Once you start, you can't stop ...

#round 8 of chelation week (19th Nov -22nd Nov) :-

##round 1 on ALA 5mg

ALA is known as Alpha Lipoic Acid.

ALA detoxification is effective for the removal of mercury and arsenic from the brain, which means to use ALA as the chelator, it will cross the brain barrier and pull these toxic metals out.

DMSA, on the other hand, does not cross brain barrier and is only effective for the removal of lead, and assists in the removal of mercury.

The reason why parents are advised to do one chelator at a time, during the first few rounds instead of doing both at the same time, is so that they would know how the child reacts to each chelator -the symptoms and such so in future, the parents can pinpoint the problem to the main cause.

We chelated during weekdays again because I find this arrangement sort of works better for me, and I get to rest during the weekend.

During the first day of ALA, the first initial feedback of mine would be I felt that Jaden did better on DMSA (first day) compared to ALA.

He was also constipated on every first day of chelation lately, including this round on ALA.

Jaden was not focusing as well as he did too on DMSA days. He seems to have less eye contact, and always in a daze.

Red dots, which I believed might just be the toxic exiting his body, started appearing randomly near his thighs and crotch area. He, too, started scratching his butt due to a few red bumps appearing over there.

There was an increased of verbal stimming and jumping too. He was just stimming away verbally and hopping around like a kangaroo.

There was also an increased of Jaden licking his palm after touching things, be it the wall, the grill door, whatever that he wanted to feel, he would feel with his hands, then onto his tongue.

ALA seems to have him waking up at nights, when he usually do sleep like a log throughout the night. Somehow, night feedings this time round weren't as smooth as it was supposed to be. He seems to have this sudden crying outburst (somewhat as if he had a nightmare).

Though he was constipated on the first day of chelation, the next two days, he actually have well-formed stools coming out from him, and they seem to not be as smelly. I know, shit are all smelly but the parents that shares the same experience as I do, will know what I am talking about when it comes to the level of smelliness. 

I triggered the second day poo by giving him the Oxycleanse supplement. That supplement do come in handy but if I could choose, I rather give natural laxative inducer such as juice, fruits or vegetables.

Supposedly, metals get excreted out in stools when one chelate using ALA, whereas metals are excreted through urine when using DMSA.

The positive side to the ALA dosing is that I did not see any yeast flare-up compared to him on DMSA.

In fact, I even gave him a shot of 0.04ml of MB12 injection on 21st Nov. I must have done it right because he did not show signs of hyperactivity.

That was my first time injecting his butt after a looooong hiatus that both Mr and I tried on him earlier this year. 

However, the successful injection on the first time did not go well the second time I tried. Instead, the needle bended and I got pricked instead. Guess I still need to figure out how to do it fast and steady on the little cow of mine. 

p/s: to understand what I am doing, do read this . =)

Andy Cutler Chelation Protocol #Round 6

Since we were away visiting my mother in law last weekend, I did not get to chelate Jaden over the weekend. Knowing that I would be out from the house, away from the boy coming Saturday, I decided to chelate him during the weekday instead.

I started on #round 6 on Monday on Jaden.

We are still currently stuck on DMSA as I am planning to purchase the ALA in 25mg capsules. 

Jaden's yeast attack is quite bad this time round. Although its not attacking in behavioral, its attacking physically on his skin. Itchy rashes are appearing around his thighs, near to his private parts, and sporadic red spots near the bottom.

I am currently trying to keep the rash in control, by applying candelula and diaper cream on him to prevent further rash growth.

He, has been peeing without showing any signs of wanting to go toilet too. He usually will show signs of wanting to pee or he will stand up and take off his own pants but he has leaking pee in class a few times. I wonder if its the cause of chelation or its just him, immersed in work and play that he forgets to quickly signal for toilet time.

I had a missed dosing timing again this round. In fact, it was a bit worse off than previous. This time, it was nearly an hour missed but because of what I was told by other parents, I continued dosing Jaden and went on with my planned 'schedule'. 

Since he did not show any negative reaction and continues to remain all cheerful, calm and better in fact.. I am glad I did not abandon round. If this was my round 1 or 2, I would have most probably abandoned round.

I caught him spitting half his DMSA out too, one time and as calmly as ever, I poured out half the pre-packed DMSA and re-dosed him. Well, 5mg is rather little according to a fellow mother and there should be no harm done compared to large doses of DMSA.

DMSA can be rather taxing on the body organs so I plan to give his body a rest real soon, maybe two weeks to recover while I prep his body with more helpful supplements. 

I just can't wait to tryout ALA, but he might get into a euphoric mode I read... *sigh* Its really true isn't it, no good things will just come without the bad, and the with the bad, comes the good. Depends on which is the greater evil I would rather have ... =)

I nearly got tempted to stop at the 64hour dosing as that was the minimum hours of dosing required but luckily I did not do that. That temptation was so bad as I was really needing the sleep. Must be the time of the month coming for me too, hence the tiredness in me but I psyched myself up, telling me that its only 3 more doses.. 3 more to complete a 72hour round. Since I have already done 64hours, I can hold long enough to last through 72 hours..

Jaden suffered from constipation this time round. 3 days of not pooing at all. Its really amazing where all the waste is stored in that tiny 5 year old body. He farted last night and it was enough to put both Mr and I out, so I can imagine how the smell would be like once I make him poo today, which is A MUST and THE GOAL OF THE DAY for me today.

I have asked some parents for advise on what 'assisting' tools/supps that could help him go and I was recommended the fastest way -glycerin suppository. Of course, there are other suggestions like taking mag citrate instead of mag glycinate, drinking a ripe banana-organic dates smoothie, George's Aloe juice ... but glycerin suppository is the most easily obtained 'tool' for me at the moment so the suppository it is for now. 

Wish me luck that his diaper is big and strong enough to hold those 3 days' waste.

Andy Cutler Chelation Protocol #Round 3

Today's #round 3 of AC chelation ended at 10am.

I started my #round 3 @ 10am last Friday.

I was really inspired to carry on doing it this weekend (21st Sept -24th Sept) despite from the negative behavior I had from Jaden the previous week.

Surprisingly two days before I started on this #round3, I discovered that Phosphatidylserine was a magic pill. At least it was to me.

It was prescribed to Jaden by Dr Erwin back in June 2011 but I never got round to giving him that supplement after all the other supplements that I had been slowly giving him on Dr Rina's prescription and trust me, there were just too many that I felt sorry for the boy so I was keeping it at the most minimum and also the ones that are the most important. 

I remembered reading about Phosphatidylserine in the Fight Autism and Win book, that it does wonders for mood. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating about the word wonders but what the book wrote was actually 'improve concentration, focus and mood, modulate cortisol lever @ 100 - 200mg per day and the softgel I had from Dr Erwin's clinic is 500mg (derived from soy lecthin) but it was a risk I am willing to take as the book claims the positive reaction and the note on the bottle by Dr Erwin to me was it was for neurological. So why not, right?

AND... it was MAGIC!

His therapists commented on his behavior for the two days he was on that magic pill that he could sit longer, level of concentration is back and that he is so different from the past two/three weeks they had classes with him. It was a total 360 change in Jaden's behavior. 

I did not give it to Jaden on Saturday or Sunday. He was a bit naughty but nothing that I could not tolerate so it was all good. 

These two days, last night and today, he was rather weepy. On and Off he would cry for no reason but then again, I am also weighing in other possibilities that might not be the doing of DMSA but the food he ate last night. Either the rice last night or the gfcf cake he had for trial run. Going to monitor again tonight for the cake after his dinner because with Jaden, reaction to food allergy is almost instantaneous. 

I am so glad that this round is over and I shall be taking the next weekend off as its his birthday this coming Friday. Now, its back to catching up on lost sleep for me  :)

Andy Cutler Chelation Protocol #Round 2

I have to admit that I am rather a procrastinator and I really need to be pushed to do something. Thankfully there is a mother who really pushes me each time I see her to carry out my next round of chelation for Jaden.

After the first successful round of AC Chelation for Jaden, there were issues of tantrum and the worst scenario was the yeast issue then when his ass turned really red with tiny bumps appearing. He seemed to show signs of the itch too but what that put me off was that I had tried so hard to make the butt not be red anymore with the antifungal I pile on him for the past two months. 

We had a anti-yeast protocol and also the anti-parasite protocol while at that and I did see really good results from it. 

After #round 1, it was as if I had never done the anti yeast and parasite protocol before. That was what that dampened my hope but I had always known all along that yeast would be a long fighting battle until we find the right dosage, till then, it will always be a pesky persistent enemy, just not much of a big enemy if compared to the overall big boss -AUTISM.

So last two Fridays ago, at 130pm, I took out 4caps of 25mg DMSA and divided them up into 20 dosages. For an every four hour dosage, 72 hours dosing, 19 dosages altogether. Confused much? :p

I gave him his first dosage of #round2 at 230pm, then 630pm and then we went out and time was not on our side if I were to wait till 1030pm for the next dosing, so I adjusted it and gave him 1/2hr earlier -10pm and from there, all dosings were at 2,6,10,2,6,10 .. you get the drift...

#Round 2 went by really quickly in a way but this was a bad round for us. 

I observed that he was really easily agitated, temper that was really bad and that he showed signs of being aware of the boy, who he meets once a week, lets call that boy, M. 

M has always been playing with his ipad around Jaden, and at time crying or having his tantrum issue but it has never affected Jaden. This time round, both boys were fighting over the ipad, and then Jaden even went and give M a push in the back when M was crying as it affected Jaden and made Jaden wanted to cry too. It was rather confusing on whats happening and I am not sure if its a good or bad thing. 

So I have to conclude that behavior wise on #round 2 was really bad. Mall security guards thought I was kidnapping Jaden, the way he was screaming his lungs out when I have to pull him out from shop outlets that he was stimming in. It was crazy!

Anyway I was glad that the #round 2 ended and he was a bit back to being on a good behavior after the round.

Remember, I only said " a bit ..."

There are new issues I need to find out and tackle them again before it becomes an issue for me. :(

p/s: The pressing on chin and squirting the DMSA in at night on #round2 was proven not to have really be that effective compared to the first time I did it on the repeated #round1.

Swallowing capsules

I can proudly now say my almost 5 year old can swallow capsules. 

Yesterday, while we were all ready to have our dinner in Melaka, after paying my mother-in-law a visit, I decided to try my luck by just giving Jaden his digestive enzyme just like that, without having to insert it into bits of oranges (like how I do it at home usually) and he surprised me by just swallowing it and quickly sipping his water after that.

So, to test Jaden further that it is just not a coincidence, I tried again with his Trienza in between his meals and he did it again, and again for other supplements. 

Conclusion, YES!! Jaden can swallow capules now and these capsules are exactly small or tiny. You can imagine how happy and proud I am of Jaden.

BUT this success did not come easy.

We started our biomed journey back in Nov/Dec 2010 and the first year we were on biomed, it was a battle each day trying to get those supplements into his body. Both Jaden and I were both constantly crying and fighting. Him crying because mummy was being a crazy lady forcing him to drink up all those bitter stuff and mummy crying because Jaden really put up a good fight and daddy was on his side instead of mummy's. I was called crazy, I was accused of traumatising my own son ... *sigh* yes, I have been through lots of those moments but I stuck through my own method and look at us today.

I have to admit, it had never been easy.

I was a very forceful mom. I would cane him until he finished up the drink, I would shove the pieces of fruits with half the capsules in and block my palm at his mouth so he can't spit it out and have to take it all in. Yes, during those days, he gets caned quite a lot... and as he grew up, getting used to the idea that if I take it all in without a fuss, it would be all over in a minute or two. 

First I started out having to open up all the capsules of the supplements and mixing it into his drinks. Fruit juices or his potato milk to mask the flavor although I do have to admit that some of these supplements are just plain nasty and imagine he has to drink it all up. 

Then I started sprinkling out some of his supplements into his bits of fruits such as persimmons, mangoes, watermelon. Sweeter fruits to mask the overall bitter taste. Sometimes it works, sometimes no and he learnt that these fruits are 'bitter' too and he started to refuse taking them.

I figured out its time I have to try another method to get it all in again. I almost gave up after a bad fight over the supplement intake issue, and I gave it a rest for quite some time before I told myself, its now or never for Jaden to recover. If its not me to do all these bad cop job, who else would be willing to, right? 

So I tried again, this time, I only divide the capsule into half, their contents still in the capsule and I stick them into fruits like bananas and mangoes and mandarin oranges. This, I only started doing back in December/January of 2012.

It worked fine until he decided that he didn't like them in his bananas. Maybe that needs a little effort more in swallowing them as he needed to chew a bit and that made him bit into the bitter contents. So I stuck with mandarin oranges which he just can't simply refuse. 

From there, it was the whole capsule in half a slice of mandarin oranges and then I break the slice of mandarin oranges into three parts and one slice of mandarin oranges equals to three different capsules. 

and today, well, no more mandarin oranges !! YAY !! 

Most probably I would only let him swallow on the whole and plain like that when we are travelling but when we are at home, I am still going to give him with the bits of fruits so that he won't get scared of swallowing capsules just like that. HEY, even I get scared when I see 8 different pills staring me in my face daily.

I am just thankful and grateful that 'today' came. =)

Andy Cutler Chelation Protocol #Round 1

Finally I summoned enough courage to re-start on #round 1 chelation for Jaden. 

Took me over almost a month and more to get my ass on dividing the doses, prepping my body and mind to be mentally strong enough to go through the difficult two dosings of the entire process. 

I was not worried about Jaden not wanting to take his doses when he is awake because I feel by now, after two years of asking him to come to me and getting supplements, medicine and bitter stuff shoved down mouth, he has learnt that its easier to quickly swallow it than to put up a fight with me. He never wins at that. Maybe not now when I still have the upperhand in parental control.

Like I mentioned earlier in this post, because we are just starting on our very first round, Jaden will only be taking 5mg per dosing every 4 hours for the next 72 hours. That would add up to 18 doses altogether. 

Minimum advisable hours to do would be 64 hours each time on a round. That is personally up to the parents as these kids are usually school-attending children and they have no choice but to do that. However, the ideal recommended hours would be 72 hours, and that is what I am doing with Jaden.

I have got my hands on a 25mg DMSA.

Many would be scratching their head over DMSA right now, aren't you? DMSA stands for Dimercaptosuccinic Acid. I am not going to explain further as there is always Wikipedia to do the job but to summarise it, its a chelating agent where it helps bind toxic metals in our heavily metal laden children. Research shows that most of the autistic (spectrum) children do have lead or mercury or both poisoning in their blood level. It is like detoxing our children from lead, mercury and some, even arsenic. 

Chelation is not a one off thing as these toxic metals do not get in there in a day, but was accumulated since don't know when so this chelating process would also take time to push these toxic out of the body. There are cases where some are completely 'recovered' and some, reaches a stage where nobody would once believe they were autistic and this is what I am aiming for. Of course, RECOVER is on my mission list, be it that this procedure might take a few years but if there is light at the end of the tunnel, I will march together with Jaden towards it. 

I would most probably do at least 5-10 rounds with just 5mg DMSA and then increase another additional 2.5mg to the 5mg. That is the step to take, it seems, as written in my book of AC chelation bible book -Fight Autism and Win. 

Then there will be ALA adding in, which ALA crosses the brain barrier and bla bla bla, but that is another story to tell next time when I start adding ALA to his DMSA but for now, lets stick with DMSA first. 

SO the story is...

We re-started our #Round 1 AC (Andy Cutler) chelation protocol on Aug 3, 2012. 

The first two days were a breeze through as I did not see any meltdowns, signs of fatigue or yeast flare-ups. DMSA are known to trigger yeast flare-ups despite one is on a anti-yeast protocol before, battling out the yeast. 

Jaden had two poo incidents, once on Fri evening and Sat morning, where it was mushy, mustardy, diarrhea-like, just non-watery though kind of poo. He took another dump on Saturday evening and it was well-formed by then, and it was in a rather healthy looking color -based on Bristol stool chart. I bet you didn't know that there was such a chart, didn't you? So did I, until now.

Yesterday, Sunday, nonsense started. In the evening, after dinner, Jaden went into his giggly, euphoric mode. That was when I started to panic. Yes, yeast army has arrived and started partying. His poo? Well, it came in two colors, well formed but one was nearly tar-liked in color. That could only mean bad news, indication of something not right inside there.

Other than being giggly and all last night, he did display some positive signs such as being a calmer boy than usual, much cheerful. 


Oh, I forgot to mention another downside, he was stimming much ore, flapping his hands and that also boils down to it being caused by yeast. YES, we parents like to blame em YEAST !!!

Before I started out this round, I was only scared of the two dosings that requires me to give it to Jaden when he is sleeping. Remember how I failed the last time round because he put up a fight with me the last time round on the second night of dosing and I have to abandon round? 

Well, it seems by my endless effort trying out various ways (during that one month break), I practiced trying to open his mouth when he is sleeping whenever I could and FINALLY, I think I may have found THE SECRET to it, without waking him up and also getting those doses in. I shared it with one parent I met up last night and she text me late last night saying it worked with her son too. 

*PHEW*

BUT do let me stress. Every kid is different. They have different sensitive issues, for Jaden, it was his lips. If you touch his lips, it will stir him up from sleep and make him angry and that was what that caused my previous abandoned round. 

Speaking of detoxifying this metals out from our children, some minerals get depleted too. That is why, during chelation, we crank up on their supplements. Jaden has to take double of his zinc, magnesium, milk thistle (just because I am a scaredy cat and wanna protect his liver all I can), calcium and probiotics. 

This is a 3days on a round, rest for 11days and then continue again on the next round. Each round is 72 hours, you should have get the idea by now though. Why rest right? This is because we need to let their body recover from all these detoxifying, build up again on their immune system and then go on a fight again. Even soldiers need to take a time out, to replan, regroup and refill their ammo before they can fight, right? Just like detoxifying, some will purge it out but you don't expect those purges to go on 24/7 for the next 365 days, do you? You would be jelly by then. So its basically the same concept. 

Some children's neutrophils are also lowered while on DMSA, so they need time to get their neutrophils to a safe range before they begin their battle again. That is why there are some that only does one round of DMSA once a month for their children. Its not about how fast you go, and that will give you success. Its how steady you go, how you do your rounds based on each child's health rate. Its a fight of course, a fight with time.. and that is all.. but aren't we all fighting against time for everything? Just that, this is rather a tough fight as each child's situation is different from another. Some might just need less than 100 rounds and they could be saying "Hallelujah", some may need more time and rounds. 

Whatever it is, the motto is never to give up ... 

One and half hours more to go before his last dosage of DMSA for this #ROUND 1.. and I can successfully say, 

YES I COMPLETED A ROUND ON MY BABY BOY !!!!! 

and damn, I deserve a good glass of wine to celebrate ! :)

p/s: This would mean I took another baby step forward. YAY !!!!!

#Round 1 - FAILED / ABANDONED

Everything was going so well, until the 330am dosing on Saturday night. 

I don't understand, he took it so well the night before but last night, he put up a fight and only had a bit of DMSA in him but spit most of it out and I did not know what to do? 

Its not like any other supplement where they have it half, and half out and you can still re-feed them them supplement again until they take it all in.

So I decided not to take the risk of overdosing him and decided to abandon this round. So, the next time you see me saying I am on Round 1 chelation again, that is because this is a failed round, its not considered a round. 

Come to think of it, that I had just finally figured out the right dosage for antifungal for him after all the giggling episode from his third dosage and now, this failure from my side.

For now, I need to figure out the right trick/moves to give it to him without him even realizing and sleeping on.. gonna be rather challenging, this one for his mouth is so shut tightly when he sleeps, not to mention even after I make my way past his tight-shut mouth, I have to fight the battle against those clenched teeth. *sigh*

Even during the first half days he was on his round, he had displayed some positive behavior and he also seemed rather pleasant, he was even more aware, alert as you can call that and the eye contact, it was wonderful !!

I feel like such a failure like now but I shall console myself that I was very sick. Next round, I shall be more alert and 'tricky' during those night/early morning feeds. 

So, conclusion to my much-anticipated round 1 of AC chelation = FAILED !!!

Day 1 # Round 1 on AC Chelation

So here I am, sitting in front of the computer, all bright-eyed, runny stuffed nose, nursing a rather bad sore throat which if I am not careful, Mr fever might just trail along to party and a headache.

Just popped two panadols and clarinase and downing as much water as I can and waiting for the next round of chelation dosing for Jaden, which will take place at 1130am.

Yes, so far, I have succeeded feeding it to him -330pm / 730pm / 1130pm / 330am / 730am ... This is how AC Chelation is like. 4 hourly dosing for the next 72 hours and then days off until the next Friday comes and we go on a round 2 provided Jaden is all healthy and shows no sign of being attacked by nasty fever/flu/tummy bugs. *touch wood*

He had been rather pleasant on the first dosage, that I badly want to believe that it is the chelation's doing.

Jaden was actually sitting down on the floor, crossed his legs by himself and he was sitting there for quite some time without getting up to jump and stim. It was incredible. 

Second dosing come, he was still pretty alright, seems rather aware of things and by the third dosing, he was all giggly. 

In a euphoric state of mind, I am guessing he was having a yeast flare up, so I am going to try to add in OoO together with Nystatin and see how it goes today.

It had been quite a crazy day yesterday, a little overwhelmed with additional supplements I have to make sure he takes and on top of that, drinking extra load of water than he usually already have. 

Imagine this..

Morning on an empty stomach, I give him 1 Digestive Enzyme and 1 Candidase (20-30 min before breakfast).

Trick him into bathing before meal, and then immediately after his breakfast, I give him 1 Folinic Acid, 1 Magnesium Glycinate, 1 DMG, 1 P5P, 1 Ester-C Bio, 1 CoQ10, 2 Nystatin, 2ml of GPC Liquid, 5ml of Cod Liver Oil (CLO) and a drink of 1/4teaspoon of Calcium Citrate mixed with drink. 

One half hour after, I pop 1 Humaworm in him and wait for another one half hour before I pop in 1 Zinc Picolinate and 1 Factor 6 (probiotics) into him.

Which gives me another one hour before I start on giving him 1 Digestive Enzyme and 1 Candidase again and wait for 20-30 minutes before his next meal.

After lunch, its 1 Magnesium Glycinate, 1 Folinic Acid, 2 Nystatin, 1 Milk Thistle and 1 Cognitive Factor.

30 minutes before meal time, another round of 1 Digestive Enzyme. 

After dinner, its 1 Magnesium Glycinate, 1 Ester C-Bio, 5ml of CLO, 1 Milk Thistle and another drink of 1/4 teaspoon of Calcium Citrate mixed with drink.

Nearing which, it would have been about 10something at night, one half hour after his dinner, I pop the second Humaworm in him, wait out for another hour or one half before I send him to bed with 1 Zinc Picolinate and 1 Factor 6. 

All those supplements, of course the four hourly dosing DMSA in between. 

Today, I have to figure out where to fit in the 2drops of OoO. If the 2drops 2x daily OoO does its' job in keeping the yeast at bay, then I shall keep the dosing at that. If not, then I will have to add on another additional 2drops after dinner tomorrow, which I will probably wait out and observe  first for today.

Speaking of which, I have yet to figure out and read back on his DAN's note on what supplement to give him to back his immune system up after doing a round of chelation. *sigh* 

On top of feeling a little overwhelmed with a sudden influx of the additional supplements, the 'badly sick' me have to be alert at all hours because Mr has ZERO ideas on what I am currently doing, giving Jaden and how to give it to Jaden. 

All I want to do is just to breezefully sail pass this #Round 1, so I can end this procrastination and move on a step closer to the light at the end of the tunnel. 


p/s: Crap, I forgot totally all about Epsom Salt Bath and applying gluthation transdermally. What an idiot I am !!

Chelation

Finally.. after nearly over a year of procrastination, I have finally cut up the DMSA into 5mg each for the coming next 72 hours.

God, please give me the mental strength to sail through the 72 hours easily with Jaden complying to taking the DMSA without throwing any fuss.

Got my other supplements ready on hand too that has to be double dosage from normal days. 

I can do this! 

For a better tomorrow, that is...

Diet Plan 2012

Jaden has been on Gluten Free Casein Free Egg Free (GFCFEF) dieDr t for almost 1.5 years now ever since we got his IgG allergy test back, followed with other forbidden food.

Sometimes we avoid soy if possible but most of the time, I close an eye and let him have some of these GFCF food that contains soy. He is not highly allergic to them, although if we would want to be safe, its best to avoid or have it on rotation and that is what I do. 

We have seen quite a change when we took him off gluten and casein initially. He showed signs of eye contact back again (it may be jut a little but it hit us on the positive note) and some imitation which he used to do and stopped.

From then on, we never looked back, and stayed on quite a strict diet only when we have to turn to KFC for treats and his love for fries. This, is cheating and BAD. Not advisable but since we have his Digestive Enzymes to help us break down these proteins, we got to cheat a little. 

I have mastered bit by bit GFCF cooking and now, I am thinking he has to incorporate in another diet which might help us push our luck further in recovering him.

You see, supplements and therapists are not going to heal him alone. It is connected to what goes into his gut daily and Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride stresses that a healthy gut means a healthy person and all these illness/diseases would go away when the cells inside the guts are newly-reborn again.

To do that, of course, we have to adhere to her GAPs diet. It means Gut and Psychology syndrome. 

One can read a brief introduction of GAPs here.

Short to say, it would be quite a challenge in the beginning as this means really really staying home and cooking and more cooking and really using nothing but organic and fresh produce.

This diet allows eggs in the second stage of the Introduction Diet but I am a little scared as Jaden's test results shows that he is highly allergic to eggs so well, we shall see. 

Some parents on the forum would be starting their children on this diet too, maybe from June onwards, so this would most probably have given me some mental preparation to face it. 

The sooner we start, the sooner our child might recover, of course, I still think I would be continuing supplementing Jaden with his supps and maybe chelation on the go too.

For now, I am just going to go on with his ABA and OT therapy, and I guess by this year, speech therapy and of course, diets and chelation.

Nobody says this is going to be easy but seeing all these positive things that Jaden never fails to show me drives me on to want to help him and be with him in this journey of his. 

Updates

It has been 10 months since Jaden started his ABA program and boy, I become a prouder parent each time, every week, every month.

Jaden has been showing good progress so far, sometimes still lost in a daze but overall, he is doing well and it puts a smile on my face everytime he puts what he learn into practice.

He had never really shown an interest in wanting to play with toys and voila! now, he can even initiate and choose the toys he wants to play and plays it with a lot of patience.

Jaden is so much more aware of his surrounding and things that are going on. He is actually quite observant as he picks up whatever he sees, imitation. He tends to imitate after a while observing.

Although we (Jaden and us) did not get to achieve a breakthrough in the verbal sector, he is much more vocal now, letting us know what he likes and what he does not by of course, if he likes a thing, he would give you a million dollar smile and if he does not agree or ain't liking what he sees in front of him, he will whine and whine and closes his eyes. As if if he can't see the things, its not there to him.

Jaden's level of understanding is also much more better. He is showing higher compliance, obeying instructions although there are times when his mood is cranky then we shall just see a screaming monster. 

I tend not to allow him to get on with his ill-mannerism. Afterall I want him to learn that he would not get the things he want by showing negative behavior. I am one parent that really can't stand naughty boys, be it a special needs child or neurotypical child. Children learn fast when it comes to bad behavior and its our duty as parents to ensure that they don't go down that road. Some people do tell me that I should not use the cane on him but well, being Asian, being me, on how I was brought up, I believe that the method works. At least it shows better results than the West where children answer back at their parents,giving smartypant answers. You might say, it allows creative thinking but sorry, I ain't liking creative thinking that way. 

Since he has been showing positive results, his ABA supervisor gave the green light to move on into other programs.

We are now going to try to teach him how to blow because one may not know it but blowing, sucking, chewing helps with his oral muscle and that might just be our little needle (key) in the haystack to help open the door to Jaden being verbal. 

Other than ABA, his DAN doctors are also pushing up more supplements like vitamin B6, MB12 shots and chelation to see if that would help with the coming of speech too. I am so afraid to hear that he might be diagnosed with Oral Apraxia, which I hope its not.. I pray hes just a late talker.. 

So how does he communicate with us, you would ask. How do we know what he wants / wants to do and all. Well, its easy to tell since we are his parents. Now I understand why my parents say even before I move, they would know what I am up to next. Jaden will physically let us know where he wants to go and what he wants to do. 

Its a long tedious journey and be it how long, as long as he is my son, I shall walk on with him down this road. 

Home-based ABA

We knew we had to send Jaden for therapies but what therapies? 

Searching around blogs, autism websites, asking around parents who have experiences in these and finally trying to sort which therapy suits Jaden best.

Finally, after giving in some consideration, Mr and I decided to do ABA first for Jaden.

We were actually torn between RDI and ABA but I wanted something more solid, something much more strict that he can stick to a schedule instead of relying on me to be the 'therapist' in the RDI therapy.

Intan Miranti from ANDI Initiative came over to the house and gave us her point of view in ABA therapy. She was really  great help. She gave us her point of view as a mother and also as a therapist. She, of course was open-minded to whom we will hire in the end and even gave me some contacts for me to call and talk to, just to let me understand which therapy schedule would suit both Jaden and I best.

Intan even gave us a rough breakdown of how much home-based would cost compared to the centre-based pricing I got from the Internet and calls made. She explained to us the pros and cons and boy, these therapies don't come cheap. Really really not cheap. One month of the therapy can costs somehow  more than my annual private school fees back in my days.Centre-based? Well, one of the centre's one month fees costs as much as today's private school annual fee. Yes! That is how expensive these treatments are to have these children recover.

When we decided to go ahead with ABA, Intan truthfully told me she was not sure if she could take my case up, because she had other things running too from her organization. She recommended me another well-known supervisor, Carmen.

I was so grateful when Carmen agreed to take my case up. She has already taken on about 40 families, and to be able to slot me in was heaven-sent. Partly was also due to where I was staying. I practically stay 10 minutes away from her. 

Carmen, too came over to the house to evaluate Jaden and told us her plans for Jaden. Then she set out to find us suitable therapists whom she thinks will be able to handle Jaden and after months of me hoping to get Jaden started on therapy, my prayers were answered. Carmen smsed me in the middle of February and told me she found me two therapists for Jaden and a meeting was set up. That was possibly what made my whole Chinese New Year seems hopeful and happier.

Fast forward, today in the morning and early afternoon, was Jaden's first ABA class with his two therapists.

We were actually expecting some cries, resistance but *touch wood* it all went smoothly and the only resistance we got was he did not want class to end! 

Well, this is another step forward taken, another new beginning and I pray that more positivity will follow along.

10 things ...