Moving Forward....

So, back to the story. I am trying to give as much detail as possible simply so that you can see just how far we have really come. I'm going to skip ahead a bit here to May of 2007. I shared with one of our kids' occupational therapists that we were no longer vaccinating after Kyan had such a terrible reaction to his 6 mos shots. I told her basically so we could get the "you-are-a-bad-mom-putting-society-at-risk" lecture out of the way. Instead, the conversation went very differently.

She said "It is a crime what doctors tell parents about (the safety) of vaccines. I see the damage every day. I've been doing this for 7 years, and I have seen it over, and over again. If I ever have kids, they will not be vaccinated".

Hmm.... She also told me about a doctor who is considered the Autism/Vaccine Damage Guru in this area. Long-story short, I made a phone call and got us in for a consultation to see Doctor Adams. Dr. Adams is a practicing M.D. with a child who is severely autistic. Due to personal experience, he began treating children with vaccine damage, and autistic spectrum disorders. He follows the DAN! (Defeat Autism Now) Protocol.
I should state that up until my kids responded negatively to vaccines, I probably would have thought this treatment was a little 'off'. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and I was desperate. The kids were not responding to therapy with any significant progress, and they were losing ground every day. So, off we went. Dr. Adams spent about 2 hours with us talking and evaluating the kids. My mom, Patty, Barbara, me and Brandon were all there to soak up as much information as possible.

At the end of the discussion Dr. Adams told me that while he felt Braylen certainly was speech delayed and possibly had some other minor issues, he seemed to have come out of the vaccine-ordeal largely unscathed. For Kyan and Kynsie, he was on the fence about an official Autism diagnosis with Kynsie giving him the most concern. He then looked at me and said words that were very powerful, and affirming for the decisions I had made so far.

He said "I feel certain that had you continued to vaccinate, 2 of your children would be full-blown Autistic, and the 3rd is a toss-up".

he made the decision not to give an official diagnosis because the children were Young, and he felt that they might be able to pull out of this. So, he wanted to wait so that they would not be labeled.

So, we left his office with a treatment plan. The first thing was to get the kids of dairy, which was not going to be a picnic. In addition to that, we were to give them several supplements including probiotics , liquid Zinc, Digestive Enzymes, Cod Liver Oil (for Brain Development DHA/omega 3's, etc.) all daily; and Methyl B-12 shots every 3 days. So we started with transitioning off milk, and seemed to see some mild results--less stimming from K & K. We added probiotics.

Why Probiotics?
Researchers have found that kids with Autistic Spectrum Disorders have a greater incidence of yeast overgrowth in the intestines/gut. When yeast is overly present, it crowds out the good bacteria and causes the gut to function improperly. Probiotics provide healthy good bacteria for the gut to help crowd out the yeast. Yeast can be very damaging to the gut causing increased permeability. By killing the yeast--a fungus, the probiotics help the gut to heal.

Kids on the spectrum very often have a condition referred to as a permeable or leaky gut This is a problem because first, it means that the body's number one defense system is not functioning properly, and it means that food, toxins and other ickies that should not be passing into the body's "system" in healthy conditions, are now seeping through and causing problems.

Why Enzymes?
Kids on the spectrum also tend to have problems digesting some proteins such as Gluten (wheat protein) & Casein (Milk Protein). As a result, the gut does not break these proteins down properly during digestion. When they reach the guy, which is already damaged and therefore very permeable, these undigested proteins seep into the body. When this occurs, for many children, the results are morphine-like. In other words, the kids get a buzz from these foods. (I realize how sci-fi this sounds, but in a few days, I will get to our personal experience on this one). Digestive enzyme supplements (similar to Lactaid for lactose intolerance--that's a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea) are intended to help the body do it's job by breaking down food so the body can absorb it. This also takes some of the stress off the gut, and helps further the healing process.

Why Fish oil?
Here's a great link explaining the benefits from the Famous Dr. Sears. In a nutshell, Fish oil is food for the brain. Some studies indicate that it helps significantly with language development. At this stage(they were 18 mos at the time) Braylen could say "Mama" & "Ba-Ba"; Kyan no longer said "Ma-ma" though he had for a period around 8 mos of age; and Kynsie had no words, and didn't even babble. Her receptive language was also lacking. A good portion of the time she would not respond when we called her name, even repeatedly. So, we definitely were looking for a miracle in the speech department. Though our speech therapist was really working hard, no progress was being made.

Why Zinc?
Zinc has also proven to help heal the gut. All of this 'healing the gut" is intended to deal with the root issue of some of the behaviors. Dr. Adams believed and maintains that our children were particularly suseptible to vaccine-damage due to some predisposing factors, one of which is a compromised immune system. We are hoping that by getting their 'guts' in shape, the rest of their bodies can get straightened out as well.



Why b-12 shots?
Methyl B-12 has been shown to help the body methylate and excrete toxins. Many kids on the spectrum have dramatic results from these shots, particularly in the language area. You might why where my kids would have excessive toxins in their bodies... vaccines. In case you missed it before, here is a list of the crap that is in the recommended (read: required) vaccines. That link is from the CDC's site. So no wacko with an agenda published it. It's from the Centers of Disease Control. ANYWAY--I was more than a little reluctant about the shots,b/c who wants to stick their child with a needle? But again, desperate times...we ordered them.


OK--Whew....more later. Maybe tomorrow. I will tell you the results of the new treatments from Dr. Adams.