I have two sons. Adam, now eight, was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at the age of two and a half. Sasha, five, exhibited sensory delays at three months and was found to have a range of developmental delays at eleven months.
I'd like to tell you a bit about Adam. He learned to walk holding his hands in little fists, preferably with a toy in each hand, protecting himself from having to touch anything. At the age of one, he still had trouble picking up Cheerios with his thumb and index finger. Most of the words he had gained had disappeared by twenty months. He did, however, know his alphabet at that age and could count to twenty forwards and backwards. Unaware that such "splinter skills" are common in autistic kids, I rejoiced.
I thought he was very healthy, and, with the exception of recurring ear infections, he never got sick. The ear infections, which were a clear sign of immune dysfunction, started at twenty months, and continued monthly, until we finally had to get him ear tubes. During that time, he was on antibiotics for eight months straight. By two and a half, he was having regular, violent tantrums that would last twenty to thirty minutes at a time, and had taken to banging his head against the edge of the table. Opening and closing doors for hours had become a favorite activity.
Before he turned three, a decision was made to have him evaluated by a psychologist, then another, then another and finally by a developmental pediatrician. The diagnosis across the board was the same — PDD-NOS. We were advised to readjust expectations, restructure our life and not expect too much; there is no cure.
This was a pill I could not swallow, so I was compelled to look further. It took me a couple of months of hardcore research before I first heard about the gluten- and casein-free diet. Not much informaton was available on the subject back then. I called our pediatrician to see what he thought. He told me not to waste my time; I was only setting myself up for more heartache. But what's a little more heartache when you're already in such a dark place with no way out? I took all dairy out of Adam's diet. My parents, horrified, expected his bones to crumble imminently.
We didn't expect what happened next. A month after we started the diet, Adam said his first complete sentence. My husband and I were stunned to hear language, not jibberish, pouring out of him. It was like something had finally clicked. Finally, for the first time, I heard the word "Mommy." Adam was just shy of three.
Immediately, I began the process of transitioning him off gluten. For sure, it is no easy task. But before long, the tantrums became much less frequent and much, much shorter in duration. Adam's expressive language and eye contact drastically improved, and his self-stimming behaviors decreased. By three and a half he had lost his diagnosis (per his developmental pediatrician), but to my eye, he still was far from neurotypical.
The next step was homotoxicology. Here is where we really dug in and did the hard work. I found Mary Coyle online, purely by accident. Her gentle, natural and very effective approach to detox made sense. She supported Adam's organs, added all the nutrients he had been missing, made sure that he was eliminating toxins properly and virtually washed the autism out of his system.
Each month we saw an improvement. His wandering eye finally straigtened out. His language became more fluid and natural. He started to express himself purely from his own thoughts. Once we got the heavy metals out of his system, he became agreeable, willing to follow suggestions, no longer rigid and controlling. It was a slow rebirth of the child I always knew him to be, the one he could be.
Adam mainstreamed into Pre-K and has never looked back. He is well-liked and one of the most sociable kids in his class. He has a great sense of humor. He is empathetic and considerate. But the thing that makes me happiest is the way he now looks directly at me with those beautiful brown eyes.