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02/02/10 |
                              
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It has been another full month. We have finally figured out the
reason for the regression since December...McDonald's French Fries!
After ruling out every other possible explanation, McDonald's announced
to the press that their French Fries are no longer gf/cf. It
appears that they changed something in their fries 3 months ago and
didn't feel the need to inform anybody until this month. Cam had
been eating A LOT of McDonald's French Fries in December during our
"world tour of treatment," and usually eats them twice a week
otherwise. We stopped giving them to him as soon as the
announcement was made and now he's back on track. It amazes me
what a little gluten and casein can do to him.
Cameron saw the ophthalmologist again and officially began vision therapy this month. Thankfully, his right eye is still working. He is still manually suppressing it at times (by winking). The doctor explained again that Cameron has not been able to integrate his senses (and particularly vision) because of the past suppression and that his eye issues have kept him from being able to integrate the right and left sides of his bodies as well. He has assigned us exercises to do with Cameron twice a day to help teach him how to do this. He has also recommended that he receive additional Occupational Therapy to address the integration. We had another ARD meeting this month (a continuation of the one we had last month). The OT department agreed to do an assessment within the next 30 days. Cameron's teacher is also completing the necessary paperwork for our request for summer school. We signed other paperwork indicating our refusal for official Autism testing. The school had requesting the testing to make a diagnosis, but indicated to us that Cameron's treatment plan and access to services would not change based on the diagnosis at this time. We felt that "labeling" our child formally through the school was a disservice to him at this time since no additional services would be made available with the diagnosis. Cameron is currently being offered services through the school for his speech delay. We provided necessary paperwork to request that his eligibility be changed based on other health impairments (in this case Heavy Metal Poisoning) which are educationally impacting. Cameron will then remain eligible for the same level of services as he would with an autism diagnosis, yet the stigma attached would not be the same as continues to recover and enter mainstream classes. When Cam does recover one day, having an Autism diagnosis taken off of his education record could be difficult if not impossible. We also feel that the OHI is more reflective of Cameron's status and expected outcome. I don't think the school was all too happy about this choice however. At one point my husband stated that he believed that the school preferred this diagnosis because having a child diagnosed with Autism would offer the school greater funding even when our child was not going to be offered greater services. This point was not denied in any way by any of the staff present at our ARD. As the month closes we are seeing some positive changes in Cameron but also some concerning physical symptoms. Physically it appears that Cameron is battling a bad case of yeast. This is to be expected with chelation as the body is being challenged by the additional junk being pulled back out. He has had a rash on his bottom and genitals along with tell tale bright red cheeks on his face. I have put him back on his probiotics and homeopathic supplements to address yeast for now. I fear we may need to give a prescription drug another shot though. Behaviorally Cam has been better than usual at home but challenging this last week at school and therapy. He's become a bit defiant at school and therapy and insisting "I'm not going to work!" We are addressing the behavior issues but I must admit I'm a little excited about this behavior as it is age appropriate and much different then his usual behavior. I'm also extremely excited about the complete sentences (even during the tantrums)! His language is booming this last two weeks. He's speaking in full sentences regularly and even beginning some appropriate conversational skills. Tonight while putting him to bed I asked him about his day (as I always do). Usually he echoes back statements I make about the day or gives me one of his canned responses. Today he looked right at me and declared "I made a flower with Sebastian (his classmate and best friend at school)!" This statement would not be miraculous for just any five year old; but for Cameron it is the first time he has recalled something and used it in a conversation. It is a certain sign that our boy is slowly but surely returning to us.
This site was last updated 01/09/09
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