Shawn wet his bed again last night which was really strange because he woke up at 11pm to pee. I can only assume it's more die-off because when he came home from school today, he was a little hyper and very emotional. He got very upset at dinner when his meat loaf fell apart when he went to dip it in his ketchup. Don gave him an Epsom salt bath but it didn't seem like it helped much this time.

I'm sad to say that I think I may have had a reaction to the green beans :( That sucks because they are one of my favorite veggies. I'm hoping that I can reintroduce them in a month or so. I'm going to introduce either spinach or zucchini tomorrow. I found a few more stage 1 recipes I'm going to try to make while I wait for my SCD cookbooks. I know we should be moving on to new foods but since I had a reaction to the green beans, I didn't want to introduce a new food while I still had pains. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or not. I guess I'll find out because I finally broke down and bought Breaking The Vicious Cycle. It's late so that's all for tonight.

It's been a week already???

Sometimes I can't believe it's been a week already but then sometimes I think - it's only been a week??? Don and I are both tired of eating the same food every single day. I'm going to introduce Spinach in the next day or two and it will be a challenge because no one in our family is a spinach fan. I have to see if I can find a recipe that disguises the taste with some thing else that we are already allowed to have on our diet like eggs.

Don is having a tough time right now. He wants to give up but I won't let him. He's tired of the food, of always feeling hungry, etc. I know that some of this is true and some of this is from die off. He wants bread and corn. He's craving that because that is what the bad bacteria likes to feed off of.

I'm getting a little more efficient in the kitchen but it's still very time consuming. I just ordered a few SCD cookbooks so hopefully, I can change things up a little with the food and keep Don happy. I was finally able to get Shawn to eat pureed ground beef, egg, and carrot and cooked like a meatloaf. I just topped it with some homemade ketchup and he was happy. I even got him to eat the green beans without having to puree them. Now if I could just come up with a fish pureed dish for him we would be set, lol. I'm still a little worried about Joshua not eating enough calories. He's been eating the food we give him sometimes with bribery but he's still eating it but he's not drinking his 500 calorie power milk drink 2 times a day anymore and thats a lot of calories to make up for. We should be getting our yogurt maker on Wednesday so I'll be experimenting with homemade goat yogurt next week. That should help with some calories. Between the yogurt maker and the juicer, we should be able to make some smoothies that he might drink and help fatten him up. I'm sure after we start the yogurt I'll be a little stressed. Yogurt is a probiotic and will increase the amount of die off you experience so we should have some fun times ahead of us.

Day 6

I felt like such a bad mommy today. As always, I was rushing around to get some cooking done this morning before taking Shawn his lunch. I pureed more chicken with some carrots and an egg and fried the "pancakes" in some coconut oil. I put 3 pancakes in a container for Shawn and cut them into pieces. I watered down some honey and put it aside. I got together some food for Joshua to take with us so he could eat his lunch with Shawn. Then I changed Joshua's diaper, put Shawn and Joshua's lunch in the microwave to heat up, put everything in the bag and left to take Shawn his lunch. We actually made it on time today and was even a little bit early. We passed Shawn outside as he was planting a plant or something. We said hi and then I went to the office to check in. When I walked into the building where Shawn's class is, I see him and two other kids getting ready to frost and decorate sugar cookies. When I told Shawn he couldn't eat that cookie, the teacher's aid said she forgot. Good thing I just happened to show up! It was her last day so they had a little party and everyone got to eat the cookie they decorated at lunch except for Shawn. I felt really bad for him but that wasn't the worst of it. The worst part was that I forgot to pack the honey. Shawn was a little upset but he still ate some of the chicken pancake but not as much as usual. I did bring a banana with me and he ate the whole banana plus about 2 bites of Joshua's banana. He looked depressed and it broke my heart.

As soon as he got off the bus, he said he was hungry. I made him up some pureed ground beef mixed with carrot and egg and made little meat balls. I also made my own ketchup so he would have something to dip it in. He turned his nose up at it but in his defense, he was probably really hungry and was very cranky and emotional so I just heated up a couple of chicken pancakes and give him his honey and he was happy. Well, kind of...he was in a much better mood but was still a little whiny so I put him in a bath with some Epsom salt and that seem to do the trick. While he was in the bath, he mentioned that his class had brownies today at school and he didn't have any. I kind of wonder about that though because of the way he acted when he came home but who knows.

I'm glad tomorrow is the weekend so I can make sure Shawn eats throughout the day and is not hungry. I did some more juicing and mixed some grape juice with some lemon juice and it turned out really good. It tasted similar to lemon aid. The sweetness of the grape juice did the trick. So I used the juice to make some homemade jello. I can't wait until tomorrow to see how it turned out. I also tried making meringues tonight but it is now midnight and they aren't done yet :( I really wanted to surprise Shawn with a sweet treat. I've got some carrots on the stove still also. Since they are supposed to cook for 4 hours, technically I shouldn't take them off until 1am but I'm taking them off as soon as I finish this post.

My stomach is finally starting to feel a little better. Don told me this morning that he had a lot of gas so I guess he did have a reaction last night after all. I might make some more green beans tomorrow and test them out. Well, that's my update for today. It's time to get the stuff off the stove and get in bed! Don works tomorrow morning so it should be fun trying to get the kids ready in the morning. Wish me luck!

Day 5

So last night I kind of copped out as far as blogging. I just felt so overwhelmed last night and didn't feel like I had the time to blog. Last night was a struggle to get both kids fed (because Shawn wouldn't eat his dinner) and then ready for bed by myself. Then I had dishes to do and more cooking and I was way behind in laundry. I broke down when Don came home at 10:15pm and he helped me finish everything up. I still didn't get to bed until after midnight. I just felt like I couldn't keep up with everything. It didn't help that I was rushing around the entire day yesterday and I know that I didn't drink enough water. I had to wake up Joshua from his nap (that is such a crime) so we could pick up Shawn from school. He normally rides the bus but I pick him up from school on Wednesdays because he has CCD at St. Stephens at 4:15pm and there is no way we would make it on time if Shawn rode the bus home since he doesn't get dropped off until 3:45pm.

Today went much better!!! I just felt a little more organized. It helped that Don didn't work tonight either. Tonight for dinner we had fish and I introduced green beans for the first time. I had a reaction to something from dinner and stupid me doesn't know for sure if it was green beans or not because I also used some butter tonight for the first time. I know, I know, I'm a little impatient. I'm only supposed to introduce one new food at a time but butter is allowed and I just thought the fish would be better with butter. So now I'm in some pain. If I had to guess, I think it is probably from the butter. I'm going to go without both until I feel better and then make the green beans again to make sure it was the butter. I wish I could get this kind of feedback from the kids. I really don't know if they have any type of reaction except to keep an eye on their BM's and behavior. Don did not have a reaction tonight.

I need to find some recipe that uses beef that Shawn will eat. He needs to eat some red meat and not just chicken every day. So I thought about browning up some ground beef and then pureeing it with some carrot and egg and see what that would taste like broiled into sort of a hamburger. I doubt he'll like it but I've got to do some experimenting to come up with something.

We're getting ready to use the juicer. I bought all kinds of fruits and we are going to use the juice to make some homemade jello tonight. Plus, we are going to experiment with finding a juice that will mix well with banana and egg yolk so we can make sort of a shake. I worry that Joshua is not getting enough calories and he still whines for milk in the morning and when he wakes up from his nap. So I would feel much better giving him a legal drink/shake that will help fill him up and fatten him up.

Day 4

Not much to blog about today. No throw up, no bed wetting, and only one temper tantrum. The temper tantrum happened because I pureed some butternut squash into his chicken pancake but I didn't have enough chicken to cover the taste. He didn't like the taste of it so it was a struggle getting him to eat it. I've discovered that the whole chewing thing must have something to do with taste and not texture because he was having a hard time chewing/swallowing and the only thing different with the chicken pancake was the taste. He did not get his car tonight :(

I sure do hope this gets easier because I feel like all I do is cook, eat, and go grocery shopping! We got our juicer in today. Shawn was so excited and he wanted to make apple juice so I got it cleaned and set up and we made our first juice. Of course Shawn didn't like it. I think he thought it would taste like store bought apple juice and not real apples, lol. I have several juicing books on hold at the library so hopefully, I'll be getting some good nutrition in us soon.

On a side note, I feel like I'm rushed all day. It's a struggle to get breakfast on the table with time to eat and finish getting the boys dressed. It's a struggle getting Shawn's lunch together in time to take to the school at 10:15. Then there's dinner and snacks. Sometimes I feel like just giving up but I know that this is probably the most important thing we can do for Shawn right now and I'm sure the rest of us will definitely benefit from it as well. So I'll keep trudging along.

The end of day 3...

It started out rough but it did get better. After Shawn woke up from his nap, I got him to eat 3/4 of a banana. At lunch, I fixed him a plate of chicken and carrots and cut the chicken pieces really small so he wouldn't hardly have to chew but it still didn't work. He had a really tough time with the chicken. I made him something a little different today. I fried a banana cut into pieces in some coconut oil and then drizzled with honey. Shawn liked it but wanted cinnamon on it so I put some on and he was happy and ate it. So far, only about 1 1/2 bananas and a few small pieces of chicken in him. I was a little worried at this point. I decided I was going to make him some chicken pancakes. I just pureed some of the cooked chicken we had with an egg and fried it in some coconut oil. I gave it to Shawn but he said he didn't like it. I asked him if he would eat it if I put some honey and cinnamon on it and he said yes (I watered down the honey). He ended up eating 3 of them! Joshua had one also and seemed to like it. Shawn even asked if he could have more for dinner! For dinner, I pureed chicken, carrot, and egg and fried it in the coconut oil. He wasn't happy at first but I told him to at least try it. At first he said it was yucky but then when I told him that there wasn't any more chicken and he would have to eat something else, he said he was just kidding and proceeded to eat 6 of them.

As for our reactions: Don said he's been sleeping better since we started on the diet. He also said that he's been peeing a lot more. I've had a headache for the past two days along with the tongue gunk. I haven't seen much change in Joshua except for the fact that he's starting to eat a little better. Shawn on the other hand has had the most die-off of us all. Besides throwing up this morning and then taking a nap, he just looked like crap for most of the day and just laid around watching t.v. Then after the first batch of chicken pancakes, he had some hyper activity going on. Almost the same as when he had the milk but without the disobedience part. I'm not sure if it was die-off or a reaction to either the honey or cinnamon or if it was just because he finally had some food in his belly and it gave him a burst of energy. He didn't seem to react as bad after dinner so I don't think it was a reaction to the food. I'll keep an eye out because I have a feeling that chicken pancakes are going to become a staple in Shawn's diet.

The detoxing has begun.

We've started to have die-off symptoms. Die-off is very similar to withdrawal symptoms coming off of drugs. Yesterday, I had a really bad taste in my mouth and last night when I brushed my teeth, I made sure to brush and scrape my tongue. It was a little fuzzy and white. I'm sure it's probably the Candida coming out. I was also an emotional wreck yesterday. I was crying over everything, even regular cartoons. I would just tear up for no reason driving in the car. It was ridiculous and no I'm not pregnant! This morning when Don woke Shawn up, he said he had to pee and when Don took him to the bathroom he said he smelled old pee so he checked Shawn's bed and he wet the bed. Shawn's never wet the bed before that is so unlike him.Then Shawn told Don his stomach hurt this morning and only drank a few sips of water and then threw up. I tried to get him to eat some breakfast but before he even made it to the table, he started to throw up again (mostly the dry heaves). I only got one bite of egg in him and some water before he threw up again so I went ahead and made him a bath with Epsom salt and had him soak for a while. He was complaining about being tired and wanted to lay down so I got him out of the tub and told him he would have to lay on the couch because his sheets were in the dryer. Then he said he needed to throw up again so I grabbed him and he made it to the toilet. After getting him dressed and set up on the couch, I had him try to drink a sippy cup of water. He kept it down and then fell asleep on the couch. He ended up taking a 1 1/2 hr. nap. So far, I haven't seen anything visible going on with Joshua but he didn't eat as badly as the rest of us so he may not have as much detoxing to go through. Plus, he's had a few illegals since we started. I'll update later tonight with the rest of day 3.

The good and the bad of day 2...

The good news is that Joshua ate some food today. Although, he didn't eat nearly as much as I would have liked him to eat. He ate a scrambled egg for breakfast along with some blueberries. Then he ate quite a bit of some chicken and carrots for lunch and of course had some blueberries. It was a little difficult after he woke up from his nap because he was whining for some milk and was getting upset that I wouldn't give him any but we compromised and I gave him some drinkable yogurt in between bites of leftover roast from last night and carrots. He wouldn't eat much at dinner though, just a few bites of chicken and about 3 baby carrots. He did share some banana with Don a little after dinner. As we were eating dinner, I've thought about how I really need to figure out a way to get more fat in our diet. I know olive oil and coconut oil is recommended, I've just have to make sure I add it to our food before we eat it. I can't wait until the juicer gets here. It's supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, yay! Then I can make sure we get a variety of fruit and veggies in an easily digestible form.

The bad news is that Shawn had a rougher day today than yesterday. He had a hard time eating his egg this morning and ran out of time and didn't get to finish it. I then brought his lunch to school and he had a tough time chewing the chicken. The chicken was cooked in the Crockpot so it was very soft so I'm not sure what the problem is. It takes him 10 minutes to eat one small bite of chicken and they only get like 20 or 25 minutes to eat. I was trying to rush him but it wasn't really working that well. I got him to eat about 2 baby carrots and 2 small bites of chicken before I felt like he was going to run out of time and I didn't want him to be hungry so I had him eat a banana and then we were working on the homemade applesauce when they had to clean up and get in line to go back to class. I tried to get Shawn to eat one more bite of chicken (it was a big "kid sized" bite) and he started gagging so I hurried him to the trash can so he could spit it out and then he proceeded to throw up. Lovely! Of course the lunch lady comes over and asks if he's ok. I felt bad for him but I was also a little embarrassed that my kid can't handle chewing a piece of chicken. Then Shawn told the teacher's aid that he threw up and I had to explain that he's ok, he just gagged on his food. Dinner pretty much went the same way minus the throwing up. He takes for ever to chew one little piece of meat or chicken. He started his dinner about 5:10pm and didn't finish until about 6:30pm. Of course we have to be right there telling him to chew and swallow or else it would just stay in the side of his cheek all night. He was a trooper today though. He just needs lots of time to eat and a lot of encouragement. But since he did eat the food we gave him, we let him pick out another Speed Racer car after dinner.

I'm already getting bored with the food we are eating. We can add a new food tomorrow and I'm so excited but I can't decide what to introduce. I would like another veggie but then I wouldn't mind introducing pears either. Decisions, decisions.

End of Day 1...

I'm a slave to the kitchen. It seems I've been cooking most of the day. In fact, I'm trying to hurry and type this because I have carrots and apples cooking on the stove right now. Today was pretty tough but I know that soon I'll get into a groove and the cooking won't seem so bad. Shawn did really well today. I'm so proud of him! I thought he would throw a bunch of temper tantrums over the food but he didn't. Joshua on the other hand, was horrible today. I felt like such a bad mom with him because he barely ate anything. I'm not sure what his problem was because he is not as picky as Shawn. He usually will eat scramble eggs but wouldn't today. He normally eats apple sauce but wouldn't today. We finally caved in at dinner and I gave him a drinkable yogurt that I hadn't thrown out yet, then he ate about 3 bites of scrambled egg and I forced him to eat a bite of meat. Don gave him 2 fig newtons while I was at church and then I let him eat some blueberries before he went to bed. We are only supposed to eat cooked fruit right now but I don't think it will affect Joshua too much. I hope he eats better tomorrow because I'm not sure I can let him go the whole day without eating.

I didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary with Shawn's behavior until around 5:30pm when we went to mass. He was definitely in hyper active mode when we got to the church. Symptoms very similar to how he acted after we gave him milk. He couldn't sit still. Some part of his body was moving at all times. He was talking a lot more than usual (he's usually pretty quiet in church). I didn't loose my patience with him though because he did so well with the food today and I knew that he was probably having some die off reaction. When we got home from church, I let him pick out a Speed Racer car and he picked the Mach 6 with saw blades.

The meat loaf we had for lunch was not that good but the roast we had for dinner was very yummy. It's hard not having starches. Don said the only thing missing from dinner was the potatoes, lol. I guess we'll get used to it. Don has some heart burn tonight which I'm pretty sure is die off symptoms. I'll have to wait and see to be sure. He usually has a BM at least 2 times a day and so far he hasn't had a BM today.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow and having to deal with bringing food to the school. I'm going to have to miss Joshua's last Kindermusik class because I won't have enough time to go back to the house and heat up Shawn's lunch and make it to the school by his lunch time. He eats at 10:15am. I'm still not sure what I'm going to pack in his lunch yet but I've got some chicken in the crock pot, a huge pot of carrots cooking on the stove, a pot of apples cooking to make some more applesauce, and we have some jello setting up in the fridge. There are 2 ripe bananas left and I know I plan to pack one for his snack in the afternoon. We also have a little left over meat from today that can be used for lunches. So that's the update for our first day SCD.

First SCD meal...

Last night I made some homemade applesauce and some homemade jello (I'm quite the Martha Stewart right now). Those of you that know me, know that I hate to cook so this diet is going to be as challenging for me as it is for Shawn.

This morning our breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, banana egg pancake (mostly to try it out), and some ground beef patties. I told Shawn if he ate some of his food, he could have some jello and he actually ate some of the banana egg pancake and the scrambled eggs I gave him. I didn't give him much egg because I honestly didn't think he would eat it. I tried to get him to eat some of the hamburger but it took him about 15 minutes to chew one small bite so I didn't force anymore. Hopefully, he'll get better with eating meat in a few days. I have a roast in the crock pot right now for dinner and I plan on making some meatloaf for lunch and some to freeze for later. I'll update later with the rest of our first day.

Well that was a complete waste of time!

First off, when I made Shawn's neurology appointment, I specifically asked for Dr. Ferriera so when I rescheduled his appointment, I automatically assumed they would reschedule with the same doctor. I asked for Dr. Ferriera because of a friend's recommendation. Well, we saw Dr. Chung and I'm not very happy with our appointment. It was a complete waste of time in my opinion. Dr. Tappan asked me more questions then she did. I'm not sure if I was just expecting too much or if we just got a crappy doctor. She basically said that his ADHD did need attention (of course she didn't really give me any resources) and he does show signs of PDD which is a form of Autism. After asking me some questions, she said that if she would have seen him at 18 months, based on my answers she would have diagnosed him as Autistic. But since it seems like his "symptoms" are improving, she was hesitant to diagnose him as Autistic. I'm not trying to get him diagnosed him one way or the other but that statement made no sense to me. It is my understanding that there is no cure for Autism so if she thinks she would have diagnosed him Autistic at 18 months then wouldn't he still be considered autistic? Makes no sense to me and then I saw this article on ARI. After reading that, I'm just so over with the doctors. I don't really care if he's diagnosed or not, I just want to get him the help he needs. Hopefully, the diet will take care of it and we won't have to seek out anyone else to treat him. Oh, and she said that if it came to a point where we wanted to medicate him to just schedule another appointment with them. I don't think so!!!

I'm not sure what I was expecting. I guess I was expecting them to observe him playing, ask him some questions, ask me a bunch of questions and then go over what they thought he might have and the treatments for it, etc. I didn't get that and I'm not sure if I should have or not.

Getting ready...

Tomorrow is Shawn's neurology appointment and I'm so excited! I can't wait to find out the results whether it is Autism, or ADD, or ADHD, or Sensory Processing Disorder...I don't care, I just want to know!

I was going to start the new diet on Saturday but I changed my mind to wait until Sunday. We have relatives visiting from Maryland and we are going to have dinner at my Aunt's house and celebrate Joshua's 2nd birthday while we are there. I just couldn't start the diet and then not let the boys have some cake on Saturday especially with the peer pressure I'll probably get from my family. I can just hear it now: "you're not going to let them have cake?!" "Oh, come on, it's his birthday. Let him have some cake". So to avoid all of that, we are starting on Sunday.

Don caved in and let me buy the juicer I wanted. I started a juicer fund and had $130.00 saved up and hopefully will be able to add some more after our garage sale this Saturday. Tonight he told me to just go ahead and order it on the credit card and then I can pay the credit card back after this weekend. Yay, I'm so excited!!! I got a really good price too. I bought it from Vitality Plus and only paid $395.00. That's cheap considering everywhere else I saw it priced at $549.00. I think this diet is going to be difficult for Shawn but being able to juice will help out tremendously as far as getting some nutrition in him. I just pray that he starts eating things he normally doesn't, like Hannah did. Now I have to go buy some canning jars. I think I'm going to try and make my own applesauce tomorrow so I'll have to have a jar to put it in. We'll be able to eat homemade applesauce after the intro so I plan to let Shawn take some to school for his lunch (of course he'll have other stuff too, lol). I'm a little nervous...I know Shawn is going to throw a fit and I don't want to cave in. I plan to get rid of all our illegals on Saturday night so I won't be able to cave in at least the first few days anyway, lol. Hopefully by then, Shawn will start eating some of the other things on the diet like eggs and meat. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Arrrg...

I'm so tired of people telling me they don't think anything is wrong with Shawn! Ever since he was 18 months old I've been questioning the so called "professionals" and all I got was don't worry about it, he doesn't seem to be autistic. Today, Shawn's speech teacher called me to discuss his IEP (individual education plan) because it is a month overdue. I told her that Shawn has a neurology appointment on Friday because I wasn't sure if it would affect his IEP. She asked me what my concerns were and when I told her Autism she answered with a very surprised "What???" She had a hard time thinking that Shawn might be autistic because she works with Autistic children and he doesn't having any social issues. Hello!!! I wish I could scream this out to people that not all Autistic kids are the same! That's why it is called Autistic SPECTRUM Disorder...because there is such a huge range that these kids fall into. I swear, I think everyone working with children should have more training on looking for signs of Autism. If more people were aware of what Autism actually is, I think Shawn would have been diagnosed at 18 months old. He definitely showed more signs at 18 months than he does now. We'll see on Friday if all my gut instincts are correct.

I was browsing through the video glossary on Autism Speaks the other day and I definitely saw some videos that reminded me of Shawn when he was younger. The ones in particular that struck a cord in me were the under reactive to sensory input and the videos under social reciprocity. Of course these traits were prominent when Shawn was younger. He doesn't have any problem with social reciprocation anymore I don't think but he definitely still shows some signs of under reactive to sensory input although not as strongly.

It must be the milk

Ever since the whole chocolate milk discovery, we haven't been giving Shawn milk to drink. We have let him have some cereal with milk and it hasn't seem to affect him (at least not a noticeable change). Anyway, the last few days Shawn has been asking if he could have some milk to drink and I've told him no. Today however, I let him drink a cup of white milk after he begged me for some. I thought maybe it was the chocolate milk that made him turn into a crazy person since he didn't seem to be affected by the cereal. I could not believe the transformation in him. It took about an hour and then he had a complete meltdown. First, I told him to get out of my bedroom. He was looking through the DVD's because he wanted to watch another movie. I told him no and that he's watched enough t.v. for the day. I literally had to drag him out of my room because he was crying about wanting to just "look at the DVD's even if he couldn't watch one". After I got him out of my bedroom, he went to play with Daddy and Joshua and then had a meltdown because the Lego jet he built broke. He was uncontrollable so Don decided to put him in the bath. He put two cups of Epsom Salts in Shawn's bath. Getting him in the bath was difficult because he was a whiny mess! It's hard to explain exactly how he was acting but if I didn't know what was going on, I would have just laughed at the way he was acting he was being so ridiculous and crying over everything. About 10 minutes into the bath, Shawn finally calmed down. We continued to let him soak for a while and then let him get out. It was like Mr. Hyde turning back into Dr. Jekyll. He was back to normal (at least as normal goes for Shawn) for the rest of the night. So it must definitely have something to do with milk or Casein and I'm so happy that the Epsom salts worked.

Aha!

We still haven't started the diet yet but I think I may have spotted a trigger today. Shawn's been home sick with the flu all last week and this week is Spring Break. While he was sick, we wouldn't allow him to drink milk because he has a problem with phlegm and I believe milk thickens it (I could be wrong). He's pretty much over the flu so Don gave him some milk this morning (ok, it wasn't just milk it was chocolate milk). He's been bouncing off the walls, not listening to me, and acting like he wants to get in trouble. I'm not sure if it was the milk or if it was because it was chocolate milk but it just makes me think that this diet really is going to work and I'm anxious to get started.

Haven't started yet

I was planning on starting the SCD this weekend after Shawn's neurologist appointment. He hasn't been diagnosed yet but I suspect borderline Autistic and ADHD. I want to wait until after he's diagnosed before changing his diet.

Here's some background info on Shawn. First off, he just turned 6. I've suspected that there was something more going on with him besides his speech for about 2 years now. Looking back, I can definitely see early signs of autism but they are so borderline I think other people overlook it. After reading "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" I went back through Shawn's baby book and had an aha moment. Most of his problems started after his 2 month check up and had his shots. The day after his shots he developed diarrhea that didn't go away after 10 days so his pediatrician had us switch his formula to soy formula. That cleared up his diarrhea but he had major vomiting issues (more on that later). Two days after his shots he got really fussy. No, I take that back...it was much more than fussy. He basically started screaming like he was in pain and we couldn't get him to stop no matter what we tried. Then all of a sudden he would stop screaming and be happy and smiley for about 10 minutes before he would start screaming bloody murder again. Some people questioned whether he was colic but he was never like that before that day. We called his pediatrician who had us take him to the emergency room. Of course when it was our turn to see the doctor, he was all smiles. The doctor said she couldn't find anything wrong with him but she was going to call our pediatrician before she discharged us. She leaves and guess what happens? Yep, Shawn starts screaming. She came back because she heard him and asked us what we did to him. Ummm, nothing! Anyway, she still couldn't find anything wrong with him but told us to give him some Tylenol and low and behold his screaming stopped. So back to the vomiting...Shawn used to power puke. You never knew when it was going to happen. We used to place a beach towel on the floor in front of where we were giving him his bottle just in case. I mentioned the vomiting to his pediatrician but she didn't seem concerned so I thought it was normal. Ok, not exactly normal but not anything to worry about. Shawn reacted to the next round of shots the same way but this time I gave him Tylenol immediately when he started screaming and it did the trick. He stopped screaming and pretty much slept most of the day. The next sign I saw was trying to get him to eat. I had friends tell me it was ok to give him cheerios when he was 6 months old and when I gave him one, I thought he was going to choke, lol. He eventually got it but even at 9 months old, he gagged on a cheerio and threw up. He ate cereal, and most of the baby food veggies but would not eat any meats or fruits except apple sauce. He also wouldn't drink any juice, only formula and water (which was fine by me). I really didn't think too much of his eating habits except for the gaging and vomiting until we tried to introduce solids. I don't really have it recorded in his baby book but he was older than the average baby when we tried to give him solids. It was at this time that he developed constipation. After trying prunes and prune juice (both worked temporarily), his pediatrician had us give him Kondrumel. When we moved to Florida, I asked his new pediatrician if he should still be on it and his ped said yes to keep him on it.

He never did take to the stage 3 baby foods. He would gag on those but we started out with foods that he couldn't choke on like mac and cheese. As long as the food was soft, slippery, etc. then Shawn could eat it. Anything that had to be chewed, forget it. That is where Shawn had a problem. It was like either he didn't like to chew or he didn't know how to chew because he would just try to swallow the food without chewing which would cause him to gag followed by vomiting. Again, I mentioned this to his pediatrician and she told us not to worry and to just make sure we give him foods that will slide down his throat if he doesn't chew his food. So again, I didn't worry about it and kept on doing what we were doing.

I would also like to comment on his other signs that I didn't really know were signs until recently. I remember getting down on the floor to play with Shawn and he would stop playing with his toy, get up and move away and start playing with another toy. This really didn't bother me and I never though twice about it until recently when I started suspecting he might be autistic. For a while, I thought he had a hearing problem because he never responded to his name but there was a certain commercial that he liked and every time it came on, he would stop what he was doing and watch the commercial. He could be no where near the t.v. but when that commercial came on he would come running (I think it was a spaghetti sauce commercial). they also tested his hearing during his initial early intervention appointment. I should also mention that he's never had an ear infection (to my knowledge). He was also VERY active. I had to hold him when we left the house because he would just start running as soon as I opened the door and keep going out into the street since he didn't respond to his name or stop or wait. He was fast too. Then during his doctor's appointments, his ped would get to the question "is he saying any words?" and the answer was always no. At 18 months old, his pediatrician recommend us having his speech tested through the state. During his initial appointment with early steps, I was told that he doesn't seem autistic. I guess because he was able to do what they wanted. He qualified for speech and we had a therapist come to our house once a week. I guess I should also mention that Shawn never babbled not even when he was playing. He never pointed to things. We had absolutely no communication with him whatsoever. I used to just feed him when I thought he should be hungry. If he wasn't hungry, he would turn his head when I brought food to his mouth but he never let me know when he was hungry. After a few therapy session, Shawn learned his first sign which was "more". After a couple more weeks he learned the sign for eat but he didn't say his first word until he was 2. He continued speech therapy and when he began EELP at age 3 1/2, his vocabulary was still under 20 words and he wasn't putting more than 2 words together. No one in Early Intervention in the state of Maryland or Florida ever said to me that I should have Shawn tested because he displays signs of autism. It wasn't until his second year in EELP that I was talking to one of the other moms that I started suspecting. I found out her son was a highly functioning autistic. I never would have known if she hadn't told me. He was friends with Shawn and he made eye contact when he talked to you. Those were the things I thought autistic kids didn't do. She explained more about autism and some of the signs her son had. Every since then I had this nagging feeling. I finally asked our new pediatrician how to find out if he is autistic and we set up a consultation. After the consultation, he told us that Shawn does show some characteristics of autism but also shows signs of ADHD and recommended we see a specialist. Which brings us up to date waiting for his neurologist appointment.

Honestly, besides finding out that Shawn's friend was autistic, a big part of why I started suspecting something else was going on with Shawn is because of Joshua. Joshua is not quite 2 yet and we've been communicating with him since before he was one. He repeated sounds, pointed to things, responded to his name, craved attention, and didn't have problems eating. I know all kids are different but seeing Joshua's development really made me take a second look at Shawn's.

Shawn is in regular kindergarten now and has been doing good academically. He's practically reading by himself and can add but he's definitely had more behavioral problems this year. Mostly due to talking, disturbing others, getting out of his seat, etc. He's still in speech therapy but he has improved dramatically since he started EELP 2 1/2 years ago. Most people just see how much progress he's made but I see how much he struggles when he's trying to talk. He talks out of order sometimes. He often asks me what certain words mean when he should already know what they mean because he uses them in sentences. He has problems with pronouns and tense. He will call a girl he or him. He will often ask "what I having for dinner?" or "I can play with the computer?" instead of "what am I having for dinner?" and "can I play with the computer?" I can see the gears turning in his head when he's searching for the right word to say. He still doesn't respond to his name if you are calling his name from across the room. You have to be right in front of him for him to even notice you. I can be talking to him sitting right next to him but unless I turn his head so he sees that I'm talking to him, he won't hear a word I said.

I am anxious to start the diet. I just know in my heart that we will see a huge improvement, especially the ADHD part. Well, that's our history. Thanks if you made it this far.