Our History and Before the Diet...

This is my first time to actually blog so here it goes. My son Austin is 20 months old and at the current time, he does not yet talk. There are some other things that he does not do as well but let me go back to 12 months. At 12 months, DH wondered why Austin did not have any words. My understanding is that most boys are slower to develop than girls so at 12 months I had no concerns at all and told DH he just wasn't ready to talk yet. At that time, I felt that he had met all other appropriate milestones but then I realized that Austin wasn't waving, gesturing, pointing, an d basically had no means of communicating with us. I still just figured he needed more time. Then came 13 months, 14 months, and 15 months, and still nothing. I made an appointment with the pediatrician to discuss my concerns. I forgot to mention that at 12 months, we had moved from Texas to Illinois and left ALL of our family that we saw daily. I wondered if this could be Austin's way of stressing. My pediatrician said that Austin would have been stressed but not enough to not improve at all 3 months so he referred me to the Illinois Early Intervention program. My coordinator, along with an OT, DT, and a ST came to evaluate Austin. I was shocked to learn how far delayed they considered him. They only category that he was not delayed in was gross motor skills. I found out that he needed fine motor skill and hand eye coordination help. He expressive speech and responsive speech skills were delayed both over 50%. And on top of that, they told me that he had low muscle tone in his upper torso and mouth, and he was seeking sensory input when he hand flapped, walked on his toes, and would spin in circles. Austin qualified for ST, DT, and OT and we began. The therapists were a big help. They showed me how to play more interactively with Austin and how to model words and play correctly. They also brought up other things that needed improvement, things that I never would have given a second thought. This month, we moved to Virginia due to DH's work. I had Austin evaluated once again and this time he only qualified for ST twice a week. We are going to see a developmental pediatrician at the end of October and try to see a private OT as Austin still has many sensory issues. He has improved greatly on some things but like I mentioned at first, he still has no words. He is able to wave, sign the word "more", bring us a book when he wants to be read too, and most importantly he understands about 70% of everything we tell him if not more. Now that you have our history, onto the reason I am blogging. My biggest concern is Autism. I know that we will love Austin no matter what and do what we have to do for him no matter what happens but at this time, we are doing everything possible to strengthen his development in hopes that this is just a developmental delay. I am giving Austin Nordic Naturals CLO and have been for a few months. I have not noticed any huge changes and I have to wonder if the waving was just a natural development; like he just finallly grasped the concept of it or was finally motivated enough to do it back. For months, I have been researching the GFCF diet, the benefits, the negative aspects, how it can be helpful, why people do it and so forth. I have spoken to my therapists in the past about it and they all thought it might be good to try. I also brought it up to our new ST this week at our first session. We got on the subject because she wondered if I gave Austin sticky foods like peanut butter to work his mouth muscles. I told her that I have never given him peanut butter because I am terrified of a peanut allergy. She immediately wanted to know why I thought that way and so we got into a discussion of my DH's allergies. He is allergic to chicken (yes, chicken!), many fruits, soy, and a few other random foods. When I our pediatrician found out about DH's allergies, he told me it was best to wait until Austin was 2 before he tried peanuts, eggs, and chicken. The ST was very interested in this information she told me because it is generally children who have allergies or sensitivities to food that make improvements on the GFCF diet. Austin may not be allergic to wheat or to dairy but he may be senstive to these products and they could be causing him more damage than doing good. This conversation got me really thinking about the diet but then I came back to what I always did; Is this diet right for us? Will it be too difficult? Will it work? etc... Then, later that day, I saw the Oprah show with Jenny McCarthy and Holly Robinson Peete talking about Autism. Jenny's son Evan is an exact description of Austin minus the seizures. Her son was actually diagnosed with Autism and she found out about the GFCF diet online and decided to give it a try. In her words, her son is now recovering from Autism. I know this diet may or may not work. Austin may not improve greatly but just stem less and/or be able to focus more but at this time, I feel like this is the right decision for us. I have found several blogs, stories, and discussion boards on this subject that have helped me find out more about the diet and have hope that there is help for my child. If my blog helps at least one person with this diet, then I will be happy.