Turn of events, my new "face"

You may have noticed that my blog has recently taken a dramatic turn from past entries.  I have always spent a lot of time reading and learning, but nothing has made more sense to us until we embraced homeopathy 100%.  Not just taking a remedy here and there, but truly embracing all it has to offer, believing in it, and learning from those who have created this fascinating ancient medicine.

The little-known facts that supplementation renders the body lazy while introducing new and potentially dangerous toxins, and that much of what we have done in the past has literally been aimed at suppressing symptoms, rather than providing true healing, have put me on a new path.  I will never again think in terms of eliminating symptoms, even with herbs.  I will never again consider ignoring the signs of degeneration and/or healing put in front of me by the body.

Our new journey stems from the deep understanding of where homeopathy and healing meet.  There is nothing more natural or more effective.  We have seen it on every level and most recently, our children have come off of EVERY supplement they have ever taken.  They no longer need anti-microbials (even natural) to keep their gut in check.  They no longer require digestive enzymes to digest their food.  Amazingly, homeopathy and SBOs (soil based organisms) have encouraged their own bodies to take over healing.  They are flourishing and they are growing (finally)!

I'm not suggesting my life is peachy every day, because detox is ugly, even when it's happening from a natural place within the body, and emotional detox can be even uglier than physical detox, but man oh man, the progress is permanent and it's complete! 

So as we move forward, my journal will take new shape, one of true healing from within.  If you are a loyal reader, you have probably seen everything we have been through.  If you are a new reader, you are have started in the right place.  Our past is a story, it's our story, but our future is riding on today.  Welcome to our new path.

Why now?

Why now?  Why didn't I find this path with homeopathy sooner?  Especially when homeopathy was the very FIRST therapy we tried with both myself and Grayson 6 years ago.

My best friend and I have discussed this at great length recently, because we wonder, could we have avoided all of the bumps in the road that lead us here?  Could we have healed ourselves and our children sooner?  Should this have been the first treatment we tried?  We unanimously agree, NO!!

We needed the path we were on.  We are who we are today, because of the path we have traveled.  We saw glimpses of who our children could be, and it drove us harder.  We learned about anatomy and physiology, because of the path we traveled.  Our diets are healthy, our environment is cleaned up, because of the research we did.  We researched and experimented and we came to incredible conclusions due to the roads we visited.  And most importantly, we met the people we needed to meet to find this path.  It wasn't put in front of us sooner for very valid reasons, we just weren't ready for it!  Every single day of our pasts have lead us to this very point in our lives.  I wouldn't change a thing. 

I am a dedicated researcher and a dedicated parent, no...that is an understatement, it might be more appropriate to define myself as anal retentive and controlling, and a little over zealous at times.  ; )  This is why it's even more undeniable that for the first time in our healing journey, we are in the right place.  I am ready and able to let go.  I am ready to hand the torch to someone else and jump on the waves.  I am ready to trust and look inside myself for guidance and confirmation that we are on the right path finally!  I'm ready, and so are they...

Autisms' bigger picture, who benefits?

When you are scanning ingredients to feed your ASD family safe and nutritious GFCFSF allergen-free, low oxalate, Failsafe, SCD, or GAPS meals, when you are injecting your child with his nightly MB12, and when you are traveling to and paying out of pocket for yet another "specialist" to consider more out of the ordinary treatment options to recover your sweet child, you don't give it a second thought.  This is second nature now, this is what our children need, so we do it for them.  We are going to recover our kids, period!

Unfortunately, not every ASD family is making these changes for their family. 

I don't even think we consider, for one minute, the sheer magnitude of our actions.  Think of throwing a rock in a lake, that ripple effect is much like recovering our ASD children.  I hear many families talk about the massive changes autism has encouraged their family to take on, changes regardless of how hard, they are incredibly grateful for, ironically.  Changes that may have even saved another family member's life!  I know that I am even more grateful than words can express, for the knowledge we have gained as a family, but it doesn't stop there.  The learning carries on when we influence other families in our large network.  We hold on tight to our ASD community families and we would do anything to help other families heal their children.  Of course, we want to see all of these children recover, that is certainly where my heart is, but each individual family makes up the bigger picture. 

But what if we DON'T carry this movement forward enough to grab a hold of the reigns on this frightening epidemic, what then?  Have you thought of that?  It won't be JUST the ASD families who are effected by the ever-growing rate of autism.

No one says it better than a fellow ASD mom, Florence Iwegbue, who is on a quest to change this movement.

"I come from a 3rd world country--Nigeria with MANY economical and social issues and like the NJ Senator mentioned during the hearing, a Nigerian Govt. official approached him about the rapid rise of Autism. Why? because, it is now a Global National Security issue; Possibly the worst epidemic in modern day medicine. At these rates, this country will not have men to go to war, marry, reproduce or support the economy of this nation. For all of us that are made to feel guilty when we use the word recovery, these are the problems we're worried about. For those who criticize, they have no idea the magnitude of the problem. When an official (probably even corrupt) from a 3rd world country like mine, with: waring tribes, abject poverty, astronomical rates of crime, perpetual recession and zero economic growth becomes worried about an Epidemic like Autism and flags down a U.S official to question him, be VERY FREAKING WORRIED and ya better be living and breathing RECOVERY & CURE. 
 
I come from a very proud and hard working tribe and my people are on the edges of their seats because they send their children to the West to make something of themselves and help out their fellow villagers back home by way of sending money to help educate the younger generation. When we stop sending money, because it is being spent on Whole Foods, ABA Programs, Supplements and Health care bills, more families back home get hungry, sick and kids are left on the streets without education. This is the consequence of my son's Autism. It is no longer just a disease that he has, it is a disease that many family members have inherited. So whenever anyone chastises you for seeking recovery for your child, send them my way so I can explain to them why it is a Global epidemic that needs to end NOW!"

Florence is a warrior mother.  She is fighting for the world and when she looks into her sweet boy's eyes, she knows that all of world is depending on his recovery.  His recovery matters to the world as much as it matter to her family.  The ripple effect.

Florence's family is so driven to help the world, in fact, that her husband has also developed an iPhone application to help parents help each other.  What's more impressive is that they are providing this app for free.  What could be more beneficial to the big picture?  

In their LiveWello social health app for iPhone (and iPad coming soon!), families are able to create a little village around the person they are caring for.  You can invite and label people with important roles, share medical records, videos, pictures, etc.   It's the ASD medical recovery ripple-effect in the making.  

Watch the ABC interview here. 

Let's embrace the fact that our children are going to change the world one way or another, do you want to be a part of that?  I sure do!!

Life as you know it

When my sister told me about meeting a 7 year old little girl who "used to be" autistic before biomed, dietary changes and chelation, it got me thinking about how long this will go on for us.  She was in managed recovery, the parents still doing everything we do now.  So is there ever an end in sight or is this how it always will be, detoxing, preventing and removing since our kid's bodies can't do it themselves? 

The truth is, when you first learn that your child is on the spectrum, life as you know it, changes....forever.  So this change, it can either be discouraging and fearful, it can be riddled with wild tantrums, lack of affection, weird behaviors, repeated stims, tics, lack of sleep, etc.  OR, you can take control of life as you know it and yes, it may change forever, but with your new lifestyle comes a healthy calm child who makes eye contact, tells you they love you and loves hugs, a child who makes friends at school and has the desire for extra curricular activities, a child who doesn't need to be held down or treated differently everywhere they go.  THAT is worth every single lifestyle change involved in biomedicine. 

So, if you are battling the decision of whether to do biomedidicne or not.  Doesn't your child deserve a normal life?  Life as you know it is different regardless, and it always will be, wouldn't you prefer a happy healthy child?  Life as you know it, HAS changed.  It can be for the better.

Who is responsible?

Think about it, think about the knowledge you have gained in the research of how to heal your child, the sheer number of parents you have connected with and even the suppliers for all of those umpteen pills you give to your child daily.  How did you find that fabulous DAN! doctor halfway across the state?  Have you asked yourself this question?

Well, of course YOU are responsible, right?  Yes, you have unequivicallly chased down the information you need and you most definitely have had to go against the grain to get answers.  But how has this been made possible....for parents to become their own "doctors"?

Turn the time back a few decades and imagine being a parent of a child like ours just ten or even twenty years ago.  What's missing?  Certainly bio-medicine was in existence, holistic doctors practiced medicine then too.  So what is the difference?  It's the internet!

What would we do, if we didn't have the world literally at our fingertips?  We wouldn't be finding fellow parents and building networks of thousands of people who aid in our exposure to the treatments and doctors available to us.  We have stretched our arms further than ever before, there is no rock left unturned, no doctor we don't have access to, and you have the internet to thank for that!

I am so grateful to be experiencing this journey at a time when I have such amazing people literally at my fingertips, because without all of you amazing bio-med parents out there, I wouldn't have known where or how to start.

But then, the question that begs to be answered becomes, if our children WERE born at a different time, would they be this sick?  Evolution sure has it's pros and cons, doesn't it?  Is the glass half empty or half full?

Must watch videos on camel milk and how it heals

These videos deserve their own blog entry.  For anyone with an autoimmune disease, diabetes, autism, Chrone's disease, allergies, Hepatitis, tuberculosis, parasites, among many other diseases, this set of videos is a MUST WATCH!  This is mind-blowing.  We've seen incredible improvements with camel milk with both boys.

If you only have time for one video, choose #3.  The first video is the story from a woman whose son was healed of a devastating parasitic infection that was destroying his health.

Camel Milk for Health

Fitting in

As much as us biomed moms work extremely hard to help our children fit in, it's equally as ironic that WE don't fit in anywhere.  Biomed moms stick together like white on rice, because our lives are so incredibly different from others' and no one else gets us like another from the same world.  We are the side show freak at every event.

I ponder this thought as I sit here splitting our chelation capsules and wonder what other moms out there are doing this very moment.  I doubt they are splitting capsules for their families to take around the clock.  But I would bet that just about every other biomedical mom is doing exactly what I am doing and maybe even at this very moment, since chelation rounds typically happen on the weekends.  It's this craziness that ties us together with a bond that doesn't even require physically facing each other to "get" each other.  I think we would go to the ends of the earth for one another, literally.  We share a passion that runs deeper in our veins than our own blood.  It's this very passion that motivates us.

I know at least for myself, when I try to fit into groups of other moms, I find it so hard to relate to them.  As much as I would love to chat about karate lessons or school mishaps, our experiences differ so much that I can't even chime in.  Generally when I open my mouth to share my own version of our experiences, I hear the crickets.  There are two exceptions to this though and you can pick them out in a heartbeat.  There are the morbidly curious, the same people that rubber-neck at gruesome crash sites and then there are those who clearly see a connection in what we do, probably because they themselves are searching for answers, whether it be for a child, a loved one or themselves.  They are sincerely interested in the information rather than being intrigued by how very different we are.

One thing I hear frequently is, "I don't know how you do it!"  Again, I tend to wonder about the intention of this commonly heard phrase.  Is it that they truly give us credit for all that we do, witnessing the significant change we produce in our kids' lives or is it more like, wow, you are nuts and I wouldn't do what you do for your kids!

I'm sure there are some people who just lack the understanding, it's hard to grasp unless you have personally witnessed the change in our children.  If you are a parent who was lucky enough to have children born with health on their side, you probably just don't understand the concept of the behaviors we see in our children.  You can't understand what it is like to witness your child loose eye contact and pull away from you or when they take part in strange repetitive behaviors that scare you out of your skin.  Or perhaps your children aren't the healthiest either, but you just don't comprehend how some of the things we do can encourage such huge changes.  Either way, it's this lack of knowledge that puts you on the other side of the fence.  I love the parents who have an envy for the work we do, they give credit and watch in awe, but I'm sure they would never want to be in our shoes.  And as much as I would love to wash my hands of all this intense work, I would never want to change our past, because it has carved the path for our future and I have learned more through this experience than I could even put into words.  Our lives have truly been enhanced by the needs of our little ones.

There is nothing like watching our boys fit in, even if we don't, it's all because of what we do for them every single day of our lives.  It's our dedication, the work of going against the grain in every aspect of our lives that has offered them the chance at a normal life.  I would say that makes us pretty darn amazing.  If you are a fellow bio-med mom, take the time to pat yourself on the back for all of the selfless hours you research, cook and dedicate to your family, for the hours of intense pain you've experienced beside your child as s/he suffered the worst days of pathogenic overgrowth, die-off or food infractions and for the many sleepless hours of chelation you have under your belt.

It's you who is changing the world for your children.  Congrats!

SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder)

So going back to where this whole thing started for us....SPD was how we came to this place in our lives. It indicated something was off with our son and threw me into an OCD (yes, I have it, but generally it just fuels my research, he he he) fit of looking for answers. I was not satisfied with accepting that he just had SPD, I needed to find out why and ultimately, how to relieve him of it. Jenny McCarthy has really shed a lot of light on the biomedical route of recovery for much more severe children and what I noticed is that many of the things we were dealing with were VERY similar to what happens to autistic children, just on a much less severe level. So are we preventing him from being diagnosed as having Asperger's Syndrome? I don't know, but my gut tells me that, if we let him just continue the way he was going, by the time he got into grade school, there would be some sort of diagnosis like ADHD and/or Asperger's. I believe in my heart of hearts that we are preventing that! And just for the record, ADHD/ADD is in the autism spectrum...meaning they all share in the same neuro-disconnects! The autism spectrum varies considerably.

So what is SPD? And not in medical technical terms? It is not in and of itself an ASD, but it certainly is shared with those who are on the AS. What does that mean though? As far as I am concerned, it's not about the label, it is about WHAT is going on in their little bodies! SPD is a disconnect between the sensory nerves and the brain. So for example, for the average person, a warm food is tolerable, but to someone who is sensory deffensive, that warm food might be HOT and truly feels that way to them. Their brains do not properly organize and read the senses. Most people have some sensory issues, but not to the degree that they effect your everyday life. In the end, what it all comes down to is do these issues consume you or your child? Do they effect your way of living? A child who is bombarded by everything that makes them either sensory "defensive" (feeling a lot of pain all day) or they are sensory "seekers" (needing to bounce, jump and crash), they feel completely disorganized and tend to lash out emotionally. I know that when I have a canker sore, a little tiny painful annoyance that is underlying everything I do all day, I have constant irritation and I become moody in my response to things, it exhausts me. Imagine how these kids feel? They don't feel right either, they are irritated by the world around them and then their parents and teachers are telling them they aren't acting appropriately and they aren't feeling what they feel...."That isn't hot, it's warm!!" Well to them, it's hot and they aren't being justified or understood. Nor are they being taught how to compensate for what they are feeling. Could you see, if your husband constantly told you how you should feel? Or maybe he does and you understand their frustrations?!?! ha ha ha

Since SPD is neurological, I decided to research further into what causes it and found that all of my search results brought up "autism", probably because the more severe cases do involve autistic kids and interestinly, our son shared a lot of similar traits; although he wouldn't be categorized with autistic children, because he is highly social and can read body language. But keep in mind that there are a LOT of layers and overlap there. Just because he is social doesn't preclude him from sharing many traits with an autistic child. It's just not that black and white. The "diagnosis" doesn't need to be there for there to be similarities. When he was younger, I noticed hand flapping and rocking a LOT! While those traits lessened or went away, they were replaced with others, like inscesant lining up of toys, but don't all kids do that?! The constant nagging feeling in me that something wasn't quite right needed to be dealt with and I must say, I wish I addressed it earlier. I let everyone (including doctors AND my own husband) tell me that our son was perfect, that I was over analyzing. Look where we are today....need I say more?