Well, we have been doing ABA therapy through the Utah Behavior Services (UTBS) School in St George for about a year now. And I feel like our progress is plateauing. UTBS is great at helping with Luke’s behavior and teaching me how to discipline better, but I feel like something is missing. In the first week of starting UTBS, they showed us that Luke can actually talk. He can say a few words and use approximations. He also understands more than we thought he did. But after a year, he is still only saying maybe 10ish words. So I feel like we need to do something more.
I feel like we need to start working on diet.
My Previous Prejudices about Diet
I have never wanted to work on diet with Luke. I felt like the people who say you should eat “all natural” are just a little crazy and care too much about their health. To be clear, I always try to eat fruits and vegetables and stay away from massive amounts of sugar, but I avoid extreme diets. But now I might have to eat my words. I really feel like diet might be able to improve Luke’s autism and help him start talking more! And at this point, I will do ANYTHING to get him talking and communicating. If I could have a Level 1 Aspergers child instead of a Level 2 nonverbal child, I would be SOOO happy.
Here is what our pantry looks like right now. Yeah, probably most of this has got to go. I am already wincing from the screams that might accompany these changes. My son doesn’t want to even TOUCH healthy food so it is going to take all the commitment I can muster.
So I joined this online facebook group called “Recovering Our Kids – Biomedical Healing”. I’ve only been in the group one day and I have been blown away by the amount of information! There is so many things to try that have helped special needs kids.
I was so overwhelmed, I decided to get a mentor. I don’t know if that costs anything, but I figure I need someone to guide me. I just really hope and pray that these changes can help Luke progress and make ALL of our lives easier. Things have been getting so bad with Luke…Ian and I are always so tired. And I can tell that we are both getting depressed about his lack of progress. So wish us luck!
Later
So after a lot of research, I decided to start implementing an autoimmune protocol diet (AIP). I found a specific one that is geared towards kids and families with autism. It is called the Foods Four Thought diet (foodsfourthought.com). The lady that runs this website, Crystal Jordan, created a course that goes through all the steps and she is offering the course for free during the year 2020! Her course was amazing. I felt a lot more confident in my ability to do the diet after I watched all of her videos in the course.
And best of all, Crystal Jordan said that two weeks after being on this diet, her nonverbal autistic son started talking!! I really REALLY hope the same or similar will happen to my son.
I also know a friend of a friend who was able to help her son learn to talk through an alkaline diet with no diary. The alkaline diet and the autoimmune protocol and the foods four thought diet are all very similar, so I feel like I am heading in the right direction!
I have already started prepping for the diet and slowly taking away processed food from our home. I plan to start the diet in full on November 1. Wish me luck!
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