2.26.2008

real imitation - verbal

You know, looking back about a month or 2 ago, I think I was just really hopeful. Holden would occassionally imitate a sound, or would just come out with more sounds on his own. I thought to myself ... "he's improving, he's really improving!". But, today it just a whole other level. This morning in ABA, they told me he was more verbal than he's ever been. They were able to get a number of echoics from him. Not just 1 or 2, but like 4 or 5, which is huge. So, then he had speech and she hasn't seen him in over a week. She commented on how she couldn't believe the difference in just a week.

And it's true. It's crazy. Now, I can with-hold things like his drink (cup), his binkie (bee-bee), and anything else I want and ask him to say something and he does! For the most part anyway. For example:

me: "say mama"
Holden: "maaa-maaa"

me: "holden, say ba-ba"
Holden: "ba-ba"

me: "holden, say eeeeeat"
Holden: "eeeat!"

He's also doing a lot more gross motor imitation. Things he hasn't been shown before. When I ask him to show me his ear (they've been working on head and nose), it takes him a minute, but then he points to his ear.

I don't know what it is. As usual, it could be a combo of things. I honestly think that the chelation IV we did in January got the ball rolling. Then, I stated TMG about 2 weeks ago and I'm just now up to the therapeautic dose. I think that has got to be what's kickstarted his speech as much as it has.

To see improvements like this ... real progress. I can't tell you how good it feels. I'm crossing my fingers and toes and hairs that it will just continue.

2.20.2008

"Cup"

Holden was sitting on my lap last night before bedtime. I had his sippy cup in my hand:

Holden: "cup"
Me: "Yes!!! CUP!!" I handed it to him.
Holden: "cup"

This morning while waiting for his therapist, he went to grab his sippy cup out of his bag and I stopped him. I looked at him with it in my hand and said "cup". He looked at me in the eye and said "cup", with a huge grin on his face. Of course, I gave him the cup!

So far, with the Baby Bumblebee video, he says:
"cup" (obviously)
"cow"
"car"
"ball"
"baaa" for bottle

2.14.2008

starting TMG

I heard about DMG and TMG from a friend of mine. She said she's talked to a lot of other parents and kids have seen great improvements by starting one of these. TMG is DMG with an extra methyl group added. Or, that's how I understand it anyway. Some kids have seen good progress with speech and since speech is going very slow with Holden, I decided to ask Dr. David if we could try it. He emailed me back with the doseage info and we started 2 days ago. Apparently the therapuetic dose is around 1000-2000mgs per day. I bought the 175mgs. capsules to start him because we like to start things slow. I'm starting with 1/2 cap twice a day for 3 days. Then increasing by 1 capsule every 3 days, until we reach about 1000mgs. per day.

As with everything and autism, it's a crap shoot. What works for some kids doesn't work for others. What doesn't work for other kids works for yours. If I don't see any improvement at all on the TMG, I'll stop it. So far, he's up to taking:

-Vitamin C
-Calcium
-L-Carnosine
-NuThera Multivitamin
-Folinic Acid
-MB12 shots
-Nystatin
-Cod Liver Oil
-Licorice Root
-TMG
-Factor 4 probiotics
-Epsom salt baths every night
-Glutathione cream

And, almost all of those have to be given twice a day. So, the poor kid has nothing to eat or drink without having some sort of supplement in it. He's good though - doesn't bat an eye. He proably would if I didn't put anything in his juice! He's think it doesn't taste "right" by now. Ha.

As far as progress, he's doing well. He's babbling more. Trying so hard to talk. He has developed a sensitivity to loud sounds. He never had this before, so I don't know if it's a problem, or if it's a good thing in that he's becoming more aware of his surroundings, instead of being in his own little world. I can't run the blender or vaccum without a freak out/crying session. He calms down immediately when it's over though. And he doesn't cover his ears, he just cries. Like he's scared. He's even a little "iffy" when the microwave's on. I'm going to discuss with Dr. David next week when we meet with him to discuss chelation. Our appointment is on the 20th.

2.05.2008

IV chelation challege results

We got Holden's results back yesterday from the IV chelation challenge we did a few weeks ago. The pretest (which is urine collected randomly) showed low levels of lead, and no mercury at all. There were other things, but lead and mercury are the ones I looked at. The post test (which is the urine collected for 8 hours after the IV chelation) showed lead levels "high", and showed mercury. The mercury wasn't "high", but it was there, and it was on the higher end of "within normal limits".

So, I'm not doctor, but I'm assuming this means on his own, he's not excreting toxins on his own - or at least not as much as he should or could. Whereas, the chelator has helped him excrete high levels of lead and also some mercury. Our appointment with Dr. David isn't until the 20th and we'll discuss ongoing chelation at that time. I'm hoping to start him on suppositories soon, and do 1 IV per month. Hopefully this will pan out and we'll start to see continued improvement.

I don't know if it's just me, or if it's reality, but since this 1 IV we did, I've seen improvements. Who knows, maybe it's just everything kicking in and has nothing to do with his body getting rid of some of the metals. Or maybe it does have something to do with it. In this game, you never know. It's always a guess. Whatever it is, I'll take it.

meow

In our continued effort to get Holden to imitate, something posessed me to make the "kitty-cat" sound the other day in the car. Boy did that get his attention. So, now, about 20 times a day, it goes something like this: "Holden, what does the kitty-cat say?". Pause. I say "meeeeeyoow". He looks at me, opens my mouth, watches me say it again, and then says "owwwwwww". There you have it, imitation.

We're also working on ducks (quack, quack, quack), and cows (moooooo). We'll see how long that takes.