Circles

There are days when words are flowing, concepts are being understood, and goals are being met. During these times I am just elated. My day is great, the sun is shinning all in my smile and attitude. Then there are days when there are very little words, instead of goals being met every goal is a challenge, and life at that moment  is just a complete struggle. During these times instead of sunshine I am in complete disarray, there is no sun, and I think that the progress that had just taken place weeks prior is completely over and now here we are back at the beginning. This is why I entitled this post circles because this is exactly what I go through providing love and support for a child with Autism.

I was at the lake and captured this image. The circle was created as a reaction to the twig that I threw in the lake. Well as I think about this image I can apply it to my thought life. Autism is the twig and the ripple effect which is the reaction of the fallen twig is my minds circle of thoughts. All I am trying to say is whenever there is a bad day or a series of bad days I can just have all sorts of rippling thoughts. Will he ever get better, I haven't heard him speak in a while, is he losing what he lost previously, can he still understand me? These are my thoughts which are just circles because they go around and around. Now I know that you are wondering well okay how do you get through that? How do you overcome these emotions and or thought patterns? Well for me I just have to remember that this condition directly affects the Nervous System in the body, and therefore there is a misfiring of the neurotransmitters that send signals to tell his brain to do a certain thing. This is the cause for the series of bad days. With that being said I always have to remember that and always keep a sunshiny attitude no matter what. Since I have noticed that I have these circles of thoughts I have made a conscious effort to keep them in check. I am not a master at this. I definitely still  have struggles but I am willing to share my struggles because I know that I am not the only one with these circles of thoughts, and I am here to be a support for parents by sharing the details of my daily battles in hopes of you reading and gaining the strength and encouragement that you need to know that you too are going to make it through this.
Besides this smile just gives me so much hope.

    

Stares & Awkward Smiles.

Whenever I am invited to a party or a place where there are other children I always try to make sure that I am SUPER prepared for the event. Now  one may think what is the definition of SUPER prepared? Well first there is the mental preparation, all the things that you know will happen but is still awkward....like your child rolling a car on the table instead of playing and interacting with the other children. In your world that is the norm but to  everyone else that instantly is a conversation piece. So in that you have to prepare mentally for the round table discussion, followed by questions. So that's okay but then there are the things that may happen that you never would have thought could happen and that is where mental preparation is needed. Secondly you must be armed with your child's motivation bag, and in this bag are all the simple things you use to encourage good behavior and to prevent embarrassing melt downs. Finally there are all the details of preparation for the party, getting dressed, brushing teeth, transitioning from the house to the car, holding hands to walk to the party, adjusting to new people, sounds, and action at the party, whew.......I get exhausted just thinking of it but in these examples you can see just why I call it SUPER prepared. Now that I have you in the frame of mind of the struggles that are always present now let's proceed. Remember how I said that there are things that you know are going to happen, and things that you never thought  would happen.......well those things are how I came up with the title of this post, "Stares & Awkward Smiles."  Well at the party that I really just had all planned out had a slight bit of unexpectedness. It was the end of the party and the children were very excited to  have sung  the birthday song and now it was time for yummy cake and ice cream. Everyone received their cupcake and just began to eat and smile and laugh. Well  Raymond had another idea in mind...........

He decided that he wanted to smear icing on himself and then make shapes in the icing........too funny right!?
Well this could have been done by any typical two year old right......right! But because none of the other children were doing that and he was already involved in a round table discussion about Autism there were many Stares & Awkward Smiles.  So in conclusion I just cleaned him up said Uh-OH and we went on with our day. There will be people who don't understand and as long as I am his mother I will always be sure that the people in my life WILL! I will always be a voice for the Autistic child. For they are very different but NOT LESS!!!!!!

Naturally Healthy Kids....check it out!

Author, Jerry Ruben MD, Deon Prina, Nancy Lataitis, Jordan Klein
Book Review by CandisPixMoments

This book is a guide to integrating conventional and holistic treatments for common illnesses of children. For example if you look up the illness Asthma the book will then give you a physiological view of what's going on in the body, eg. (inflammation in the airways) The causes of the illness or the epidemiology, eg. ( asthma is often inherited but can be seen in children with no family history) This book is so detailed that under the illness that you seek there will also be:
* The expected Course
* Contagiousness
* Integrated Therapies
* Integrative Supportive Care
* Prevention
This book is a great reference guide, is really easy to read in a hurry or in leisure.

The Autism Cookbook Review

Recipes by Susan K, Delaine
A Book Review by CandisPixMoments

This is not your ordinary cookbook full of recipes and illustrations of food, but rather it is a wealth of information. To start of it is a how to guide for reading food labels. Other details include:
* Why Raw?
* A Healing Guide.
* Going Organic*Food Substitutions
This cookbook goes into depth about why all of these things are important. I don't know about you but who doesn't need help reading food labels...I mean some of the ingredients and contents of some foods are just extremely hard to pronounce and when you finally break down into syllable what the chemical is you then have to figure out what in the is it and why is it in my food. Lol, But this book has a guide to understanding those chemical preservatives and additives, as well as how to avoid them for they are harmful to our bodies. My favorite quote from this book is just so true so much so that it has changed my whole outlook towards some of our medical practices.
" Health and wellness is all about addressing and correcting the cause, headaches are not caused by a lack of aspirin. Indigestion is not a result from a lack of Pepcid. Depression is not a result of a lack of Wellbutrin, and Autism has it's origins, an imbalance of normal physiology. Addressing this physiology should be every parent's impulse."
This cookbook is a great source for recipes but also a source of wellness and vitality for all you read it!

Transitioning from Therapy in the home to the Special school district..........

Today was the BIG meeting......and I was excited yet fearful. Mixed emotions are raging. In Missouri we have a program that's called First Steps and the MO. First Steps program provides children with all sorts of special needs services like PT, OT, Speech Pathology, and ABA Therapy. Well this Co. is great, you have assigned therapist to your family that work with your child until they are three years of age and then the children that's in the First Steps program then are age eligible for the Early Childhood Special Education Department. Well the BIG meeting was Ray's transition meeting because he is now 2 1/2, so the special ed department begins to assess him and then begin to develop a IFS P. which is basically a plan of services and goals for his education. My first thoughts are YES!, he's growing up....and then my emotions quickly go to man.......I now have to rely on NEW people to take care of him, (sigh). I know these feelings are normal and I just need to accept the facts however I thought I share the sheer emotions of this time.  I will talk in the next post about how we made it through this time, and I really hope to have some helpful tips as well. Right now I am preparing mentally and remaining hopeful THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE!

A Book Review of an Excellent Resource!

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics, Autism, ADHD, Asthma, Allergies.
By Kenneth Bock MD.

This is a great book that explains from a physician's perspective. In this book the author discusses what he believes is the causes of Autism and how to get solutions to resolve and heal all four epidemics. The book is broken down into four parts.
* Part -1 * New problems, New solutions
* Part -2 * The four new childhood epidemics and their connections
* Part -3 * The healing program
# 1 Nutritional Therapy
# 2 Supplementation Therapy
# 3 Detoxification
# 4 Medication
My favorite part of this book is the appendixes, it includes a safer vaccination schedule, resources for help, clinical signs of autism and ADHD. This book was a joy to read and I would recommend this book to anyone who believes in holistic healing for children or for all.

I have done a diet change...and I LOVE the results!!

There is so much controversy concerning weather you can change their diet and really help make a child with Autism have less symptoms and perform at best? I can say with the experience that I have had... YES, YES, and YES! I am so impressed by the dramatic changes that I have seen in Raymond. He has increased his vocabulary by at least ten more words consistently, he sleeps better throughout the night, and does not have chronic diarrhea anymore. He still communicates primarily using sign language, which is great...but the difference that I see in him even in that is  it does not take him as long now to learn the signs and from there to speak the words. And you know what guys his diet is not really strict at all. I don't want you to be deterred by trying the diet change like many, because you feel that you can't eat out anymore or you always have to me making plain, and  bland foods that are just hard for the taste.  I  just feed our family natural foods and really it's just that simple. Nothing in a box and nothing in a bag, with the exception of cereal and pasta. We eat fruits, carrots, and snow peas for snacks. Peanut butter with apple slices and celery is our favorite. We do eat out occasionally and we just go to the places with the healthiest menus and if in a hurry we only eat the fast food places that have turkey burgers instead of beef we get fruit or yogurt instead of fries.  We all take a multivitamin twice per day and have fruit and veggie smoothies daily. I try to stay away from anything with dyes, I have found that they have a very negative effect in all children. Since the diet change which I implemented in our lives my oldest son has asthma, but he has been symptom free since the change. I really love the results that I see in all of us and I just want to let you all know that getting back to nature is really beneficial for all of us. 

Thanks for reading. (@_@) Comments are welcomed!