Wednesday, October 24, 2007








So A LOT has changed in the past 7 days. First lets start with the good news. We have been on the Gluten free/ Casein Free diet for almost a week and I am amazed at the progress we are seeing with Jacob. Today I experienced him SITTING DOWN for 10 min...all by himself and listened to story time. that has never happened before! He is starting to have more eye contact and his speech is getting better. I wanted to stop this diet but the rewards are far to great to stop now. Sure, its a lot of work, but its definitely worth it. I cant wait for everyone to see the new Jacob once he really starts to get better. Yesterday morning before he went to school he was very lethargic and calm. I thought he was probably sick because, well, if hes calm...something is wrong. So I took him anyways and I stayed in the front waiting room. 5 min later they brought him back and said that he was just standing there and didn't want to do much. So we went out to breakfast because he didn't eat breakfast. Of course, he had gluten in his pancakes and almost immediately after he finished eating...he went WILD. It was like he was possessed. It was pretty scary but I found out that's from the gluten. So back on the diet we went and I wont ever go back off. We figured out he was just calm because he was CALM for once! So today, they were all so happy to see how good he was. Even the OT told me that he focused in every activity they did and he was such a good boy.










Another thing is we changed the schedule around. The sensory stuff is good...and we still do it, but we now have a picture schedule like he has at school. He is attached to this thing when he is home and we cant do anything that's not on the schedule. Kids with Autism really have to have a schedule and one that they can see...and its eliminated ALL of the frustration he had at home about what we were doing next...where we are going...and so forth. Here is a picture of the schedule. Don't mind the dirt prints on it...you can tell it gets used a lot ha ha.









OK now a little note on Tyler. Since he was 15 months old we have been trying to figure out what is "wrong" with him. All of the genetic testing we got done all came back fine...and no doc can really figure it out. One day I was going to pick up Jake from therapy and I looked at Tyler in the mirror. And all of a sudden I just got this horrible feeling. And I kept getting thoughts back to when we were going through the genetic testing. So I thought...this has to be a sign that I need to get him into the doc. So I called the doc who isn't his real doctor but she is the one who saw the genetic stuff in him in the first place. And we got in the next day. When we got there, I had told her about everything we have seen with him and she told me that she thinks he also has Autism. So we are going next month to see if he does or not. We put him in the same school/therapy thing that Jacob goes to. We have to pay out of pocket for it, but its worth it. It gets him to interact with other kids and they help with potty training and they will see if they think he has autism or not. Today was his first day and so far he did pretty good. We were pretty surprised and happy that he did so well. Here are a few funny pictures of my boys being goofy like always.







8 comments:

Shelly said...

Im glad things are going good with jake and his diet. I know how hard its gotta be to stick with it. At costco, they have this hot choclate called "Stevens gourmet hot choclate" and its gluten free. Try it, its yummy. Good luck with Tyler. Let me know how it goes!!!

Sharon said...

You are such a superstar mommy Britney!! Keep it up!

Carlie said...

sounds like things are going well. keep up the good work. You're doing a great job and sounds like jake is doing so much better.

Kyla said...

sounds like things are looking up! does jacob have ciliac? since you've taken gluten out of his diet! i have the BEST gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe... my husband has ciliac, and we are VERY familiar with gluten free stuff!!

Stoddard Studios said...

That's SO cool that Jake is getting calm from the diet. That is so cool. Good job. Keep it up.

Katie Peterson said...

That is so great that the gluten free diet is working so well with Jacob. Good luck with Tyler & his testing.....keep us updated!

Abby Runyan said...

Oh my goodness, I just want to give you a big HUG. If you ever need someone to talk to please call me anytime, I think it helps to talk to someone that is going through what you are. We started Jo Jo on the GF/CF diet too about a month ago. I've seen small progress but not to much. I think I went into it thinking he was going to talk and had some high expectations but we are still truckin along. I found a good cookbook you can order it at www.superallergycookbook.com I met the author and she knows what she is talking about. Also, have you thought about going to a DAN docotr? We have started Joseph with one and are crossing are fingers. Good luck with Jake and Tyler and let me know if I can help at all.

Missy said...

Brit, you are amazing! Your boys are so lucky to have you as a Mommy. Your patience and love for your them is so incredible...keep it up. Glad to hear that you have had some good results with the diet. And good luck with Tyler, let us know.