Today we went to the DEC to have our son evaluated for the second time. He scored above average on his intelligence tests and the team said he no longer has any symptoms of autism The only thing that stood out was his excellent behavior. I was very proud of him. He was not allowed to have his parents in the room with him and he worked so well with all the different people. The first time he was evaluated he was given a diagnosis of PDD at age 29 months. Now after 18 months since the last diagnosis and about 11 months of ABA and he is above average in his IQ tests. The psychologist told me that sometimes children outgrow their symptoms of autism and that is apparently what happened with your son.

Here are the things that helped my child. We took out all dairy from his diet. We went to speech therapy 3 times a week for 10 months. We did ABA out of our house 15 hours a week and he continued to go to a regular pre school. We also give him B6, magnesium and DMG daily. I do not believe that you can cure autism, but I do believe that some children with early intervention can be indistinguishable from their peers.

:bouncing: Rock on KathleenW!!! :bouncing:
That is excellent. Thank you so much for sharing that very encouraging news!!!

That is fabulous KathleenW! :) It is what we all hope to hear about our kids!

Great new Kathleen! Please join us on the Parenting the Recovered List at yahoo.
My son lost his Dx at 5- he is 12 now. We used simliar supplements and removed dairy also....

C-GA

Hi Rids. Is your son in a regular classroom with no assistance? Do you think your son is indistinguishable from his peers or can you see some differences? I think my son is perfect now, but a lot of people say that as social situations become more difficult children with autism tend to stand out as they get older.

My son has always been in a regular classroom with no assistance.
At 12, his social skills are just where they should be. I think that they actually stand out less- as puberty causes this age group to be odd in general! LOL
My son is indistinguishable at the moment- but I relate to this like cancer- in remission- maybe gone, maybe needs some more treatment down the line- may come back full force- ....
Have a great day,
Cj

Thank you for writing back!! It is so wonderful that your son continues to do so well. I am exactly like you. I am not worried now, but since autism is a life long condition it seems like my little four year old is to good to be true. I just try to enjoy the moment and hope that he will graduate from college with no problems!!!

:bouncing: :bouncing: :bouncing: :wave: CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Now, if I can only get my girl not to drink strawberry milk. This, she has every morning and every night.....I need to get 'hard' :( and try withdrawing the dairy, to see if there is any improvements..

Yvette

Out of all the things that family's can try I think the number one thing is to take your child off of milk. Why don't you buy rice milk and then mix it with Strawberry flavor. When we took my son off of milk he went from 25 words to 200 in one month. I do not think he ever would have been able to benefit from speech or ABA if he was on milk. He would just stare at the fire place, ceiling or into space. One day when I picked him up from pre school his teacher said when we talk to him he just stares right through us.

My son is happy, smart, had a phenomanal year in his three year old pre school class, funny, easy going and has tons of friends. To say he has changed 100% is an understatement. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but it was worth every second I spent.

I totally agree that it can be controlled. My son is now 10. We had behavior problems and what I called "odd" behavior from the beginning. LORDY, do I remember fighting with his ped. I would go in there and say... he did this or that and it's not normal. At a year and a half he was at a babysitters house and had gotten too close when she opened her oven and had the imprint on his arm. He never whimpered! He was always daredevilish too. He would throw himself on the floor and have fits and just a number of things. Right after he turned three we went back to the doctor and I informed them I had taken him off all sugars, red dyes, all the things that were supposably stimulants for ADD and I wasn't leaving there until I was referred somewhere or something was done. We were referred to a wonderful doctor. After I had left the first visit I noticed on the paper when I got home it said 'Pervasive developmental disorder'. At the next visit we saw the social worker before the doctor and I questioned it. She was like ....AHA.. that makes sense. I sat there in a stuper!! He had lined up toys since he was an infant, he had gotten mad at me if I said I was going to do something and then start dinner but instead just started dinner. I thought these were just part of his personality. He was eventually diagnosed with ADHD, PDD, Aspberger's, ODD and OCD. I kept him on meds for 3 years. I took him off of them when he was six. We found the best thing for Jeffrey is to keep consistancy in his life and be very routine. He's in regular classrooms in school. I can't say I don't see ANY signs of it but we do control it. One of the biggest signs is he excells in spelling at school without ever having to study for the tests. He's still my little daredevil and he still has his attitude from time to time but it's nothing we can't handle and control.

Here was my post about his re evaluation for autism.

Kathleen; Your son's story is amazing. I too took my son off of All DAIRY at 20 months and the improvements began immediately and rapidly. I have not done the wheat portion of the gf/cf diet completely. I have minimized wheat but not totally eliminated it. My son does still at almost three show some of the PDD traits however there are many days that I don't think it shows at all. The days it shows it's mostly due to the sensory piece which I have yet to figure out. Maybe it's diet related? I just don't know. Like your son, my son also got 17 hours 1.1 of which 14 were ABA the other three were floortime. ABA was the most effective componant of his therapy. The school system now wants to only provide 4 hours of direct 1.1 at my home some floortime some ABA. I am furious and fighting it. How can you take a child who has had 22 hours total therapy which 17 of those hours were 1.1 and make it 4 hours. Even though he is doing very well I just think it's too drastic.

I guess my question to you is did you eliminate wheat as well or did you find dairy the main and only offender? Thanks so much for your story. It means alot to hear a success story like yours. It gives such hope for the future for not just my son but alot of kids on the spectrum.

The reason they gave me about not being able to give speech therapy (I never had 1 second of ABA paid for) was my son did not qualify. At 29 months my son was at a 16 month level for speech and cognitive. After the diagnosis I spent every second with my son doing floor time. We worked on all the things he could not accomplish during testing. Then we started speech. I contacted someone about ABA, but after the pediatric neurologist said my son did not have autism I decided not to pursue it. Finally at 33 months I started the ABA program. At age 35 months we tested again with a speech therapist for the state of North Carolina. At age 2 year 11 months he had a score for speech and cognitive at an age level of 3 years 1 month. They said they needed to provide speech therapy free of charge for children who needed it and my son did not qualify. So I know how you feel about being mad!! That is why I paid for everything myself. I knew that he was still behind other children so I continued speech and ABA.

As for wheat consumption we limit it. I purchase a lot of foods made by enjoy life foods. If he has pizza (without cheese) a couple of times a week I do not notice any changes in his behavior, so I don't really think it affects him that much. I don't know why I limit it. I guess I just worry that something might happen. He has so many foods that he likes that don't have wheat in it anyway so I mostly just stick to those. Maybe I am just crazy. I tell my husband when my son gets older and starts to rebel he won't have to smoke or drink he will probably just head straight to the grocery store.

I know how you feel about holding back on various foods, but I can honestly say I DO see a difference in my son's behavior when he has had something that has Dairy in it. I think he may benefit from wheat elimination also however the Dairy really seems to be his main offender.

I'm so glad to hear about how well your son is doing. You should be proud of yourself for sticking with it and providing him with ABA and Floortime yourself.
I've seen alot of parents through the Early Intervention just freeze up when their child turns three and their crutch is gone. Your son is lucky you are so strong and obviously your efforts are paying off. Keep me posted, I love to hear stories like yours. It's what we are hoping for and potentially heading for! :wave:

I've read that b6 and magnesium and/or DMG (dimethylglycine) help social behavior. How do you get the right doses of this stuff? We don't do DAN doctors.

A paper byStephenEdelson PhD of theCenter for the Study of AUtism,Salem, Oregon says theres 3 boxes for describing autistic kids' social deficits. Avoidant, Indifferent, or Awkward. One theory for the social problems our kids have is that they lack the biochemical pleasurethatmost of us get fromhangingout with friends. Professor Jaak Panksepp atBowling Green Univ inOhio has shown that beta-endorphins are released inanimals during social behavior. There's some evidence that autistic people have naturally elevated levels of beta-endorphins,so they don't needto rely on social interaction to feel pleasure. They're happy campers allby themselves.

A drug called Naltrexone blocks the action of beta endorphins and has been shown to increase social behavior. Once the natural level is lowered, I guess autistic people then DO experience thespike in beta endorphins/ pleasure when they interact with others.

This drug is not usually prescribed but research studies and parent reports have often indicated that B6, magnesium, and/or DMG improve social skills. I want to learnmore about the supplements. ANybody have info?
Thanks,
LeAnne
PS. my two yearold broke my spacebar on my pc, so sorry if htis is hard to read

geezermom, I read about Naltrexone, too. It made sense, so I asked our developmental pediatrician and she said she was familiar with that research and would not have a problem prescribing it as it has not been shown to have any negative side effects. We haven't tried it yet. I'm thinking of waiting till this summer since my son is doing so well in school at the moment. He is already on medications which work wonderfully, but make me feel guilty. We will see what happens this summer.

Wow- I'm glad to hear the Naltrexone doesn't have side effects. I really want to see if our 5 year old becomes more social on it - he's just "indifferent" right now.

Call me a wimp,but I"m going to see about the B6 and magnesium first...drugs just scare the pants off me. Left a message for Cole's pediatrician with the name of that author and asking for the vitamin/mineral Rx. Do you know if DMG dimethylglycine has any ill effects? Am gonna check the Autism Research Institute's website...

Thanks Aggiemom!
Geezermom, LeAnne

Thanks for the encouraging news. I wish I had had this kind of information years ago. I need to reevaluate my "just live with it" additude! Kim