What goes in Must come out

We use aloe vera juice as part of our detoxing diet, it mixes well with any other drinks, and is fast-acting relieving bloating, gas, and seems to soothe the digestive system along the way, not to mention the medicinal effects it has on the rest of your well-being. In this case it was selected as a sensory-friendly, gentle, and effective alternative to stool softeners and other laxatives (both herbal and non) that caused discomfort and pain.

Children's probiotic supplements work well, and are necessary when working on digestive cleansing, I would normally prefer to use food, dairy and yogurt products, but the little guy in this scenario doesn't liked dairy, it causes him pain, and has refused to consume most of it ever again.

At first, it can seem quite daunting, to have your child toileting independently, but what I struggled most with was why it wasn't happening on its own. It turns out that he had too many health and service providers making it a behavioural issue, when really all it took was some healthy digestion, a few hospital visits, and a quiet approach without immediately following up with the doctor. He regained his privacy, found acceptance for his medical challenges within the family, and is proud to no longer need pull ups.

It doesn't end there, he has a little brother, who is seeing all of this, and is gaining a great deal more control over his own diet and digestion. Currently we have accidents, and disrupting play for a run to the washroom is not a practical idea, however he has come to me at the last second to tell me he needed a hand going to the washroom. Very exciting!

I find a great deal of regression and negative reinforcement as being the results of intensive data collection and strict or frequent reitterance of routines and steps. It is going to the bathroom after all. Anywhere online you will find meme's poking fun at the different habits adults have when they use a washroom; from how much toilet paper to use, whether they remember to wash their hands, or standing versus sitting. I don't see my children as being any different. As a matter of fact, they have amazing memories, a gift for adaptive behaviours, and empathy paired with a developing strength to assimilate appropriate behaviours when modeled. All they need is practice, encouragement, support, and understanding to their learning techniques.

A few weeks ago I was faced with sensory challenges in the washroom with 'A', now we have moved onto my interference as being undesired, so I will fade myself out in some aspects, meanwhile preaching and modeling the how-to's with his older brother's new found pride as a backbone to positive reinforcement, through natural means only.

the new food groups

(I am not a professional dietitian, nutritionist, doctor, or medical care worker of any kind.. I'm a mom, and I know my children's health, and any recommendations I have are geared towards my family's particular circumstances, we receive support from a dietitian, pediatrician, holistic nutritionist, friends on the spectrum, and ABA specialists.)

 I have been having some significant troubles getting into this gluten-free diet concept. To me, it doesn't seem to be the best idea for a growing kid. To truly be gluten free, I need to get rid of all processed foods, breads, potato products, grains, etc. That doesn't leave me much to work to ensure caloric intake. Frankly, 'A' hasn't taken well to alternative flours for his pizzas. Bread needs to have a certain texture and quality or he won't eat it.

I went back to the drawing board and spent a few nights of heavy google-searching and came up with these few facts. First of all, I need to throw out my food groups posters and material. Second of all, you can't remove a food from a diet without replacing it with something of equal or more value, both for nutrition and digestion; nor can you introduce something without ensuring it is tolerated.

Kids need these 5 things every day.

CALCIUM requirements
ANTIOXIDANTS sources
FIBER requirements
PROTEIN requirements
IRON requirements

What the sources are, depend on your child's overall diet, intolerances, and needs. To say you need dairy, is wrong, to say you can just eat a banana to supplement for calcium, is also wrong. Each food seems to need its partner in digestion. Individually they provide nutrients, but alone are usually wasted. I suppose the way it is appearing to me, is that there is a partner that fortifies, and another that provides back up support. Not only that, but most foods serve at least two functions.

Why is this matter so important to me? well, its not just the autism healing implications, and overall health and wellness, but it is because I have started out in a community who's food bank looks like this:

Anxiety or Meltdown?

When my son is about to have a meltdown, we stop or slow down depending on what kind of outcome we expect, will he simply fuss, or become totally uncooperative? the signs are different with both 'A' and 'D'. In these circumstances I find myself constantly re-assessing strengths, sensory issues, and body language.

When my son has an anxiety or phobia (I don't consider sensory or environmental issues to be anything less in autism) we try our best to accommodate when in need. Our intentions are to raise them as typical children as much as possible. So many of their stressors and sensory issues can be explained by the health of their nervous system, and digestive systems. Some days a blender will set them off, other days they will remember to run and hide. check out the seven levels of fear here.

Our favourite relaxation strategies here are quite simple; my boys are just coming out of the preschool years, yet developmentally are still there. Comfort items are something many typical child have, but with autism these can be lifesavers. We watch familiar shows over and over again until their anxieties dissipate. Fall back on consistent meal options, and familiar routines whenever necessary. We spend time close together, either watching a movie or playing. Nowadays we are working on breathing exercises, basic yoga poses, empathy skills, warm bubble baths, togetherness, and upgraded educational toys that are great for stimming. An autistic child is overworked when he is having a meltdown, it is a sign that he needs more time for sorting out his thoughts or 'stimming'.

Another huge aspect of anxiety management for us, is grounding. Reminders about their responsibilities to be self-aware and conscious of others before themselves. Helping them to withdraw their hypersensitivity of their environment or worries. You can do this by thinking about a balloon, gradually letting the air out makes it smaller and less imposing. Teaching them to be more concerned with their own physical selves from the environment. Bringing their attention to what their actions are and what they are feeling. Realism or a reality check is usually the ultimate cure to a wildly out there meltdown, you need to calm the autism before communicating with the child.

Exposure works great. I happen to like finding child-sense uses and experiences with the situation causing anxiety, so providing a basis for them to relate easily, acknowledging their right to curiosity before even broaching the subject of stepping into it. I also like to use challenge chaining, providing a like opportunity or toy that is slightly less imposing on the senses, as a ladder to the tougher tools. An example would be a toy vacuum.

Most importantly be ready for a regression or relapse in self-management of anxieties. These can occur from so many things, diet, environment, stress, too much pressure, poor energy management, not having a break when needed, sensory over stimulation or under stimulation.

Diet is a serious issue with anxieties. Experiment, and find what foods and drinks calm your child. The greatest challenge I had seen to helping them to eat healthy foods is the immediate calming effect and dampening of the senses, or slowing of the nervous system that junk and fast food has on an autistic person.

SELF HELP CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy)

the Autism diet part #2 ~ Going Gluten Free!

(I am not a professional dietitian, nutritionist, doctor, or medical care worker of any kind.. I'm a mom, and I know my children's health, and any recommendations I have are geared towards my family's particular circumstances, we receive support from a dietitian, pediatrician, holistic nutritionist, friends on the spectrum, and ABA specialists.)

Again, everyone in our household has a sensitivity to fibers, soluble and insoluble. The difference being; insoluble fibers break down easily, where as soluble ones do not. Fruits and vegetables are soluble, whereas whole grains and glutenous products are not.

To this day, the kids' favourite quick-grab snack is a peanut butter sandwich. We love pancakes, cakes, muffins, waffles, pizza, donuts, crackers, and a whole slew of other foods that contain gluten, without it being added in, not to mention the other foods that contain sometimes smaller amounts such as potato and rice. Going GF seems impossible!

How to go cut back severely on gluten; and balance its effects:

• If you are like me, and do what you can to get the 5 food groups into your kids, stop. 
• switch from whole wheat and whole grain breads to white bread or light rye bread.
• find affordable bread mixes and find the method you like the best, unless your kids can go without sandwiches happily, you'll quickly find yourself baking your own bread.
• if you buy frozen entrees, or other flour based products, trickle this back and experiment with your own recipes until you find one your loved one enjoys. 
• When you are about 50/50 GF, schedule yourself some space on your calendar to bake and prepare foods ahead of time, that way your meals and snacks are as easily accessible to them as the store-bought versions were.
• involve the kids in the process. since there are new foods and new textures, they might feel more comfortable trying something new if they are in control of what goes on their plate.
• talk to your family about how foods affect behaviours and moods.
• drink water before and after any consumption of starches.

Alternatives to Wheat flour.

• Amaranth
• Arrowroot
• Buckwheat
• Chestnut flour
• Coconut flour
• Cornflour (from maize)
• Cornmeal
• Corn tortillas
• Lentil flour
• Malt-free rice and corn breakfast cereals
• Millet meal
• Most pappadums
• Polenta
• Potato flour
• Psyllium
• Quinoa
• Rice (any kind)
• Rice bran
• Most rice crackers
• Rice flour
• Rice vermicelli
• Sago
• Sorghum
• Soy flour
• Soy-based lecithin
• Taco shells
• Tapioca.

Going gluten-free means knowing what gluten is. what contains gluten

There is a great deal of misinformation about gluten-free diets, probably because the only scenario a dietitian would recommend it is if the person has celiac disease. Here are some symptoms you can look out for, with intolerances signs and symptoms

Correlation between an unhealthy digestive system and more severe autism symptoms, and increased difficulties in daily activities are evident.

the Autism diet part #1 ~ Going Dairy Free!

(I am not a professional dietitian, nutritionist, doctor, or medical care worker of any kind.. I'm a mom, and I know my children's health, and any recommendations I have are geared towards my family's particular circumstances, we receive support from a dietitian, pediatrician, holistic nutritionist, friends on the spectrum, and ABA specialists.)

Everyone in our household has a sensitivity to dairy. However, we do live on social assistance, in an undeveloped area of town, and have very picky diets. 'D' would drink his milk with rice krispies (after a few years of being dairy-free, it was our only solution to get enough calcium and protein into him regularly). 'A' would eat cheese on his pizzas daily. SO and I use milks and creams in our hot beverages, and the occasional bowl of cereal, not to mention baking!

The boys are very picky, and as is often the case with autism, quite stuck on the very foods that are causing them harm. We also deal with gluten sensitivities, insoluble fibers to be precise, sugars, processed foods, artificial sweeteners, fluoride, and even certain fruits and vegetables.

How to go dairy free, without experiencing sudden changes, arguments, and negative withdrawal symptoms (if any are present);

• use water or alternative milks in baking whenever possible
• try small portions of various alternative milks to see which ones your family member(s) take to
• offer alternative menu options that don't involve milk, use positive reinforcement
• take a mental note of any behaviour or digestive changes 

Alternatives to cow's milk

• rice milk
• soy milk
• almond/nut milk
• hemp milk
• oats milk

Buying milk from a grocery store is always a risky business. bovine hormones It is said to be helpful in children but only for those with specific genetic mutations. The alternative milks contain active ingredients that extend shelf-life, change natural textures, colours, and flavours. You are actually buying very little quality milk, but with a long list of additives. It can be the healthiest option to make your own milk as you need it. By the time you have gone through the above steps to reduce dairy, you'll probably find you have limited need for milk in your life and smaller home-made portions will be easy to keep up with.

Any seed, nut, or grain can be transformed into a milk. They generally keep for a couple days in the fridge.

Too much work, money, time???

1. First of all, don't stop buying cow's milk until you are sure you no longer will use it. Reduce the frequency and start to slowly supplement your family's milk supply with soy milk (often the simplest and inexpensive next step from dairy).
2. A cost-effective way to not radically change your family's life, is to slowly reshape your habits and grow with change, without suddenly injecting new things confusing or causing ill-ease with your autistic family members. Transition to soy milk
3. This milk has the next-greatest amount of nutrients (whether artificial or not) to dairy. If you are coming from a primarily vegetarian situation, where your children don't eat enough meat and fish, I would suggest following steps 2 and 3.
4. As you are going dairy-free try to find the significant naturally present nutrients in milk. Provide supplements and increase fruits and veggies to maintain a relatively functional routine.
5. Soy milk is a persistent allergen especially to autistic individuals, so in my family this dairy-free business isn't done until we are successfully consuming the same nutrients elsewhere.
6. From soy milk, try the different flavours, chocolate and vanilla. Once your loved one has acquired a taste for these sweet flavours you can go to almond milk, hemp milk, or rice milk. 
7. Rice milk is generally just sugar water, hemp has the most nutritional value without allergens.
8. currently 'A' the milk-consumer of the house is drinking almond milk. If we find any nut sensitivities we will move on to whole oats, hemp and rice milk. 
9. the goal is to move away from dairy entirely, or using milk as a familiar form for new nutrients and beverages.

Naturally Learning through Autism

Much of our homeschooling so far has been developmental and they openly accept kind and social interventions with play that they are challenged in that way, if it is not something challenging they resist interventions and you must be very careful to inject yourself in via parallel play if you hope to show them something, and you better be there to show them something or do what they ask, or bugger off lol. 
They spend about 3 hours a day sitting to play and explore/learn. if they spend more time lazing around its usually for some medical cause. They spend about 4-5 hours a day trying to be social with each other, pretend play, or with grown ups. I find myself accepting their willingness as it is, which looks like social interaction, then do an activity together, and I either stay or do something else depending on how well it goes. 
I do not find their cognitive skills to be delayed at all, but advanced. I find their meltdowns to be a result of imbalance of expressive skill versus cognitive thought. 
My entire goal as a parent is to help them manage being lost-in-thought with real-world self care and advocacy. 
My goal as a teacher is to help them find a way to express themselves fully and demonstrate their knowledge and abilities to their desired levels, particularly in special interests (an aspie who can't express their special interest gets lost in that autism world). They retain everything they learn and can simply know, while in autism land, this is enough, they have instincts and multi-layered processing different from NTs but when expected to behave as NTs (its in their nature to learn for themselves and not accept others' practice as enough, but must learn through own experiences).
My goal as a therapist is to help them work through anxieties and sensory issues to be able to perform age-appropriate developmental behaviours, with hopes of generalization and further growth.
My goal as an advocate is to ensure they learn to be good to others, and able to initiate and interact with respect, and manners. As a means to counteract anxieties, manners, rules of interaction, behaviours, and understanding NTs (as the foreign beings they are), will curb any challenge set before them, and they may choose their lifestyle and routines to work around their outside expectations, essentially learning self-regulation as a social skill.

That being said, I am recognized as a parent aware and well-read, our services and family view me as complacent and the kids following too-few rules and boundaries. I live and swear by rules - with understanding. something they don't teach in schools. Most of it they have figured out, everything is a matter of respect, eye for an eye, and if you are possibly to be misinterpreted in a negative way, don't do it. 

So, my children have acquired the ability to learn, my youngest learns experientially, unable to navigate a computer, and less access to school environments, seeing teachers and staff learning on the go. My oldest knows how to research but just starting learning to read. We learn core subjects as tools to special interests, and advanced learning. Limited access (currently) to more mature academic material (huge motivator) due to finding developmentally-appropriate tools to encourage interaction. I determine our next course of action or area of learning based on their comfort level and interest. I cannot ask others for advice or tips in this as it is unschooling... and not condoned by gov't agencies, or those who seem to struggle with their perceptions on regulated lifestyles, public school systems, and responsibility. 

little one has a passion for physics, showing significant love for sports, and weather. He learns these constantly, but in his most autistic behaviours, so do you bring these things out of them, or wait until they have acquired a new passion? I have learned that bringing them out of themselves too much at once is not safe, for their well-being, or health. the power of knowing is too great. 

big guy has a passion for animals, life sciences, biology, and sociology. He researches plots and interactions on youtube, in between pretend play. He experiments with physics as well, but prefers video games and virtual world (as opposed to his brother and his real world experiments). He enjoys kids documentaries and science shows. 

introduction

Vaccinations. We are not up to date, however yes they had their infant shots. 'D' was caught up to 4 years old, receiving everything including MMR, except for his 18mths, he was quite sick at the time, and we were seeing serious issues with 'A' and decided we were better off putting this on hold until we learned more about the potential medical challenges that were possible for our boys. 'A' received his first vaccine. an MMR. over the following two days he had respiratory distress, hyperventilation, and spiralled downwards. He had had enough problems with suspected stenosis in his ears and nose. (a situation where the canals are too small to properly function). So immediately we stopped pursuing this form of preventative care.

Special Diets. Yes we do this. Not for some dream of therapeutic relief from autism, or a cure. 'D' had symptoms of lactose intolerance, colic, gas, acne, cravings, etc. We removed and reduced the dairy, he improved, we tried to re-introduce dairy some time later, less fat content, and the symptoms returned. He only ate a few things, enough to cover all food groups! Recently we've seen more solid evidence to the idea of going gluten free. He can more easily digest gluten free products (they do have a tendency to crumble and melt in your mouth, unlike wheat flours). Also, our experiments with cutbacks to wheat breads and a few sudden introductions of wheat also had the sudden effect of bloating and constipation. We avoid most cheap ingredients, dyes, sugars, artificial ingredients, and preservatives. The boys prefer fruit and protein anyway.

Sleep. This is something we are working on. There is so much involved in our children's sleep disturbances we tackle them individually. Bedtime routines have changed over the years, staying asleep is another matter entirely. 'A' still wakes a couple times per night, but goes back to sleep easily. We have tried melatonin, which works great to help him get to sleep, but gave him headaches if we used the recommended dose. We worked our way down to a few drops, and now we never use it. 

lifestyle: we wake up, we are thankful for each other's company, we eat together, play together, work on our own hobbies on our own, sometimes sharing space and sharing in excitements, we shop together, we travel together, we learn and grow together. 

Alternative treatments (as if they have to be referred to as alternatives huh!) to ABA: yes we like these. We love sensory integration, VB applied to routines and skill development, and a balance of floortime and son-rise approaches of learning and teaching. I find great sense in the principles behind floortime, and do my best to refer back to those attuned feelings about what we choose to do, how and when we do it. Currently we are exploring more animal and nature 'therapies'; I view them as justifiable activities for homeschooled autism families to get their hands dirty in. We are strongly focused on anxiety management, eradication (sometimes) and self-awareness. We are trying to move towards group-awareness without losing touch of self-awareness.