The Thinking Mom’s Revolution rocks (www.thinkingmomsrevolution.com)! They just posted this TED talk by Lorna Ortiz. Autism is a medical condition, our kids are sick inside! Take 15 minutes to watch her presentation as I continue to research Curando El Autismo:
February Update
As always, I wish I had something new and exciting to report, but we’re still on board with Homeopathy, Osteopathy and a few supplements. I’ve dreamt of the day I could post Jackson’s first word, amazing progress and “aha! moments.” Sadly, that day hasn’t come, but I remain hopeful. I am still in the “patience’ phase of Homeopathy, waiting for one of Jackson’s remedies to match.
Sophie, Misha and I ventured to Disneyland a couple of weeks ago, and Misha and I continuously spoke of Jackson missing from our magical moments. Jackson stayed at home with the grandparents. Taking Jackson to Disneyland is something I would love to do…someday, but he is not in a state to have fun there yet. So many other happy, healthy almost 4 year-old boys were there, having fun, taking in the magic, it was heartbreaking to know Jackson couldn’t do that. Then, there was Sophie at Disneyland, amazingly easy going, non-complainer, walked around 10+ hours every day, easy traveler. She is the epitome of health and happiness. I dream of the day we can go to Disneyland as a family.
Coming up March 10th, we’ll travel to Yuba City to meet Kaden, the service dog Pawsitive Solutions thinks will be a good match for Jackson. If Kaden is indeed the match for Jackson, the intensive scent training will begin and hopefully sooner than later, Jackson will have his companion:)
Jackson will be sedated tomorrow for his first dental check-up. Brushing Jackson’s teeth is a two person job…Misha holds him in a bear hug while I do my best to brush his teeth (WITH FLUORIDE FREE TOOTHPASTE…do the research, people!). We’ve been noticing a lot of plaque build-up on his middle bottom teeth, so a cleaning is definitely in order. What should be a simple dental check-up for any typical child turns into a $1,250 sedation appointment with both a special needs dentist and anesthesiologist. Please keep Jackson in your thoughts tomorrow:)
We’re continuing with Homeopathy, trying to find the remedy that will bring Jackson out of his autism world. We’re also continuing with our weekly Osteopath appointments in Berkeley (an hour drive each way).
In May, Misha and I are excited to travel to Chicago to the Autism One conference. Connecting with other amazing parents, hearing presentations from the latest and greatest experts, and getting new ideas to help us decide which path we will continue with Jackson is a necessity right about now. Trying so hard for over a year, with no clear progress, is discouraging to say the least. We will do anything for our boy, and quitting is not an option, so on we go!
Thanks for all your support!
A Year Passed
I’m back in Tahoe for another Christmas, and it reminds me that it was a year ago today that I read Jenny McCarthy’s book and realized behavioral therapy would not be enough to help Jackson. Autism is medical. Autism is a whole body toxic burden. Autism is exposure to a toxic environment, dangerous vaccines, horrible GMO-filled food and more. December 23rd, 2011, I changed Jackson’s diet by cutting out the gluten and casein. It’s been 365 days of learning, researching, trying, fighting, praying, hoping and questioning. I’m nowhere near where I hoped we’d be with Jackson.
Interventions we’ve tried:
-gf/cf/sf/low sugar/Organic/GMO free diet
-methyl b-12 shots, supplements, probiotics
-lyme treatment, including antibiotics for 3 months
-treating for viruses with Valtrex
-Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) 65 hour long dives
-Homeopathy
-Naturopath
-Osteopath
-Camel milk
-ABA/OT/Speech/Pre School class
It’s discouraging that none of these interventions have made a huge difference in Jackson, but I’m not giving up. I still have high hopes with our Homeopath and Naturopath. I also have some other ideas of things to try with Jackson that other parents have reported to be successful with their affected children.
I’m interested to see what impact our new service dog (either Rilee or Kaiden, http://www.pawsitivesolutions.com) will have on Jackson.
I’m most excited about the Autism One conference in May in Chicago. Misha and I have booked the 5 day trip to attend the conference with cutting edge presenters. I hope to be bombarded with information, guidance and motivation to continue this fight for Jackson.
So many kids are getting better, and there’s no reason Jackson can’t. I have visions, hopes and dreams for Jackson and know he’s going to thrive. Jackson’s been through so much…through the blood draws, supplements, therapies, specific diet…he is such a trooper. He does it all with a positive attitude and a lot of love.
We’ve all worked so hard, putting in time, energy money and love. Jackson is a tough nut to crack, but I know we’ll crack him. This time next year, I know we’ll have made more progress. Jackson will be more aware, more communicative, and more involved. This is my only wish. A healthy family. Jackson, we will fight for you as long as it takes.
Jackson’s New Diet
It’s now coming on 11 months that Jackson has been on a strict gluten free/casein free. Reflecting back on his GFCF diet, I haven’t noticed any changes in him due to the diet. I still think his body is unable to digest the proteins found in gluten and casein, so I’m not willing to stop the diet. No, what we’ve now been doing for about a week now is cleaning up Jackson’s diet even more…a mix between the Paleo/Specific Carbohydrate Diet(SCD)/Gut and Psychology Diet (GAPS) diets. Jackson is eating even cleaner…no grains or processed foods. His diet consists of protein, fruit, vegetables (green juice and pureed veggies I make), and baked goods that I make from almond and coconut flour without refined sugar. He’s doing well on the even more restrictive diet and doesn’t seem to miss his store-bought GFCF cookies and crackers. All the baking and cooking definitely adds to my weekly tasks, but if it has even the tiniest positive effect on Jackson’s body, then it’s well worth it.
I’ve revamped my baking ingredients and cleaned out the pantry. Coconut oil is my new best friend. I buy organic whenever I can and avoid GMOs like the plague!
I’ve bookmarked several amazing blogs/websites for Paleo/GAPS/SCD recipes and printed out my favorites:
Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom, Affairs of Living, Against all Grain, Book of Yum, City|Life|Eats, Cook It Allergy Free, Cybele Pascal Allergen-Free Cuisine, Diet, Dessert and Dogs, Elana’s Pantry, Gluten Free Diva, Gluten Free Easily, Gluten Free Goddess, Gluten-Free Cat, Health-Bent, Hunter’s Lyonesse, Jenn Cuisine, Lexie’s Kitchen, Living Without, Manifest: Vegan, Nom Nom Paleo, PaleOMG, She Let Them Eat Cake, Silvana’s Kitchen
Simply Gluten Free, The Allergy Menu , The Daily Dietribe, The Mommy Bowl, The Nourishing Homemaker, The Spunky Coconut, The Whole Gang
Wheatless and Meatless, Without Adornment
I’ve put my apron back on (not really, but I should) and started baking. For some reason, Jackson will eat almost anything baked if it is in this heart shaped waffle iron, so he eats a lot of home-made waffles. I take pancake and muffin recipes, modify them, and bake them in this waffle iron. I make big batches and freeze them so I can pull them out anytime for him to eat:
Sophie and I even made these amazing Paleo pumpkin donuts (minus the extremely processed sprinkles). Sophie eats all the baked goods I make for Jackson and doesn’t seem to be missing the sugar. I am 100% gluten free and eating the Paleo diet along with Jackson.
“Cheers to donuts,” says Sophie!
Street Corner Autism Debate
Interesting delivery, very funny (in a horrible, sickening way), and completely true. A 10 minute MUST watch!
Naturopathy
I’m really excited to meet the Naturopathic Doctor for Jackson on Tuesday. This is a whole new world for me. If it’s new for you too, here’s some info:
Naturopathy: A system of alternative medicine based on the theory that diseases can be successfully teated or prevented without the use of drugs, by techniques such as control of diet, exercise, and massage.
Naturopathy is the practice of Natural Medicine. It’s a collaboration of many holistic remedies and modalities such as lifestyle,/diet modifications, nutrition, homeopathy, herbal medicine, cranial sacral therapy, acupressure therapy, and more. It doesn’t merely treat the symptoms, but finds the cause of the symptoms in order to remove it and restore the body back to health.
Naturopathic Doctors treat many of the same conditions as a MD. A typical Naturopthic consult is about an hour to two hours long. During the first comprehensive visit, the ND takes a thorough history, physical exam and discusses treatment plans. Additional procedures may include further lab tests to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle, suggestions to lifestyle modifications and recommendations of supplements to begin the heal restoration process. Follow up visits are usually one month later, then 3-6 months thereafter to re-evaluate and fine tune treatment protocols.
What’s Next in the GMO Battle?
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ocean-robbins/whats-next-in-the-gmo-bat_b_2130129.html
On November 6, after spending $46 million burying California’s voters under an avalanche of deception, Monsanto and their buddies in the pesticide and junk food business declared victory. They had defeated the “right to know”, and successfully protected their “right” to keep you in the dark about whether your food is genetically engineered.
Jennifer Hatcher, senior vice president of government and public affairs for the anti-labeling Food Marketing Institute, breathed a sigh of relief after Prop 37 narrowly lost, saying: “This gives us hope that you can… defeat a ballot initiative and go directly to the voters.” But she also expressed concern: “We hope we don’t have too many of them, because you can’t keep doing that over and over again.”
If Ms. Hatcher wants to keep labeling suppressed, it looks like she may be in for a rough couple of years. Because what Monsanto and its allies hadn’t counted on was that despite all their lies and deception, it’s actually pretty hard to convince people that they shouldn’t be allowed to know what they’re eating. And although $46 million managed to put out one fire, it seems to have started about 30 new ones.
Indeed, efforts are already underway to put a similar initiative on the ballot in Washington for the 2013 election (where San Juan County voters chose on November 6 to make growing GMOs illegal in their county). And organizers in 30 other states have also begun building labeling campaigns, under the banner of the Coalition of States for Mandatory GMO labeling.
With 93 percent of the American public supporting the right to know, it looks like it’s going to take a lot more than a one deceptive, high-budget ad campaign to keep those pesky labels at bay.
The War Continues
Many people are choosing to boycott companies that continue to use GMOs and that oppose labeling. Kellogg’s has been a particularly visible target, since the company strives for a healthy image, and yet contributed $632,000 to the fight against Prop 37. For several months, the company’s Facebook page has become something of a marketing embarrassment. It’s plastered with comments by angry consumers calling the company out for fighting GMO labeling, and threatening a boycott until the company changes its ways.
Other consumers are choosing to buy products from companies that are going GMO-free. In fact, consumer demand for non-GMO products is rising fast. The non-profit Non-GMO Project, which offers a third party certification program, has now verified 764 products, and had a record-shattering 189 new enrollment inquiries in October.
More and more people are becoming alarmed about the widespread prevalence of GMOs in the food supply, and are taking steps to steer clear. This could create a tremendous market opportunity for companies that seize the day and get certified. Even shoppers who aren’t terribly concerned about GMOs may be developing more trust in the products that carry the “Non-GMO Project” certification.
For consumers who want to know what is and is not GMO-free, the Food Revolution Network has compiled a collection of resources that includes the non-GMO shopping guide, and the free iPhone and Android app from True Food Network. A list of which foods are likely to contain GMOs is posted by Institute for Responsible Technology here.
A team of organizations, led by Care2 and the Food Revolution Network, have launched a petition demanding that Congress label GMOs that has already generated nearly 50,000 signatures. And efforts of the JustLabelIt petition to the FDA, which launched a year ago and have generated more than 1.3 million signatures, are being renewed in hopes that the FDA might eventually dig itself out of Monsanto’s back pocket.
For the passionate activist, there’s always more you can do, like taking advantage of the educational resources offered for free by the Institute for Responsible Technology, and sharing them with friends. Or lobbying your member of Congress, your mayor, your governor, your local media outlets, or your relatives.
Monsanto would probably like us all to sit alone in the dark, munching on bags of genetically engineered popcorn. But the tide of history is turning, and regardless of how much they spend attempting to deceive us, we will prevail.
Ocean Robbins is founder and co-host (with best-selling author John Robbins) of the 65,000 member Food Revolution Network, an initiative to help you heal your body, and your world… with food. Find out more and sign up here.
Click here for more on GMOs, and to get a free No-GMO Action Pack
Doctor Dilemma
My latest quest is to find a doctor who will actually try to Jackson us rather than distantly look at us like we’re crazy to think that there is any way out of Autism. We’re happy as can be to in the care of our wonderful Homeopath, but the thought of going to to our current pediatrician(let’s call him NH=Not Helpful) makes me sick. NH is a very nice man, and doing what most of society expects him to do, but we’re not on the same page when it comes to Jackson. When Misha and I took Jackson in for his 3 year old well baby visit, NH had no helpful information to give us regarding autism/treatments/diet/cutting edge therapies. He had not heard of the gluten free/casein free diet, supplements, Hyperbaric Oxygen, methylation cycle, mB12 shots, etc. When we told him we had gone to the ARI (Autism Research Institute) Conference in New Jersey and gotten tons of information from Doctors about treating ‘Autism,’ he had no response other than to refer us to a neurologist. Done. Done. Done. Done with you, NH.
The search is on. There are plenty of amazing doctors out there who are willing to treat and have experience treating children with Autism, but the problem is, they are not covered by insurance. Going to our (not insurance -covered) Lyme doctor for 6 months put us back thousands of dollars in appointment costs alone. $300, $400 an hour is just not something we can afford.
Facebook led me to:
http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/vaccines/find-vaccine-friendly-doctor-near-you
Great! Doctors that aren’t conforming to the “MUST vaccinate” approach. Maybe a doc on this list would be willing to hear Jackson’s story, engage with us, listen to what we’ve been though, work with us to see Jackson thrive. After looking at many of the websites and calling several of the offices, I found a Naturopath I’m excited to take Jackson to. Before I called the office of the ND(Naturopathic Doctor), I fist called our insurance, Blue Shield of California, to see if they cover NDs since “California has inconsistent insurance coverage” (from the ND’s website). Boy, is that an understatement. After being passed from one representative to another an being put on hold for many chunks of time, I finally spoke to someone who honestly told me they hadn’t been asked this question before…are Naturopathic Doctors covered? Seriously? She asked me why I wanted to take my son to a Naturopathic doctor, because unless it was an emergency or if we had a specific reason to need to see the ND, that insurance would NOT cover our visit. I didn’t want to have to pull out the Autism card, but 30 minutes later, I finally was fed up and said seeing a ND IS a medial necessity since other MDs are not capable of providing treatment.
The final answer I got, after 40 painful minutes, is that Jackson’s appointment(s) with the ND WILL be covered, and that the ND office should bill the appointment as an emergency. Indeed these appointments are emergencies….a wake up call to modern medicine that you are failing us! You are failing our sick country and most importantly, our sick children. The number is no longer 1 in 88, by the way….more like 1 in 40. Can you say EPIDEMIC? I’ve definitely found my calling and passion, and promise to help other autism-affected families. Before I can branch out to others, I need to know Jackson is on the right path, in the right hands, with caring, knowledgeable, empathetic doctors who care about what we are going through.
Jackson has his appointment this Tuesday, so I’ll report back then.
Autism Team Trailer
Autism IS treatable, not a life sentence. There’s no way we’re giving up.
Prop 37: The Many Wins Behind the Loss
It saddens me that we live in a time where, in order to eat REAL food, you have to buy organic. We are so far removed from where our food comes from, and food is so different than it was when my grandparents were growing up. Our kids are sick, cancer and alzheimer rates are through the roof…times have changed, and not necessarily for the better. I had high hopes that Prop 37 would pass and that Americans would at least see the MANY, MANY, MANY products on store shelves that contain awful GMOs. Look in your pantry, check out your fridge. If you’re the typical Safeway shopper, I can almost guarantee you that a minimum of 70% of your stock pile is GMO-filled. And that’s fine with me…as long as it’s fine with you. I have the right to know what’s in my food. You have the right to know. Thankfully, this story is not over, and the day will come when the proof will be in the pudding (or at least on the box!).
From http://www.organicconsumers.org
Prop 37: The Many Wins Behind the Loss
It was a mighty fight. And it’s not over yet.
Prop 37 was narrowly defeated – 53% – 47% – on Nov. 6. But that’s a mere footnote to the real story.
The real story is this. The campaign to label genetically modified ingredients in California shone a blinding spotlight on GMOs, and on their potential threat to human health and the environment. It changed the national conversation around food safety and security, and brought transparency in labeling to the forefront of that conversation.
Prop 37 exposed the dark side of Big Ag and Big Food, and their desperation to keep consumers from having what citizens in 60 other countries have had for decades: the right to know what’s in their food.
Prop 37 underscored how money pollutes our democratic process.
Perhaps most important of all, Prop 37 amplified the conversation about the need – and opportunity – for real alternatives to a corporate-controlled-food system polluted by GMOs and pesticides, and corrupted by greed and ill-begotten profits.
So, go ahead, Monsanto. Celebrate while you can. Your victory was indeed narrow. Ours was sweeter. The momentum is on our side, and we’re moving forward.
Lyme Disease Mommy 