New stuff & a few set backs

DH and I were talking last night and we agree that Austin has really been showing some good improvements. We hope that he is getting closer and closer to saying that first word! I think I mentioned it before but he can point to his own toes now. That is huge considering he used to know the word "nose" but would only point to ours. He is also consistently pointing to his own ears now and we are working on "mouth". It is hit and miss with that one. We also feel like his receptive language is stronger than ever. We can tell him what something is at the beginning of the day and he will remember it.

The set backs we are encountering are the loss of signs. It seems like he really gets used to one sign and then forgets all the ones he previously knew. He knew "more" for a really long time but then he learned "book" and used "book" for everything. Now, he has really picked up "eat" and is using that instead of "book" or "more". If we try to make him do "more" or "book", he will but it is now hand over hand instead of him doing it by himself.

Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to tell everyone who read this blog Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas! I have been really busy xmas shopping, wrapping, and doing a bit of light housework because we are getting to go home to Texas shortly after xmas and I don't want to leave a dirty house!

We have added back most of Austin's old food and still haven't noticed anything different. He actually has been much happier - no reason I guess.

We cheated.

Yep, that's right. We gave Austin gluten and casein. It has been 3 months and since we have not noticed significant improvement we decided to reintroduce gluten and casein to see if anything changed. Austin had some pasta and cheese yesterday for lunch and a biscuit this morning.

We were disappointed to see that nothing changed. In fact, he had a great day yesterday. We took a car ride for about 2 hrs. to Virginia Beach to go shopping at the mall and drop a friend off at the Norfolk airport and Austin was just peachy. He was in a great mood and babbled tons. He slept well last night, has had a great day today, as well as a good 3 hr. nap.

I think for the rest of the holidays we will just continue to add back in more gluten and casein and monitor the effects. If nothing bad happens, I guess we can assume this diet is not for us but we also may end up retrying it in the near future as well. I will continue to keep everyone updated.

So our camera broke :(

I was going to wait to write this blog until our camera got fixed so I could take a picture but it looks like that won't be happening any time soon.

Austin has colored, and I mean really colored!, for the first time!!! This has been an ongoing process for months. He started out wanting to eat the crayons, then he realized what they were for and had no interest in them after making one small mark. And then he finally tried to color but didn't put enough pressure on the colors so no marks were made. But After I bought some flat tip crayons, he colors and loves it! He colored one whole sheet of white paper and then cried when I put the colors away which was sad but the best thing ever! I will save that picture forever :) Too bad I could not share it with my fellow readers.

Also, he is now pointing to his own toes when we ask which is HUGE! He has pointed to other body parts before but only on us not himself because he lacks self awareness. Not sure what brought this on except that I play with feet all the time but we are really excited and are still trying to teach him other body parts as well.

Say Hello to Rice Milk

We have decided to switch to rice milk after reading some more about the similarities b/w soy milk structure and regular milk.

In fact, TalkAboutCuringAutism.org states the following, "To replace milk, use Rice Milk or Almond Milk. Soy is so close in molecular structure to casein that it should be avoided in the replacement of milk and yogurt. It may have to be eliminated all together later but at least avoid it as a total replacement for milk. An overuse of soy is linked to the erosion of the esophagus, stomach and upper intestine."

Great... So basically I probably should have been using this a long time ago. Oh well. Live and learn. So far he doesn't seem to enjoy it nearly as much as the vanilla soy milk but I don't think it's too bad. We are also going to start some Super Nu Thera as soon as it arrives (I ordered it on Friday).