Completing the Puzzle

As mentioned before, my oldest son has autism.  Really, he has vaccine-injury/mercury poisoning - but his diagnosis says autism.  Different docs have diagnosed him with different variations of autism ~ autism, high functioning autism, pervasive development disorder, and Asperger's.  Plus, he's also been diagnosed with multiple add-ons through the years. 

My son is tough case.  Tough to figure out and tough to treat.  And after doing nine years of intense biomedical treatment (read:  we've pretty much done it all) and diet, I was really thinking that I had failed my son.  Although we had completed part of his "puzzle", I was really thinking that we would never find the remaining pieces and that his future was quite bleak.

As kind of a last resort - because we just didn't know what to do anymore - we sent my son to an amazing farming-based therapeutic boarding school.  I had no idea what to expect.  I really didn't expect much else than a break for our family - a desperately needed break from my son's disturbing behaviors.  But this school has far surpassed all expectations.  When my son visited last month for his "summer break", he was truly happy for the first time in his life.  And I enjoyed him for the first time since he was a tiny baby (as sad as that is).  We see wondrous changes in my son - real changes inside of him.  We don't really understand it completely, but somehow his school has allowed him to learn how to "be" - and has allowed him to be at peace.  And now we are able to finally see the full benefits of his vast biomedical treatment. 

While I think that my son will always have minor traces of autism, I now have great joy and hope for his future!  I think he will have a wonderful and joyful life.  And I think that we may actually complete his puzzle! :)

Hope!

The past year has been difficult, to say the least.  My oldest son - my 13 year old with autism - continued to regress.  And regress.  And regress.  We spent lots of money to send him to a special private day school, which only led to more regression.  We pulled him out and put him in 6th grade at our local public middle school - and he continued in his regression.  And when our local move sent my son to a new public middle school, that was again (of course) another disaster.  In fact, that was the most memorable disaster, given that he was seriously beaten and almost stabbed (only was not because the aggressing boy was restrained just.in.time) on his second day at this school.

And that is not all.  In the past year, I lost two babies :(  My two babies - who were supposed to be The Pure Baby's (PB's) best friends - died :(  My first loss was at 7 weeks, and my second loss was at 13 weeks.  Both were traumatic of course, but my second loss was the.worst.experience of my life (and that really says a lot, as my life has not been easy).

I titled this post "Hope!", because despite all of the sadnesses and difficulties and horrors, I have great hope! :)  I now have incredible hope for my oldest son!!! :) :) :)  And I have wonderful hope for my next baby :) :) :)   And I will share all of this in a series of posts...

The Dangers of Baby Orajel

The FDA recently made an official warning regarding Baby Orajel.  The FDA has found that the use of Orajel, which contains benzocaine, can result in a blood disorder known as methemoglobinemia - especially in children under two.  You can read more here at The Mom:  Informed .

Instead of Orajel, a great option that I've repeated heard praised is amber teething necklaces! 

Imagine how adorable little ones are in amber teething necklaces!

Babywearing in Morocco

During our visit to Whole Foods Market yesterday, The Pure Baby (PB) and I met a lovely cashier.  She noticed that PB was on my back in our Kanga XT, and this sweet woman could not say enough great things about how wonderful that was :)  Our new acquaintance shared that she was from Morocco - and that when her children were young in Morocco, she wore them on her back all.of.the.time!  To her, the greatest gifts of babywearing were: (1) having a safe place for her young children - where she was always with them; (2) being able to get everything done at home - cooking, cleaning, playing with other children, etc.; and (3) the biggest one of all - bonding and building a close mother/child relationship.

Happy Birthday to The Pure Baby's brother!

The Pure Baby (PB)'s older brother celebrated another Happy Birthday!  With that came another GFCF and Feingold Diet birthday cake.  PB's brother wanted a beagle cake, in honor of our 14-year-old beagle :)

I used another Wilton cake pan, along with (again) King Arthur Flour gluten-free chocolate cake mix and quite a lot of cocoa powder (for the frosting colors).

The dog cake pan was used for the groom's cake at our wedding, back in the beagle's tiny puppy days :)  I did not make the cake then, though, and it definitely was not GFCF or Feingold!

Preventing Lyme Disease

Fox News today put out an informative article regarding Lyme Disease, focusing on prevention.  While I definitely do not agree with their recommendation to apply DEET to body and/or clothing, I think it is overall a good article. 

The University of Rhode Island's Tick Encounter has always been my favorite resource for Lyme Disease prevention as well as tick identification, etc. 

Happy Birthday to The Pure Baby!

The Pure Baby (PB) celebrated another super birthday and enjoyed his GFCF/ Feingold Diet Elmo cake :)

Inspired by my expert-cake-decorating mother, I made the Elmo cake using the Elmo Wilton cake pan, King Arthur Flour gluten-free chocolate cake mix, and India Tree natural decorating colors.

I completely adore King Arthur Flour gluten-free mixes - and buy them online by the case. Its much cheaper than in the stores, and I love having a good supply in my pantry.

I've been using India Tree natural decorating colors for my oldest son's past eight years on The Feingold Diet. While the colors may be a little more challenging to work with, they are safe and healthy - containing no petroleum or other nasty chemicals.