Thursday, March 25, 2010

Autism Improvement??

(I've decided that, from time to time, I'd like to make note of any improvements or regressions I find in Sam's autistic behaviors. Maybe others would find this interesting or useful, but I'm really just doing it for myself. I don't keep a handwritten journal or anything like that, so this is the best way for me to keep track of his behaviors. This way, I can look back and do a better job of correlating his improvements/regressions with other things in his environment.)

Just recently, Sam has been more conversational than usual. He seems to be more "here" than he typically is.

Two days ago (Tuesday, March 23rd) Andrew crawled underneath the computer desk and was playing with the wires underneath. As I was fishing him out of there I bumped his head on the desk and he started crying. As I was holding him and rubbing his head Sam said, "Momma you hurt baby Drew's head." I said, "I know Sam, it was an accident." He replied, "I don't think it was an accident Momma. I think you did it on purpose."

Many may not see that as anything extraordinary, but for Sam it was so much more conversation than normal.

Then today, early this morning while I was still in bed, Sam came running into my room and asked, "Momma, where do sunflower seeds come from?" This is also abnormal as Sam does not typically ask 'curious' questions. Then later this morning he also asked where eggs came from.

There is still humming and clapping (most common during quiet-time) and there have still been several meltdowns when I tell him that his computer time or tv time is over. However, the chest patting does seem less.

His diet has recently consisted of: homemade yogurt from raw milk, organic strawberries, organic bananas, organic pears, organic apples, eggs cooked in bacon fat, bread with soaked grains, store-bought butter, brown rice pasta, homemade spaghetti sauce (using canned tomato products), soaked oats, grass-fed steak, non-organic potatoes and corn, store-bought roasted sunflower seeds. He's taking his cod liver oil and raw honey daily. He has not been drinking any raw milk as a beverage and hasn't had any store-bought cheese since Saturday, March 20th.

We have been home for several days and I have implemented a new daily schedule for our family. Perhaps the more strict routine is causing an improvement? Perhaps adding in the probiotics (yogurt) is helping?

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for this update. I've been reading and slowly..very slowly starting to implement some of the things into our household's kitchen. We just ordered our grass fed beef and are so excited.

    glenda aka Maeintx-H@H

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  2. Glenda, good to see you here! We have loved our grass fed beef. Several people have warned us that it would be tough and not taste as good as beef that's been fed grain, but we've been very pleased and have no intention of going back to grain-fed beef.

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  3. Don't know if you are still getting comments on your old posts, but I was just impelled to comment. You and your family remind me of me and mine back in in 1987. Hyperactivity in my daughter led us to Feingold, son born with mental retardation and autistic-like behaviors made us go deeper. We only started our homestead four years ago. It is with a great sense of identification that I say "Thank you for sharing." My son is now 22-- the non-verbal, non-interactive child is a young man who sometimes will not stop talking. His desire to interact with others is limited--do you share his interests, do you remind him of his sister, are you doing something interesting? I have only read a few posts, specifically under the autism tab, but wanted to say 'hello'.

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