Happy Valentine's Day!

We’ve been on this BB journey for 5 weeks now.  I’m going to post about this past week in just a minute but I want to post about tonight first.  Can I just tell you that this little boy melts me to the very depths of my soul?  I had big plans to make a special dinner for the family with steak, shrimp, asparagus and paleo desserts.  Unfortunately, a sinus infection got the better of me today and Abby is staying at a friends.  So instead of having a nice healthy dinner, I asked Matt to pick something up.  So, we sit down to eat our non-compliant dinner and Matt asked Drew if he wanted to say the prayer and he said yes.  He bows his head and says “God is great, God is good, Let us thank him for our food, Amen”…SAY WHAT?!  On the rare occasion that he does say the blessing he usually says “bless food, Amen”.  THEN...Matt is eating his Italian Cheese-steak and Drew says “my sandwich”.  So Matt gives him a bite and he liked it!!!  And wanted more!  So Matt cut off a piece for him and scraped off the cheese (he’s been dairy free for a week).  The sandwich had green pepper, onion and mushroom on it!  All I can say is WOW!!  He has never done anything like that before!  This has to be the best Valentine’s ever!!  (sorry, honey).

Now for the past week…last Friday Smurfann brings Drew up to me at the end of school with a list of things he did that day. 

• He walked into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) which is a class he goes to with his inclusion class and says “Good Morning, Ashley”.  The little girl looks at Smurfann and says I didn’t even know he knew my name. 

• One of the boys in his class got under the table, and he said “Tony, what are you doing?”

•  Then at lunch he ate steamed broccoli dipped in Ranch dressing!  BROCCOLI!!!!

•  At lunch he asked her to smell the pineapple and she said why do I need to smell it and he said just smell the pineapple!!

•  Saturday I made chicken in the crockpot with brown rice.  He ate everything.  This kid never ate meat unless it was in the shape of a nugget or a hot dog. 

• He started eating peanut butter and jelly (organic) on gluten free bread for lunch.  He never ate sandwiches before.

• He ate scrambled eggs one morning.

• Saturday we went to the Farmer’s Market downtown with Taylor, my mom, my cousin and the kids.  My mom’s cheeks were flushed and Drew touched one of her cheeks and said “What is that?”

• Yesterday (2/13) we woke up to 7” of snow!  The kids and I went outside to play in it and Drew was totally loving it!! 

Drew is still doing awesome with his exercises and gets stronger with his core exercises every day! 

I wanted to let everyone know how much we appreciate all of the support and well wishes.  My goal is to try to update once a week at a minimum.  Wish me luck!

Until next time…

I wasn't expecting this...

Today Drew and I went down to Atlanta for a check in with his coach, Jessica, and to get the results from his blood work that he had done a couple of weeks ago.  I’m going to start with the blood work since that is the inspiration for the title.  The lab test he had done is called a TRIAD profile.  The urine portion tests nutrient markers, cell regulation markers, toxicants/detoxification and compounds of bacterial or yeast/fungal origin.  The plasma portion tests essential amino acids and 5 different functional categories and the blood portion tests food sensitivities.  His urine showed that he is low in B vitamins and high in sulfate.  The plasma shows quite a deficiency in amino acids.  So for all of that he has to take a plethora of vitamins and supplements twice a day.  In the morning on an empty stomach he has to take base amino acids, branched chain amino acids, probiotics, glycine and N-Acyticysteine (another amino acid).  He can’t eat for 30 minutes.  Then with breakfast he has to take liquid vitamins, minerals, B complex liquid, fish oil and hemp protein powder (because he eats NO protein).  He has to repeat the amino acids, probiotics and glycine in the afternoon.

And here’s the one I was not expecting…his blood work shows that he has NO food sensitivities!!  Well, 2 (sunflower and zucchini) but they were so mild that the nutritionist said they weren’t anything to worry about.  The 2 main foods that they tell you to eliminate before you even get the results back are gluten (found in grains) and casein (found in dairy products).  On the classification scale 0-40 is negative meaning no sensitivity and class 1 is 41-80.  In grains his highest marker was 13 and his casein marker was <10!  What does all of this mean?  First thing is that I had myself in a tizzy for weeks worrying about this for nothing and second is that we don’t really have to avoid any foods.  He wants us to eliminate dairy for 2 weeks and see if we notice any changes in behavior or focus and if we don’t notice any changes then dairy is not off limits.  Then he wants us to do the same with gluten for one month and if there are no changes there is really no reason to avoid gluten either.  Matt and I will decide at the end of the month whether to re-introduce gluten or not.  Basically we have decided as a family that we will eliminate all refined grains and sugars, all corn byproducts (98% of which are GMO), especially high fructose corn syrup, soy (all GMO), MSG, artificial sweeteners, flavorings, colors and all genetically modified foods and we will start buying the “dirty dozen” fruits in organic.  Our meats and dairy will also be switched to organic. Now I wish I had done the nutrition post earlier so some of this made sense.  Hopefully I didn’t make your head spin like mine has been for the last 2 weeks. 

Now for his check in with Coach Jessica.  She watched Drew do some of his home exercises to see how he was progressing.  If you remember from one of the first posts, I told you that we are born with 8 primitive reflexes that go “dormant” by the time we are 2 and that Drew only had 2 of the 8 that had done that.  Well, he has dropped 2 more and is really close to dropping another 2!!  So she took out 2 of his primitive reflex exercises.  However, we added 3 core exercises.  She also took out one of his eye exercises but added a new one. 

I have to tell you that during the ride to Atlanta and back Drew was a ROCK STAR!!  I didn’t let him watch the DVD player in the car at all.  He asked once on the way down and once on the way back and that’s it!!  He is so awesome!  6 hours in the car with no whining!!  However, I did hear “Where are we going?” every 5 minutes.  He’s a little leary of long car rides because it usually means we are going somewhere for him to get poked and prodded. 

Well, it’s getting late and I’m exhausted from the day.  Why does driving make you so worn out??

Good night!

He ate what?

Just a quick update...the first of what will hopefully be many "he ate what" updates.  When I picked Drew up from school yesterday his totally awesome aid "Smurfann" (her name is Ruthann but Drew re-named her a couple of a years ago) told me that he ate baby carrots at lunch!!!  I don't think he's eaten a carrot since baby food!  I subbed at school this morning and when I went to say bye before I left she told me that in the lunch line today at school instead of curling his nose up and saying no he said yes when they asked him if he wanted a whole wheat bread stick (which is totally illegal but we've given ourselves a Feb. 10 target date to get rid of all the illegal stuff) and then actually took a bite!!  I can't wait until he starts saying yes to the legal foods. 

Tomorrow we head to Atlanta for his 4 week progress check-in and nutrition results.  If I'm not to worn out from the drive, I will update tomorrow night.  Please keep us in your prayers for safe travel tomorrow!

Until next time...

Has It Really Been 3 Weeks??

 I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since we started Brain Balance.  One thing I’ve learned for sure is that I suck at blogging!!  Another thing I know for sure is that I am plum wore out ya’ll!!  Every night I sit down to update and then just pass out.  So, now I have no idea where to start.  We have been doing his exercises religiously every day for 3 weeks.  This sweet little boy has to be the most adaptable kid with Autism there ever was.  He is doing all of his exercises like a BOSS!!  I thought I would bullet some of the changes we’ve seen rather than try to write about them in paragraphs because I know you have better things to do than sit in front of the computer reading this all day.  

•  The first thing we did to limit screen time was turn it off in the van.  He’s asked for it a few times but other than that it’s like he doesn’t even know it’s there anymore (told you, adaptable)

•  The first thing we noticed is his ability to catch a ball.  He likes to sit at the top of the stairs while we stand at the bottom.  He would always “trap” the ball.  Now he can catch it off to his side, over his head and when thrown right at him.

• He has a baseball mitt that he’s had for over a year and could never squeeze it shut.  You had to shovel the ball into the mitt.  One night Matt was throwing a plastic ball with him and he asked for his mitt.  Then when Matt threw a foam baseball to him he tried to catch it with the mitt and squeezed it!!

• While we were playing ball with him one night he looked at Matt and said “The ball is stuck under Taylor’s bed”.   That is a very complete, very descriptive sentence.

• Last Sunday, Abby had a swim meet so Matt took Drew to church.  He said that Drew actually walked up to the stage for the Children’s moment and paid attention to Dr. Bob more than he ever has.  So much so that a friend at church made a comment to Matt.

• I made pork chops in homemade cream of mushroom soup and rice for dinner one night.  He used to eat rice a long time ago and then decided he didn’t like it anymore.  We put some rice on his plate and he ate it!  A little later that night I was putting dinner away and I had put the pork chops in a container and was pouring the sauce on top and he looks over and says “Ew, that’s gross!”  Which was awesome…disgust is a right brain emotion!!!

• The next night he ate some pasta and wanted more but there wasn’t any so I asked him if he wanted some rice instead and he said yes.  Then he ate an entire bowl of rice!

•  The kids and I went to Chick-fil-A last week.  He’s never been a “dipper” of his chicken nuggets.  We were sitting at a table and I had some Chick-fil-A sauce (don’t judge) and he reaches over and says “my turn” and grabs it and starts dipping his chicken and fries. 

• His appetite has gotten so much better (but not varied yet).  We went back to Chick-fil-A the next day (again, don’t judge we’ve had 3 snow days and limited screen time) and had a picnic in the back of my van.  He ate his entire kids meal with 6 nuggets, then ate most of my fries and some of Abby’s…all with sauce!!

• I have a little cold and every time I cough he says “Mommy, cover you (he says you not your) mouth when you cough” (which I do btw)

That’s all I can think of right now. 

 

Last Thursday Matt and I went back to Atlanta for the nutrition lecture (wow, was that a lot of information) and a quick check in with Drew’s BB coach.  Since he was doing so well with his exercises she changed a couple of them up a little and then added three new ones.  We came home with supplements for Drew.  He has to take Amino Acids twice a day on an empty stomach and then he can’t eat for 30 minutes.  Then he takes fish oil, liquid vitamins and liquid minerals in the morning with food.  He takes these with no problem!  LOVE that kid!! 

Well, I guess I will wrap this up for tonight and post all of the nutrition information tomorrow (which by the way, we were able to get his blood drawn here in Knoxville and sent to the lab…yay!)  Drew and I will go back to Atlanta this coming Thursday to get the results from his blood work and for a 4 week center check in with Drew and his coach, Jessica.  I’m really excited about his trip.  I can’t wait to see how he is doing!

Goodnight All.  Sweet Dreams.