane Society gave us Webster at no cost, right after Easter, because they get a lot of rabbits after Easter, when families realize the time and expense of caring for a rabbit is more than they bargained for. It helps to research a pet before getting one so you don't interrupt each other's lives so much.
So for this reason, we are waiting some time to adopt again, and next time we are considering getting a bonded pair. Rabbits don't all get along well with each other, and they can fight and hurt one another if they don't. But a bonded pair can stay bonded for life, and they grieve terribly for each other if they are separated. So they are hard to adopt, because not everyone wants two. And the Humane Society tries to keep bonded pairs together.
The boys are older and busier and won't have the same amount of time to play with a pet, and so a pair can entertain each other.
These are great resources that we used before deciding to adopt our first rabbit.
House Rabbit Society
http://www.rabbit.org/
House Rabbit Handbook
How to Live with an Urban Rabbit
By Marinell Harriman
Update on what we are doing
Years ago, while searching for products to use for our GF/CF diet, I discovered that we have a place in Wisconsin, in the City of Grafton called Slow Poke's.
Slow Poke's is run by a mother who had a son with ADD and some other health and emotional issues.
She did a ton of research and changed the way the family ate.
This worked and her son is now off to college and his health is much better. She opened a store to provide information and products she had trouble finding when transitioning to this style of eating.
Its part of the Slow Foods movement, cooking from scratch, and going back to some traditional cooking and eating methods that went out of favor when people wanted the convenience of fast foods and using packaged foods. Our culture changed our diets when newer methods of preserving foods came into common usage, and even though they were improvements in food preservation and distribution, not all of them were improvements for our health. Certainly we had fewer germs, but we also lost some of our natural ability to harbor good organisms that are essential for our digestion and assimilation of nutrients from food.
The GF/CF diet which helps some people with Autism, is also part of this larger eating/cooking style.
We have been on the GF/CF diet for almost three years, and did the diet with my son about 10 years ago, but it was much more difficult for us to do back then, and so we didn't try again for a while. Now there are so many more GF/CF products available, and more support and community awareness, and that makes it so much easier this time. Who knew just trying to eat a certain way would be so difficult in life?
I have tried years ago to follow some of the additional guidelines recommended at Slow Poke's, but until my son got somewhat better it was very difficult to implement any changes, and too much change all at once was difficult. Plus, I had only so much energy myself, because I was also not feeling well at the time, and I have another child with a very different disability to care for also.
Well, we are all doing much better. I implemented the GF/CF diet for the whole family 3 years ago and within 2 weeks, my own long-standing health symptoms improved. This gave me more energy to work on refining things better for my Autistic son. My Autistic son is doing really well. His grades in high school are good, and he has friends.
So I went back to Slow Poke's, the store I mentioned above, and picked up the book that she recommends and designed her store around. I have been doing parts of it's recommendations already, but I am ready to try more of them.
The method is called Body Ecology, and it focuses on the intestinal flora and fauna that help us digest our food, along with other methods for maximizing digestion and assimilation of nutrients from food.
I decided to post what I am doing and putting updates on it. Is anyone else trying the Body Ecology method/life style? It fits well with GF/CF.
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
So after talking with some people who have been doing this for a while, reading one of the books on it, and doing some on-line research, I have implemented these things:
* Rinsing, soaking, rinsing and soaking some more all seeds, beans and nuts before cooking/eating them.
There is a chemical that is released by any seed, nut that is meant to start growing after being planted and watered to keep fungus and from degrading too much before sprouting. This chemical can inhibit the enzymes we need to digest them.
This was the best suggestion! I have found that doing this has made all these things much easier to digest for myself, but I still can't get my son to eat beans. It certainly makes almonds much nicer to eat. I buy raw, organic almonds, and soak them in the refrigerator. You can slip off the brown "jackets" and end up with a creamy white nut that is easy to chew and tastes better than the plain raw almond.
* Individualizing for Blood Type
I was pleased to see that the Body Ecology diet recommends individualizing diet for each person, particularly based on blood type, which I have done. The hardest part of this change was getting our blood types, because Doctors don't seem to keep this information on file for anyone any more. However, it was worth doing, because I found some foods I had never tried before that were recommended for my blood type, that I now eat on a regular basis because I really like them, and I feel really good after eating them (In particular, for me this has been making black-eyed peas and turnip greens, yum! I have never tried them before.) Its like someone just knew what would give me extra energy and taste good. Because I follow the GF/CF restrictions already, it seems like its hard enough to figure out what to make for meals, and so being able to add these new foods was very helpful. (GF/CF is recommended for my blood type, so no conflict there.)
* Using Fermented and Active Culture Foods
In the past, I used acidolphus-bifidus supplements, and yogurt. But many yogurts have modified food starch added, which is often made with wheat starch. And there is casein in the dairy. I am told that one breed of cattle produce dairy that has much lower casein in it, but I haven't been able to go that far...as to finding the right cows!
* Raw Dairy
Our state is currently battling out whether to allow raw milk to be sold to consumers. The Body Ecology diet recommends raw milk products and particularly cultured products and butter made from raw milk. This is tricky to do, because if you go to a farmer in our state, (we are a big dairy producing state) you have to ask for "milk for my pet" or give some such excuse. I know of an elderly woman in my area who lost her son to a disease he got from drinking raw milk, so I know there is some risk involved. You have to know the farmer and that the cows and milk are being handled properly.
So I have tried various forms of Kefir that are available at our local co-op, and a home-made version made at Slow Poke's. I don't like the artificial sweetener they use in some of them. I like the version made from coconut milk the best so far. The raw milk ones taste the best, but probably because of all the milk fat. I noticed I gained a pound after drinking a lot of this, so I am going to cut back a little. My son likes the Kefir strawberry flavour.
Once I find a type of Kefir I like the best, I am going to try making it myself with a starter available from Body Ecology.
* Food Combining
I started doing food-combining, but this has been tricky to implement for the whole family, because right now I make one son's lunch and he loves this gluten-free bread for sandwiches (made by "Against The Grain -- The Gluten-Free Gourmet." Against the Grain's recipe is really excellent, but has a small amount of dairy.) Most sandwiches combine a starch with a protein, which is not recommended.
* Sea Vegetables
Because I was a vegan macrobiotic for a year a long time ago (before kids), I learned to use sea vegetables in cooking and so I have already been doing that, but I have increased my use again. I am going to try using them as snacks sometimes.
* Sauerkraut
I have been reading about how to make living sauerkraut, or fermented vegetables, but I just can't picture it. I have a reluctance to let anything ferment, probably my ultra-clean upbringing. (My Mother could have been Martha Stewart.) Has anyone else tried to make sauerkraut?
* 80/20
This one is tougher if you have a really tasty meal in front of you. The idea is to stop eating after you are 80% full, leaving 20% of your "room" for digestion. It helps to wait 20 minutes before even thinking about getting seconds, because that's how long it takes for the hormone that signals your brain that you are full to get to your brain.
80/20 also refers to having about 80% of your plate be vegetables, and 20% proteins.
* Cooking some things and not others
Some vegetables (and even meats, like Sushi) are best eaten raw, particularly in the summer when they are fresh and in-season. Others are best eaten cooked because they have things in them that need to be neutralized. For instance, I need to always cook cauliflower because it can interfere with my thyroid, and I am already on thyroid medication for an underactive thyroid. Fermentation helps this, too. For one thing, as far as I know, all forms of non-fermented soy suppresses thyroid function. I'm still trying to memorize the lists of foods to eat raw versus cooked.
None of these changes is as dramatic as the change to GF/CF was. The results are pretty good. I find that cooking this way so far is helping me, and my kids are still getting used to it, but haven't complained about anything so far.
Slow Poke's Local Food, Grafton, WI
http://www.slowpokeslocalfood.com/
Body Ecology Diet
http://www.bodyecology.com/
Slow Poke's is run by a mother who had a son with ADD and some other health and emotional issues.
She did a ton of research and changed the way the family ate.
This worked and her son is now off to college and his health is much better. She opened a store to provide information and products she had trouble finding when transitioning to this style of eating.
Its part of the Slow Foods movement, cooking from scratch, and going back to some traditional cooking and eating methods that went out of favor when people wanted the convenience of fast foods and using packaged foods. Our culture changed our diets when newer methods of preserving foods came into common usage, and even though they were improvements in food preservation and distribution, not all of them were improvements for our health. Certainly we had fewer germs, but we also lost some of our natural ability to harbor good organisms that are essential for our digestion and assimilation of nutrients from food.
The GF/CF diet which helps some people with Autism, is also part of this larger eating/cooking style.
We have been on the GF/CF diet for almost three years, and did the diet with my son about 10 years ago, but it was much more difficult for us to do back then, and so we didn't try again for a while. Now there are so many more GF/CF products available, and more support and community awareness, and that makes it so much easier this time. Who knew just trying to eat a certain way would be so difficult in life?
I have tried years ago to follow some of the additional guidelines recommended at Slow Poke's, but until my son got somewhat better it was very difficult to implement any changes, and too much change all at once was difficult. Plus, I had only so much energy myself, because I was also not feeling well at the time, and I have another child with a very different disability to care for also.
Well, we are all doing much better. I implemented the GF/CF diet for the whole family 3 years ago and within 2 weeks, my own long-standing health symptoms improved. This gave me more energy to work on refining things better for my Autistic son. My Autistic son is doing really well. His grades in high school are good, and he has friends.
So I went back to Slow Poke's, the store I mentioned above, and picked up the book that she recommends and designed her store around. I have been doing parts of it's recommendations already, but I am ready to try more of them.
The method is called Body Ecology, and it focuses on the intestinal flora and fauna that help us digest our food, along with other methods for maximizing digestion and assimilation of nutrients from food.
I decided to post what I am doing and putting updates on it. Is anyone else trying the Body Ecology method/life style? It fits well with GF/CF.
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
So after talking with some people who have been doing this for a while, reading one of the books on it, and doing some on-line research, I have implemented these things:
* Rinsing, soaking, rinsing and soaking some more all seeds, beans and nuts before cooking/eating them.
There is a chemical that is released by any seed, nut that is meant to start growing after being planted and watered to keep fungus and from degrading too much before sprouting. This chemical can inhibit the enzymes we need to digest them.
This was the best suggestion! I have found that doing this has made all these things much easier to digest for myself, but I still can't get my son to eat beans. It certainly makes almonds much nicer to eat. I buy raw, organic almonds, and soak them in the refrigerator. You can slip off the brown "jackets" and end up with a creamy white nut that is easy to chew and tastes better than the plain raw almond.
* Individualizing for Blood Type
I was pleased to see that the Body Ecology diet recommends individualizing diet for each person, particularly based on blood type, which I have done. The hardest part of this change was getting our blood types, because Doctors don't seem to keep this information on file for anyone any more. However, it was worth doing, because I found some foods I had never tried before that were recommended for my blood type, that I now eat on a regular basis because I really like them, and I feel really good after eating them (In particular, for me this has been making black-eyed peas and turnip greens, yum! I have never tried them before.) Its like someone just knew what would give me extra energy and taste good. Because I follow the GF/CF restrictions already, it seems like its hard enough to figure out what to make for meals, and so being able to add these new foods was very helpful. (GF/CF is recommended for my blood type, so no conflict there.)
* Using Fermented and Active Culture Foods
In the past, I used acidolphus-bifidus supplements, and yogurt. But many yogurts have modified food starch added, which is often made with wheat starch. And there is casein in the dairy. I am told that one breed of cattle produce dairy that has much lower casein in it, but I haven't been able to go that far...as to finding the right cows!
* Raw Dairy
Our state is currently battling out whether to allow raw milk to be sold to consumers. The Body Ecology diet recommends raw milk products and particularly cultured products and butter made from raw milk. This is tricky to do, because if you go to a farmer in our state, (we are a big dairy producing state) you have to ask for "milk for my pet" or give some such excuse. I know of an elderly woman in my area who lost her son to a disease he got from drinking raw milk, so I know there is some risk involved. You have to know the farmer and that the cows and milk are being handled properly.
So I have tried various forms of Kefir that are available at our local co-op, and a home-made version made at Slow Poke's. I don't like the artificial sweetener they use in some of them. I like the version made from coconut milk the best so far. The raw milk ones taste the best, but probably because of all the milk fat. I noticed I gained a pound after drinking a lot of this, so I am going to cut back a little. My son likes the Kefir strawberry flavour.
Once I find a type of Kefir I like the best, I am going to try making it myself with a starter available from Body Ecology.
* Food Combining
I started doing food-combining, but this has been tricky to implement for the whole family, because right now I make one son's lunch and he loves this gluten-free bread for sandwiches (made by "Against The Grain -- The Gluten-Free Gourmet." Against the Grain's recipe is really excellent, but has a small amount of dairy.) Most sandwiches combine a starch with a protein, which is not recommended.
* Sea Vegetables
Because I was a vegan macrobiotic for a year a long time ago (before kids), I learned to use sea vegetables in cooking and so I have already been doing that, but I have increased my use again. I am going to try using them as snacks sometimes.
* Sauerkraut
I have been reading about how to make living sauerkraut, or fermented vegetables, but I just can't picture it. I have a reluctance to let anything ferment, probably my ultra-clean upbringing. (My Mother could have been Martha Stewart.) Has anyone else tried to make sauerkraut?
* 80/20
This one is tougher if you have a really tasty meal in front of you. The idea is to stop eating after you are 80% full, leaving 20% of your "room" for digestion. It helps to wait 20 minutes before even thinking about getting seconds, because that's how long it takes for the hormone that signals your brain that you are full to get to your brain.
80/20 also refers to having about 80% of your plate be vegetables, and 20% proteins.
* Cooking some things and not others
Some vegetables (and even meats, like Sushi) are best eaten raw, particularly in the summer when they are fresh and in-season. Others are best eaten cooked because they have things in them that need to be neutralized. For instance, I need to always cook cauliflower because it can interfere with my thyroid, and I am already on thyroid medication for an underactive thyroid. Fermentation helps this, too. For one thing, as far as I know, all forms of non-fermented soy suppresses thyroid function. I'm still trying to memorize the lists of foods to eat raw versus cooked.
None of these changes is as dramatic as the change to GF/CF was. The results are pretty good. I find that cooking this way so far is helping me, and my kids are still getting used to it, but haven't complained about anything so far.
Slow Poke's Local Food, Grafton, WI
http://www.slowpokeslocalfood.com/
Body Ecology Diet
http://www.bodyecology.com/
Temple Grandin Movie
Check out the movie about Dr. Temple Grandin on HBO, which is now out on DVD with commentary from Dr. Grandin.
Dr. Grandin is a successful author, designer, speaker, and advocate for the humane treatment of animals. She also has Autism.
The movie swept the Emmys.
Its worth seeing if you know anyone with Autism and want to know more about how it feels to be on the Autism spectrum.
It's also are very well made film that is fascinating to watch.
Dr. Grandin is a successful author, designer, speaker, and advocate for the humane treatment of animals. She also has Autism.
The movie swept the Emmys.
Its worth seeing if you know anyone with Autism and want to know more about how it feels to be on the Autism spectrum.
It's also are very well made film that is fascinating to watch.
Gluten Free Living Magazine
Another great resource for GF/CF living! Nice glossy photos, recipes and helps me keep motivated.
A new magazine I just got and has some really great articles, such as:
"Children with Autism; more are following a GFCF diet."
"Safe Sips - Beverages to Quench Your Thirst"
"Tricky Triangle - Gluten Intolerance, Gluten Sensitivity, Celiac Disease"
"Gluten-Free Living Magazine; Leading the way to a happy, healthy, Gluten-Free life."
www.glutenfreeliving.com
I particularly liked the article on the tricky triangle. I think that each person in our family is different with regard to how our problems with gluten could be diagnosed.
A new magazine I just got and has some really great articles, such as:
"Children with Autism; more are following a GFCF diet."
"Safe Sips - Beverages to Quench Your Thirst"
"Tricky Triangle - Gluten Intolerance, Gluten Sensitivity, Celiac Disease"
"Gluten-Free Living Magazine; Leading the way to a happy, healthy, Gluten-Free life."
www.glutenfreeliving.com
I particularly liked the article on the tricky triangle. I think that each person in our family is different with regard to how our problems with gluten could be diagnosed.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Assisted suicide - the right to die with dignity.
A lot of deaths are already technically assisted suicides. Its done by the Physician when they make decisions regarding end of life care, and there is some risk to them of a lawsuit if its "done incorrectly." Most Physicians will recommend everyone have a Living Will in place which will help with these decisions and remove some of the possible guilt the family members experience when going through end of life issues with a loved one.
However, many times people don't know the reality of the services they are denying themselves. IV's, antibiotics, oxygen, feeding tubes and morphene are all things that can turn a life around at times and the person recovers a few good years after a crisis, even at an advanced age.
Hospice care has progressed considerably over the last 20 years, and they can provide help both with the ethical decision-making and the pallitive care that can ensure that the end of life is approached with minimal pain, suffering, fear and guilt, and with the highest quality of life possible for the remaining time.
Everyone should have a financial Will and a Living Will, and a medical power of attorney chosen. Look into hospice care at least 6 months to a year before it seems necessary--you can actually recover from the extra care and attention hospice provides and then return to it later when it is needed again.
Hospice can be provided in a nursing home, extended care setting, a hospice facility or at home. In each case it extends the amount and type of care to consider ultimate death and the quality of life until death happens.
We have such good pain medications now available that no one should suffer with great pain. We have anti-depressants, and counselling to deal with the fear and anxiety. We now know how to include the family with dignity and not to isolate the dying from their loved ones.
There are many assistive technologies, medical devices, and proceedures that help the non-dying disabled which can help a dying person to be more comfortable, functional and participatory than ever before. These have to sometimes be advocated and even fought for, particularly with the elderly, but they can make a huge difference in someone's life at the passage to the end of life.
For instance, special padding and dressings for prevention of bed sores, communication devices for those with limited movement, automated controls so the person can control the environment in their room, such as to turn on and off a TV, phone, lights, temperature, etc. specialized wheelchair seating to improve lung capacity, a vest that helps someone to cough easily with less effort.
However, many times people don't know the reality of the services they are denying themselves. IV's, antibiotics, oxygen, feeding tubes and morphene are all things that can turn a life around at times and the person recovers a few good years after a crisis, even at an advanced age.
Hospice care has progressed considerably over the last 20 years, and they can provide help both with the ethical decision-making and the pallitive care that can ensure that the end of life is approached with minimal pain, suffering, fear and guilt, and with the highest quality of life possible for the remaining time.
Everyone should have a financial Will and a Living Will, and a medical power of attorney chosen. Look into hospice care at least 6 months to a year before it seems necessary--you can actually recover from the extra care and attention hospice provides and then return to it later when it is needed again.
Hospice can be provided in a nursing home, extended care setting, a hospice facility or at home. In each case it extends the amount and type of care to consider ultimate death and the quality of life until death happens.
We have such good pain medications now available that no one should suffer with great pain. We have anti-depressants, and counselling to deal with the fear and anxiety. We now know how to include the family with dignity and not to isolate the dying from their loved ones.
There are many assistive technologies, medical devices, and proceedures that help the non-dying disabled which can help a dying person to be more comfortable, functional and participatory than ever before. These have to sometimes be advocated and even fought for, particularly with the elderly, but they can make a huge difference in someone's life at the passage to the end of life.
For instance, special padding and dressings for prevention of bed sores, communication devices for those with limited movement, automated controls so the person can control the environment in their room, such as to turn on and off a TV, phone, lights, temperature, etc. specialized wheelchair seating to improve lung capacity, a vest that helps someone to cough easily with less effort.
Movie Review - The Horse Boy
I just saw a preview of the movie, "The Horse Boy." As the parent of a 16-year old child with Autism, I was pleased to see Autism getting more public attention and that a family was willing to let the world see their son's stuggles and healing, their parenting, and their challenges with accepting and dealing with Autism on a daily basis.
There are so many things about this movie I can identify with. The period of grieving the loss of the child you might have had, the period of learning to accept the child you do have, and the period where you stretch and learn and grow into someone you never thought you could be while searching for answers to a puzzle no one has quite figured out. I understand the great love and desperation that drives a parent to try everything in their power to try to help their child -- even non-mainstream things that you would never have considered otherwise.
This journey took me all kinds of places I never would have been and developed my risk-taking skills, and I learned so much about so many things. And sometimes you just have to surrender to what is, and learn to just be with instead of force a child to change. This surrender is much like a spiritual process, and so the parents in the film have reached out to spiritual healers in Mongolia through their son's connection to animals, and the families' connection to horses.
Our son did horseback riding as part of his therapy. We couldn't afford the more formal "Hippotherapy" which involves having a specifically trained therapist, a person who also specially trains the horses, and, of course, specially trained horses. This is expensive, and might be partially unnecessary to the process, since mainly having trained people is for safety reasons, and for liability and insurance purposes. The father in the film says that he had trained horses, and taught horseback riding, and so was very familiar with horses already.
http://www.americanequestrian.com/hippotherapy.htm
We had a therapist already working for us doing ABA therapy (Lovaas type) who had rescued a police horse from being put down because of a stroke. He offered to help our son ride his huge disabled horse, and they helped each other to heal.
http://www.lovaas.com/
In some ways, I think Autism resembles a stroke in the brain, because there seems to be some type of brain injury that occurs that happens in genetically susceptible individuals. There are some behaviors that all the coaching, training and discipline in the world are intractable at any given moment, and they seem more like a brain adaptation to abnormal sensory processing than anything like a discipline issue, or a lack of information (education). This makes any Autism therapy more like rehabilitation than like education, although these two modalities resemble each other.
Autistic people use their senses differently, probably not by choice, but because they have to. And this can lead them to be more like animals, who sense the world differently than we do, and don't use a formal (structured) language to communicate. When the five senses are hypersensitive, and social/language brain activity is less sensitive, then it seems like other human abilities can come into play that we were never aware that we had. Autism uncovers unusual abilities side-by-side with very limiting dis-abilities.
I read a lot about Shamanism before and since having my son, (I am a practicing Christian by choice) and I understand how a Shamanistic method might be attractive to the parents in this film as a healing modality. When nothing else works, and your child has been given a diagnosis that is just as intense as a cancer diagnosis, you often pray first...and often. And the compelling change in the child after being with the Shaman's is proof that ancient and folk ways do have a place in healing.
"Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas" by Alberto Villoldo Ph.D.
I am concerned, however, that people don't stereotype Autism as only some kind of demon possession, although it might be characterised that way, and spiritually it might seem like that. We had a superstitious church in our city that took a 6 year old Autistic boy and tried to expel the demon from him by holding him down for hours at a time, and the child died. This is what I am afraid of...a fundamental approach toward a spiritual answer that takes Autism itself too literally and the illness is not literally demon possession.
Autistic boy dies at faith healing service
Police: Pastor's brother held on suspicion of child abuse
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/08/24/autistic.boy.death/
Trying to peg Autism into an already-existing category does a disservice to the child, and inhibits what you might learn from the child's illness and/or genetic differences by observing how this disease/illness is unique, and how each individual Autistic child is unique. A child might have a deep spiritual side that is relatively unaffected by his disability, or might even be enhanced by the Autism.
But it could go the other way and the Autistic might be affected by a spiritual challenge that is overshadowed by his or her manifestations of Autism symptoms. However, it is not just a spiritual problem. And even if Autism has a spiritual origin (perhaps everything in this world is of spiritual origin) it does have very real physical components that can be dealt with, and very real symptoms that must be dealt with.
The Mongolian people accepted the child and the parents and didn't seem to judge them. Acceptance is the cornerstone of a treatment modality that I am very drawn to and used this approach a lot over the last ten years with my son, which is called the Sonrise Method, by Barry Kaufman. We didn't go to the treatment center because of the expense, but I got a lot out of reading his books and following the spirit of the methods the center employs.
http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/
Before you can change anything, you must first accept what is. To put it another way, (as per Dr. Phil) You can't change what you don't acknowledge.
As I have learned, you can't change Autism by simply fighting with it. Increased disciplinary measures don't work (in the way we traditionally discipline), but it takes great discipline on the part of the adults in the child's life to do what does work, with enough clarity, understanding, persisitence, consistency, and with enough accuracy. What you resist, persists. And focusing on the "bad" might only enhance the unwanted aspects you are trying to modify. Forcing the child to hide the symptoms of his illness, and not to express his discomfort except in certain very specific ways, seems almost abusive, if you were to view it as if it were diabetes, or any other injury or illness.
There was a child in our state that had diabetes, and the fundamentalist religious parents chose to only use prayer as a healing method, and the girl died at age 11 from a very treatable disease. She had been displaying serious symptoms for a long time.
Parents charged in diabetes death
They didn't get medical help for sick daughter
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/29556929.html
There were several symptoms that my son had that were considered socially odd, and we had a very difficult time changing them. We then realised that some things, like hand-flapping, were self-regulatory mechanisms that he was using to manage his energy and emotions. When we tried to completely eradicate hand-flapping at a young age, he only became more agitated and had a more difficult time focusing on what we were trying to teach him. After a few years, the hand-flapping was something more amenable to change, and he learned to bite his fingernails instead. His fingernails would be almost completely bitten off, but this was more "socially acceptable-looking" behavior and so it was tolerated for a while until we could find some other way to help him self-regulate. He went through several phases like this, with each adaptation becoming more sociably acceptable, until now he is very close to being normal. I can still spot the self-regulatory things he does, but most people wouldn't see it as any kind of problem.
At age 4, the parents in the movie were already saying that no other healing methods were working. Of the many methods we tried, most of them required some time, and quite a bit of skill and ingenuity to implement with an Autistic child. I am concerned, for instance, that many parents who try the GF/CF diet for Autism don't do it thoroughly enough and for not enough time to affect any lasting change. When we first tried it, other family members undermined the effort, and the school and extended family were totally unfamiliar with it, and not interested enough in this method to really be on-board with it. Then, several years later, on trying it again, with more resources, and more products available, and a different strategy, it worked.
The strategy that finally worked best for us with the GF/CF diet was to put the entire family on it. Paradoxially it seemed to be easier than just putting the Autistic child on it. And also, other family members' health improved as a bonus.
Karyn Seroussi wrote about this diet's use for Autism years ago, and here is a link to an article that I first read before trying this healing method:
http://www.autisminfo.com/seroussi.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJUsyypI4Y
http://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-Mystery-Pervasive-Developmental-Disorder/dp/0767907981
I will post again with what these differences were.
I was not expecting to like this movie. I was sure that I would be disappointed by any parent's approach that claimed that only horseback riding, and only Shammanism worked for their son's Autism. I am tempted to think that removing the child from his home environment for an extended period of time, to an un-industrial area where the ambient toxin levels were lower, and the foods were less processed and locally grown, all contributed, in part to their son's improvements. Plus, the extended, loving focus of the parents and all the surrounding people's concern and non-judgemental attitudes probably helped the boy tremendously. The little boy who accompanied the group was very tolerant of the child's differences.
We found that having a peer who was recruited to play with our son helped him a lot. This helped him learn in a more age-appropriate way (i.e., not all coming from adults, in an adult sort of way.) A lot of Autistic children grow up to be like "mini-professors," acting more like miniature adults, because they mimic the authoritarian, information-based, and lecture-type communication given them by adults. This style, of course, doesn't often go over well with other children, who would often much rather just play. And play is a form of learning among higher-intelligence animals (as well as with humans.)
But I did like the movie. I loved seeing it with my son, and asking him if he remembered being like this or that. There were a lot of memories that came flooding back, about the difficulties, and the joys. I loved seeing the beautiful Mongolian landscapes and people. I loved seeing the great love and concern between the parents and their child. The horses were beautiful, and the suspense of what the outcome of the risks this family was taking was intriguing.
I wish everyone who thinks that parents of Autistic children are somehow "refrigerator parents" would see this movie. I hope that everyone who thinks Autism is just something that requires more discipline would see this movie. I think that people who think that Autism sometimes resembles a tantruming, colicy, child can see that it is more than that.
These children are in real distress. I think that you can see in the movie that the child does suffer and is not enjoying any benefit of a "power struggle." I think that the child's suffering should spur us to find better treatments for Autistic children and to provide more help for their overwhelmed parents. And to not look only at traditional healing modalities as the only possible alternative for treatment. This is a baffling illness and we might be limiting ourselves too much if we only look in the tired, worn paths for the answers.
It is unfortunate that insurance doesn't cover Autism treatments of any kind (until only very recently) and even if it did, it would never cover about two thirds of the things that have really helped our son.
I think that in some ways, insurance stifles innovation in healing. And by its institutional nature it can minimize and even denigrate traditional healing modalities. So I hope that all those who are concerned about the best interest of the child with Autism and their caregivers will still look in a broad spectrum of healing alternatives for the possible answers. And not every child will respond in a cookie-cutter fashion to a certain treatment. And so unless (until!) we can find a cure or better yet, a prevention, we will have to have a lot of tricks up our sleeves to try.
We have inherited a very large tool kit of healing methods, and we are only using a small portion of it. I hope we can find a more balanced approach in the future.
There are so many things about this movie I can identify with. The period of grieving the loss of the child you might have had, the period of learning to accept the child you do have, and the period where you stretch and learn and grow into someone you never thought you could be while searching for answers to a puzzle no one has quite figured out. I understand the great love and desperation that drives a parent to try everything in their power to try to help their child -- even non-mainstream things that you would never have considered otherwise.
This journey took me all kinds of places I never would have been and developed my risk-taking skills, and I learned so much about so many things. And sometimes you just have to surrender to what is, and learn to just be with instead of force a child to change. This surrender is much like a spiritual process, and so the parents in the film have reached out to spiritual healers in Mongolia through their son's connection to animals, and the families' connection to horses.
Our son did horseback riding as part of his therapy. We couldn't afford the more formal "Hippotherapy" which involves having a specifically trained therapist, a person who also specially trains the horses, and, of course, specially trained horses. This is expensive, and might be partially unnecessary to the process, since mainly having trained people is for safety reasons, and for liability and insurance purposes. The father in the film says that he had trained horses, and taught horseback riding, and so was very familiar with horses already.
http://www.americanequestrian.com/hippotherapy.htm
We had a therapist already working for us doing ABA therapy (Lovaas type) who had rescued a police horse from being put down because of a stroke. He offered to help our son ride his huge disabled horse, and they helped each other to heal.
http://www.lovaas.com/
In some ways, I think Autism resembles a stroke in the brain, because there seems to be some type of brain injury that occurs that happens in genetically susceptible individuals. There are some behaviors that all the coaching, training and discipline in the world are intractable at any given moment, and they seem more like a brain adaptation to abnormal sensory processing than anything like a discipline issue, or a lack of information (education). This makes any Autism therapy more like rehabilitation than like education, although these two modalities resemble each other.
Autistic people use their senses differently, probably not by choice, but because they have to. And this can lead them to be more like animals, who sense the world differently than we do, and don't use a formal (structured) language to communicate. When the five senses are hypersensitive, and social/language brain activity is less sensitive, then it seems like other human abilities can come into play that we were never aware that we had. Autism uncovers unusual abilities side-by-side with very limiting dis-abilities.
I read a lot about Shamanism before and since having my son, (I am a practicing Christian by choice) and I understand how a Shamanistic method might be attractive to the parents in this film as a healing modality. When nothing else works, and your child has been given a diagnosis that is just as intense as a cancer diagnosis, you often pray first...and often. And the compelling change in the child after being with the Shaman's is proof that ancient and folk ways do have a place in healing.
"Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas" by Alberto Villoldo Ph.D.
I am concerned, however, that people don't stereotype Autism as only some kind of demon possession, although it might be characterised that way, and spiritually it might seem like that. We had a superstitious church in our city that took a 6 year old Autistic boy and tried to expel the demon from him by holding him down for hours at a time, and the child died. This is what I am afraid of...a fundamental approach toward a spiritual answer that takes Autism itself too literally and the illness is not literally demon possession.
Autistic boy dies at faith healing service
Police: Pastor's brother held on suspicion of child abuse
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/08/24/autistic.boy.death/
Trying to peg Autism into an already-existing category does a disservice to the child, and inhibits what you might learn from the child's illness and/or genetic differences by observing how this disease/illness is unique, and how each individual Autistic child is unique. A child might have a deep spiritual side that is relatively unaffected by his disability, or might even be enhanced by the Autism.
But it could go the other way and the Autistic might be affected by a spiritual challenge that is overshadowed by his or her manifestations of Autism symptoms. However, it is not just a spiritual problem. And even if Autism has a spiritual origin (perhaps everything in this world is of spiritual origin) it does have very real physical components that can be dealt with, and very real symptoms that must be dealt with.
The Mongolian people accepted the child and the parents and didn't seem to judge them. Acceptance is the cornerstone of a treatment modality that I am very drawn to and used this approach a lot over the last ten years with my son, which is called the Sonrise Method, by Barry Kaufman. We didn't go to the treatment center because of the expense, but I got a lot out of reading his books and following the spirit of the methods the center employs.
http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/
Before you can change anything, you must first accept what is. To put it another way, (as per Dr. Phil) You can't change what you don't acknowledge.
As I have learned, you can't change Autism by simply fighting with it. Increased disciplinary measures don't work (in the way we traditionally discipline), but it takes great discipline on the part of the adults in the child's life to do what does work, with enough clarity, understanding, persisitence, consistency, and with enough accuracy. What you resist, persists. And focusing on the "bad" might only enhance the unwanted aspects you are trying to modify. Forcing the child to hide the symptoms of his illness, and not to express his discomfort except in certain very specific ways, seems almost abusive, if you were to view it as if it were diabetes, or any other injury or illness.
There was a child in our state that had diabetes, and the fundamentalist religious parents chose to only use prayer as a healing method, and the girl died at age 11 from a very treatable disease. She had been displaying serious symptoms for a long time.
Parents charged in diabetes death
They didn't get medical help for sick daughter
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/29556929.html
There were several symptoms that my son had that were considered socially odd, and we had a very difficult time changing them. We then realised that some things, like hand-flapping, were self-regulatory mechanisms that he was using to manage his energy and emotions. When we tried to completely eradicate hand-flapping at a young age, he only became more agitated and had a more difficult time focusing on what we were trying to teach him. After a few years, the hand-flapping was something more amenable to change, and he learned to bite his fingernails instead. His fingernails would be almost completely bitten off, but this was more "socially acceptable-looking" behavior and so it was tolerated for a while until we could find some other way to help him self-regulate. He went through several phases like this, with each adaptation becoming more sociably acceptable, until now he is very close to being normal. I can still spot the self-regulatory things he does, but most people wouldn't see it as any kind of problem.
At age 4, the parents in the movie were already saying that no other healing methods were working. Of the many methods we tried, most of them required some time, and quite a bit of skill and ingenuity to implement with an Autistic child. I am concerned, for instance, that many parents who try the GF/CF diet for Autism don't do it thoroughly enough and for not enough time to affect any lasting change. When we first tried it, other family members undermined the effort, and the school and extended family were totally unfamiliar with it, and not interested enough in this method to really be on-board with it. Then, several years later, on trying it again, with more resources, and more products available, and a different strategy, it worked.
The strategy that finally worked best for us with the GF/CF diet was to put the entire family on it. Paradoxially it seemed to be easier than just putting the Autistic child on it. And also, other family members' health improved as a bonus.
Karyn Seroussi wrote about this diet's use for Autism years ago, and here is a link to an article that I first read before trying this healing method:
http://www.autisminfo.com/seroussi.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJUsyypI4Y
http://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-Mystery-Pervasive-Developmental-Disorder/dp/0767907981
I will post again with what these differences were.
I was not expecting to like this movie. I was sure that I would be disappointed by any parent's approach that claimed that only horseback riding, and only Shammanism worked for their son's Autism. I am tempted to think that removing the child from his home environment for an extended period of time, to an un-industrial area where the ambient toxin levels were lower, and the foods were less processed and locally grown, all contributed, in part to their son's improvements. Plus, the extended, loving focus of the parents and all the surrounding people's concern and non-judgemental attitudes probably helped the boy tremendously. The little boy who accompanied the group was very tolerant of the child's differences.
We found that having a peer who was recruited to play with our son helped him a lot. This helped him learn in a more age-appropriate way (i.e., not all coming from adults, in an adult sort of way.) A lot of Autistic children grow up to be like "mini-professors," acting more like miniature adults, because they mimic the authoritarian, information-based, and lecture-type communication given them by adults. This style, of course, doesn't often go over well with other children, who would often much rather just play. And play is a form of learning among higher-intelligence animals (as well as with humans.)
But I did like the movie. I loved seeing it with my son, and asking him if he remembered being like this or that. There were a lot of memories that came flooding back, about the difficulties, and the joys. I loved seeing the beautiful Mongolian landscapes and people. I loved seeing the great love and concern between the parents and their child. The horses were beautiful, and the suspense of what the outcome of the risks this family was taking was intriguing.
I wish everyone who thinks that parents of Autistic children are somehow "refrigerator parents" would see this movie. I hope that everyone who thinks Autism is just something that requires more discipline would see this movie. I think that people who think that Autism sometimes resembles a tantruming, colicy, child can see that it is more than that.
These children are in real distress. I think that you can see in the movie that the child does suffer and is not enjoying any benefit of a "power struggle." I think that the child's suffering should spur us to find better treatments for Autistic children and to provide more help for their overwhelmed parents. And to not look only at traditional healing modalities as the only possible alternative for treatment. This is a baffling illness and we might be limiting ourselves too much if we only look in the tired, worn paths for the answers.
It is unfortunate that insurance doesn't cover Autism treatments of any kind (until only very recently) and even if it did, it would never cover about two thirds of the things that have really helped our son.
I think that in some ways, insurance stifles innovation in healing. And by its institutional nature it can minimize and even denigrate traditional healing modalities. So I hope that all those who are concerned about the best interest of the child with Autism and their caregivers will still look in a broad spectrum of healing alternatives for the possible answers. And not every child will respond in a cookie-cutter fashion to a certain treatment. And so unless (until!) we can find a cure or better yet, a prevention, we will have to have a lot of tricks up our sleeves to try.
We have inherited a very large tool kit of healing methods, and we are only using a small portion of it. I hope we can find a more balanced approach in the future.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Cold Almonds Snack
Cold Almonds
Ingredients:
Raw Almonds
Water
Instructions:
Get a bowl big enough to hold the amount of almonds you will be using in about three days. Put in raw, unsalted almonds. Fill bowl with water to cover the almonds plus a little extra. Soak overnight. Drain water. Snack!
Keep stored in the refrigerator.
Soaking almonds changes their taste and texture. They are easier to chew and have more flavour, while preserving their nutritional value. This is a raw food snack..
I use organic almonds for this recipe.
Almonds are a healthy snack which are high in calcium and vitamin E. Some naturopathic medical advisors say that three almonds a day will help to prevent cancer because of their nutrient profile.
20-25 almonds (approximately one ounce) contain as much calcium as 1/4 cup of milk, and also contain magnesuim and phosphorus.
Almonds are the best whole food source of vitamin E, in the form of alpha-tocopherol, which may help prevent cancer.
One ounce of almonds contains 12 percent of your daily allowance of protein,
are cholesterol free,
are monounsaturated -- contain unsaturated fats.
A Loma Linda School of Public Health study showed those who consumed nuts five times a week had a 50% reduction in risk of heart attack.
In a clinical study, Dr. Gene Spiller, Director of the Health Research and Studies Center, Inc., showed that almonds added to the diet had a favorable effect on blood cholesterol levels and that none of the study groups experienced weight gain in the study.
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