Update! Our first ever vacation!

RECAP for anyone new to the blog.   In October of 2012, we realized that Claire was not reaching the normal milestones for kids her age. She wasn't talking at all, she wouldn't make eye contact, she didn't sleep all night and often woke up with horrible night terrors, she only ate specific foods (anything sweet, cheese, cheerios, bread, raisins, turkey loaf, and that's about it!!), she pulled awful tantrums that lasted hours on end, and she had a horrible immune system.  So, I decided to do as much research about this as possible.  I read tons and tons of books, forums, blogs, you name it!   We immediately cut out all bread and dairy.  Within two weeks, we noticed immediate results.  So we kept it up.  Then we started the GAPS diet (Gut And Psychology Syndrome).

Here we are 7 months and one day later!!!!  At the beginning of this month, Dietrich, Claire, Ethan, and I flew from Dallas to San Francisco for a family reunion.   Considering the circumstances of the trip alone (Waking up early, our flight being delayed 4 hours, riding the shuttle during rush hour), Claire did AMAZING.  She was sleepy, but up until the day we flew home, she was calm, pleasant, and overall a happy little girl.  She enjoyed seeing the beach for the first time, loved the walks, the scenery, and most of all, the fresh food!! She even visited with everyone in the house telling them "hi" and "bye" appropriately.  I was sooo proud of her.  She took a special liking to her Great Uncle Mark who she met for the first time that week.  She played with him and showed him her flash cards.   God is definitely healing her!  Since my last blog post, Claire has started spelling words out loud  enunciating her ABC'S (The letters don't sound as scrambled as they did when she first started saying them), she can recognize a square, circle, triangle, and rectangle.  She openly gives affection to her Oma, Opa, Pa Pa Hut, Grammy, GiGi, and Uncle Jonny.

She fights over toys with her brother, but is learning to share here and there.  Aside from her vocabulary (which is steadily improving every day), and her sensitivity to Ethan's loud screaming, she is almost unrecognizable amongst her peers as being behind developmentally and socially.  She laughs when she should, shows emotion and recognizes emotion, and is eating more and more new (healthy) foods every week.  She wakes me up every morning with a smile on her face and a sweet little " Hi" or "hello".  She hugs me tightly before pulling me to the kitchen to make her breakfast.  I love my little girl so much.  I am taking her to see her very first movie this week! I will blog about the experience (even though I know it's going to be a good one!!).

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Sleeping on the plane

Strutting across the yard

Enjoying the view with her Auntie Gretchen

Her first time to see the ocean

Picking flowers in the garden at the house we were staying at

She got soaked when the tide came up!

GAPS diet, here we come!!!

Here we are, 4 months and 1 week post gluten-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free diet.   When we first started this diet, I expected to see immediate results.  Little did I know that cutting out those foods would cause Claire to be even worse! At first!   Looking back, it seems like it was just yesterday that I was trying to persuade Claire to eat her peas and she screamed at me for bread and cheese or cheerios.  Lots of tears and prayers happened those first few weeks, but here we are, four months later, and wow! What a turnaround my sweet baby Claire has made!!!!!

First, it's been well over 3 months since she's had a horrible temper tantrum breakdown like the ones she was having daily pre-diet.  She knows when she's doing something wrong now and often responds like a normal toddler would when being told no (with a look to see if mama or daddy are looking to see if the coast is clear to do it again anyways).  She will sometimes squeal or yell to show her anger at being thwarted, but quickly goes on to play with something else.  This is a HUGE deal for Claire because before, it was like she had no control over emotions and would scream before I even attempted to explain to her why she wasn't allowed to do what she was doing.

Okay, next!!!  (and be prepared because this list is a long one!!! Thank you God!!!)

Claire's noise sensitivity has improved SOOOO much that we are actually taking a road trip to visit my sister-in-law in San Antonio to meet our new baby niece!   In November, we were supposed to make the drive there to have dinner with our family for Thanksgiving but cancelled because of Claire's horrible tantrums and noise sensitivity to Ethan's cries.  I honestly thought we would never be able to leave our house again with both kids in the car because of how badly Claire would freak out and hit herself in the face.  Now, if he starts fussing in the car, she will quietly play with her books occasionally glancing over at him and sometimes even handing him a toy to hopefully quiet him down.  Praise God for this!!!!!   We are also flying out to California in June for a family reunion and this also is something I never imagined doing with Claire 5 months ago.

Next, Claire rarely EVER wakes up in the middle of the night anymore.  A few weeks ago,  she did get a hold of some sugar and/or chocolate by accident at a family gathering and woke up that night with what we can only describe as a night terror.  She was crying and screaming and did this for 45 minutes.  But in light of this disastrous night, I realized that this diet is definitely working for Claire and that I know I'm doing the right thing by eliminating those foods. People often say things like " aww, but she's missing out on snacks and candies and can't she just have one or two pieces of this or that?"  My answer is NO she can't.  It physically HURTS her to have this stuff!!!!!   That night was my proof and if I would have been able to, I would have gotten it on camera just to show people what it does to her.

Anyway, back on the topic of sleep.  Claire sleeps a good 10-12 hours straight through at night now.  She wakes up happy and plays with her toys as soon as she wakes up.  Before this diet, she would cry when she woke up for me to get her out of bed because she was scared.  But not anymore!!!

Okay, this one is a big update!  Claire will now give me and Dietrich both hugs without us making her! She likes showing affection to us and will also give me a hug after me only asking her to!  She runs to me and hugs me for as long as I want.  SHe used to push away from me hugging her and didn't like anyone showing her affection.  Now, she lets just about anyone hug on her.  She also let my mom play with her and hug and throw her up in the air. Claire has also made a friend with my friend Katelynd's daughter Brynleigh!  They play together, share toys, share snacks, and watch cartoons together.  Claire laughs at her and I even find her just staring at her and just being fascinated with her.  She's becoming social and making friends!!!!   She even plays with Ethan and I often see her giving him a toy :)

Our next step in this journey is to start the GAPS diet.  We found a wonderful GAPS specialist in Mineola who owns and runs her own organic farm.  This woman is amazing and gave us the GAPS book and workbook and is teaching us so many things that will help Claire and us become even healthier!   I will definitely post updates once we start the GAPS diet along with some of the new foods we are going to try.  Pray for us as we start this new diet.  I know it will be tough at first, but it's going to be so good for Claire!!!!

Here's a video of her laughing and playing with her friend Brynleigh:

Here are some pictures of her

Letting GiGi throw her in the air 

Playing with her GiGi

Jumping with Brynleigh

Laughing Girls!

Hugging Daddy while Ethan tickles her

Playing guitar with Daddy

Playing with her brother and sharing 

It's been awhile...

We have had an eventful last few months.  For one, Claire caught the flu.  She was sick for over two weeks and came down with a double ear infection.  Ethan also broke his first two teeth.  Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep!   But alas!  Good news and positive updates!

First of all, Claire's stimming behavior has reduced DRAMATICALLY!  She can easily play with a toy now like a normal kid would and not just line the toys up or flap her hands at it.

She has also started laughing when something funny happens on a cartoon.  She has her bad days during a yeast die-off but always comes out of the bad days with an even better day.

Okay, before November 29th, Claire's vocabulary was NOTHING.  She couldn't play catch, slide on a slide, make eye contact, say hello or goodbye, sleep in her toddler bed, handle ethan so much as whimpering without erupting in a horrible never ending tantrum, or do hardly anything for herself.  I'm going to try and list all of her improvements but there are so many that I may not list them all.

First, a list of words she has learned to say:

apple
please
thank you
yes
no
hi
bye
momma (hoorayyy!!!!)
baby
yay
yummy
box
doll
dog
snake
snack
move back
jacket
jump
bounce
shoes
boots
outside
papa
look
book
cherry
rainbow
whisper
kisses
good
okay
go


Now, this may not seem like much, but to us (and Claire), this is HUGE!

She has also learned to slide down the big slides at the park all by herself, get onto and jump on the trampoline, see-saw, ride around in her truck, play basketball and actually shoot the ball towards and sometimes into the goal, play catch, point at things in her book and try to repeat what we tell her they are, and as of yesterday she can COUNT TO 10!!!  Yes! MY darling Claire can count to 10.  I never thought she would learn this much so quickly, but after only two days of watching a cartoon by Leap Frog, she has learned to count to 10.  Of course,  I can hardly get her to do it on command, but nevertheless  she's able to count to 10 on her own.

She can say "Hi" to her daddy when he gets home from work, "Bye" when leaving anyone's house or when anyone leaves our house, she sometimes says thank you without having to be asked to say thank you, and she plays with her cell phone up to her ear talking (before, she would never know that's what it was for, but she has learned that's what it is--she's had this toy for 2 years).

Also! After her bout with the flu, she had spent an entire week sick in our bed.  We decided to try letting her sleep in her toddler bed.  She has done GREAT sleeping in it!! We even got her her first big girl comforter and sheet set for her big girl bed.  THis milestone was one that I didn't see happening for a long time since up until this point, we didn't think she would mind us and stay in her bed.  But, she has done been sleeping in her big girl bed since December!!!!!

As of now, she's still taking the digestive enzyme before every meal, she's taking 500-1000 mg of vitamin C per day, and when I remember to give it to her, probiotics once a day to help her with yeast.  She's also still on the GFCF diet.  Her eye contact has gotten SOOOOO much better.  I know we still have a long ways to go, but I recently started reading a book called "Healing the New Childhood Epidemics Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies by DR. Kenneth Bock and these recovery stories I'm reading are soo very encouraging.  They made me realize that this is going to take time and patience but when I put it down in writing, I can see that Claire has already improved so much!!

We have had a couple of setbacks in that we learned we have been giving her milk and toothpaste containing a thickening ingredient called carrageenan, which can cause the digestive tract to be inflamed and damage the immune system by not allowing the stomach to properly absorb nutrients.  We immediately cut everything out that contained this and we are hoping this will help her too.  I'm learning in the books i'm reading of new therapies and supplementation that can help too.  The information I'm taking in has been a blessing and a bit overwhelming.  A lot of people don't agree with what I'm doing here and think that Claire was simply born this way and the only thing that can be done for her is to accept her the way she is and love her the best we can, and that the stuff I'm doing won't help.  But obviously from the amazing improvements she has made in such a short period of time with nothing but diet change is PROOF and NOT coincidence that she is getting better and I have all the faith in the world in her and the things that I'm learning and applying that she will come out of the fog and one day be unrecognizable as having autism.  This is my vow to her that I will do everything in my power to help her out of the fog in her mind and help restore the good things in her mind and body that will help her to feel better.  

And on that note, here's a short video of Claire speaking a couple of words after she brought me her shoes and told me "outside"

Simply Well

Today was yet another good day.  We made a trip to Flower Mound to see a woman who does muscle testing.  I was very nervous about not only the trip, but about how we were going to get Claire to sit through the testing.

The drive down there took longer than expected because of TONS of road work.  But, both kids were pretty cooperative!!!!

Once we got there and inside, everything just fell into place.  The woman who performed the muscle testing for allergies was SOOO nice, mellow, and very good with Claire.  Now usually, when we go to a new place for the first time, Claire gets extremely over-excited, hyper, and talks a LOT of jibberish.  But, not today!  She was calm, quiet, and walked right into this woman's house without a fuss!!!

Once we got into the room where the test was going to be performed, Melanie (the founder of Simply Well) had a DVD player ready for us to put a movie in for Claire and a cute little comfy kid-sized chair for Claire to sit in.  Claire sat in the chair and hardly moved at all the entire time we were there (which was over an hour!!).  Claire let her hold her hand and do the test without a single fuss.  We had such a lovely time and I was SOO impressed with Claire's behavior!!   I honestly don't think she would have behaved this way a month ago.

Some amazing things are happening to Claire.  Here are a couple of pictures of the kids from their very first "trip" :-)  Will blog the results of Claire's test as soon as I get them!

Another good day!

Today,  Claire did AWESOME!!!   First off, she played and when I say played I mean she interacted, made eye contact, and gave her full attention to her Oma this morning!  She even let her push her down the slide and said "AGAIN!" after each time (which is a new word for her!!!).  I even got it on video!!

Then, later in the afternoon, I was cutting up fruit to put in her juicer, and she runs in the kitchen and looks right at me and says " sssss".  I said "What Claire??"  Then she says "Juuuuu, Juuuuuiiccee".  She said juice! She said juice!!  And at the exactly right moment!!!!!  So, her juice cup is sitting under the spout of the juicer and Claire walks up to me and hands me something.  It's the lid to her cup that I was filling with juice.  She knew exactly what she was doing.  I swear, it's like the fog in her head is finally starting to clear!!  She talks nonstop and I'm finally starting to understand what she's saying.  I can't believe it's only been a little over a week!!  Thank you Almighty God!!!!!!

Mama, Claire

Yesterday, I noticed Claire seemed to be stimming more than she has the last week.  I wondered if maybe I missed something and accidentally gave her something containing gluten or dairy.  I did notice that she was having more frequent bowel movements and think this could possibly be a yeast die-off of some sort.  Nevertheless, Claire ate baked chicken yesterday for the first time in her life! She has NEVER shown interest in it before but at almost an entire chicken breast on her own.  I was so very proud and happy!  Also, she said "please" at least 10 times yesterday (although it still sounds more like peas).

I checked my email last night and I got a response back from a GAPS doctor in Mineola.  She not only can give us a full analysis of Claire, but she also has a farm with grass-fed cows and chicken, organic produce, and raw milk that she will sell us!!  Praise God for opening so many opportunities for us to heal Claire and also for us to start eating more healthy too.

I started the documentary Food Matters last night and 30 minutes in I was shocked and fascinated at the same time by what information has been kept from society.  It's very bothersome the way the medical community and government are more interested in making money than actually helping people.  

This morning, I walked up to Claire and she gave me a big hug.  Then I looked at her and pointed to her chest and said "Claire" then pointed to my chest and said "Mama".  After doing this a few times, she started saying it with me! I would point to her chest and say "claire" and then to mine and she would say "mama!".  She has never been able to sit with me that long and engage in that kind of exchange before.  I was very impressed and happy to see how eager she was to learn it!  

Things are looking up and it's only been a week since we started these diet changes!! Thank You Heavenly Father! I give all the grace to you!!!!!!!!

A Glimmer of Hope (already!)

Yesterday was probably the hardest day of my life (including two natural births without any drugs!).  Claire was on her 3rd day in a row of not eating lunch or dinner.  She was having meltdown after meltdown and her last meltdown lasted 3 hours straight.  This included screaming, crying, pulling on my leg, and begging for Cheerios.  I had fixed her a plate of freshly steamed green beans, steamed carrots, and turkey breast and she refused to even touch any of the food.  Also, she was tired because she has been waking up at least once a night for the last 3 months.  I also noticed the night before last that she was EXTREMELY overstimulated and flapped her hands continuously for over an hour!

So, after her most recent meltdown (the one that lasted 3 hours), I called my mother in law and asked her to please pray for Claire.  I myself had been praying all morning but I hoped that if more people were praying, there might be a better chance of our prayers getting through a little quicker ;-)

During all the screaming, I had ethan strapped to me in the Ergo Baby Carrier and my headphones in my ears with Metallica blaring all the way up to block out the sound of her screaming.  I made Claire a loaf of GFCFSF Zucchini bread.  It was super easy and smelled wonderful.  After I made it, I tried to get Claire to eat some. One look at it and she knew it wasn't something she has ever had before.  So she wouldn't even try it.  At this point, I was furious because I knew she was starving and if she would just TRY the bread, she might like it!!!   It was made with local honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, almond flour, eggs, a banana, aluminum-free baking soda, eggs, and zucchini.

I decided to take matters into my own hands (literally!) and put a piece in her open mouth as soon as I got the chance.  Not only did she LET me put it in her mouth, but she didn't put up a fight.  After doing this several more times with the bread, I decided to try it with other foods.  She let me feed her (by my hand of course) her entire plate of lunch, down to the last fresh green bean.  I was so happy that I started crying.  After that, I gave her a cup of freshly expressed apple/grape juice with added Vitamin B12.  Then last night, she once again showed no interest in her dinner.  So, I thought I would try the hand feeding again.  Sure enough, she ate EVERYTHING on her plate and another piece of zucchini bread.

Before bathtime, I noticed a small red rash on her shoulder.  I decided to wait and see if it went away or got worse.  It eventually cleared up on its own, but we decided to give her Epsom Salt baths every night to help with this release of toxins.

So, last night, Claire slept ALL night without waking up a single time.  She woke up jibber jabbering instead of the usual screams to let us know she was awake.  I fixed her breakfast and put a piece of zucchini bread on her plate.  Ethan woke up shortly after, and after I got him changed and fed, I came back into the living room to see her plate cleared (even the bread was gone).  I assumed she threw the bread on the floor and looked for it.  There was no sight of bread anywhere.  I decided to test it out again where I could see, and she ate the bread up like it was a cookie!!!

A little while later, she brings me the container of raisins.  I said to her " Claire, can you say please to mommy?"  "Claire, say please".  Not only did she say it, but she said it 3 times more after that!  Everytime she brought me something she wanted, I asked her to say Please and she did!!  Now granted,  it sounded more like "pease" than "please" but this is a HUGE IMPROVEMENT.  She used to say "ga ga gag agagaga" everytime I asked her to say anything.

Also, she sat in my lap today and stared at me in the eyes for 5 minutes and continued to come back and sit in my lap with a toy and look at me.  She was interacted and playing with me!!!!

As of right now (2:30 p.m.), she hasn't had a SINGLE meltdown today.  Usually at this point in the day, she's had at least 3 meltdowns.

I know these are only small things, but in only 5 days on this diet she has made me believe that this diet is DEFINITELY working!!   I am so grateful and will continue to update her improvements :)

We have an appointment on December 11th to have Claire tested for allergies with a Naturopath Melanie Ortler.  She is going to perform the Classic Food Sensitivity Screening and Digestive Analysis so that we can find out what else Claire might be sensitive/allergic to.

Here's a video of Claire putting coins in her piggy bank.  Notice she only flaps her hands ONCE.  Usually, she has to flap them between every coin that goes in the bank.