It's been a few days...I'm still trying to get in the swing of blogging more regularly. We have had such an ENCOURAGING past couple of months...we are seeing new things pop up almost weekly! Since returning home to the state of Kansas we have seen PROGRESS!!
Past few days saw us completing Rnd #7 of chelation, as well as trying out a new promising (albeit weird to consider) treatment:
Camel's Milk.
We tried it on a whim. A friend of mine got her hands on some and decided to offer...so I took a chance and bought 2 pints. Nathan's sleep was spotty; he spent 4 nights of getting up several times/night. Nathan slept the WHOLE NIGHT after drinking 2 doses (1/2 pint) of the camel's milk in one day. The same thing happen the next night, too....and the next night! I was nervous about digestion, as the last dairy I gave him (dairy-cultured probiotics) was a disaster; hosing him down in the tub became an almost everyday occurence! His BM's were PERFECT on the camel's milk! I will also note that he has begun his night wakings again since we ran out of the milk...but I'll agree not quite enough data was available this time to show a true effect on sleep.
The 4 days we gave Nathan the milk, we saw new motor behaviors: kicking for the first time (REAL, voluntary kicks on demand...not just sticking his foot up), stomping, "dancing" whenever he heard a familiar song, and play with his sister! The real difference about the motor stuff is that he seems AWARE that he's doing these things...he looks at me, smiles, and then looks at himself while he's doing it....like a big "Look at me, Mom...look what I'm doing!" This is all BRAND NEW. Nathan also was able to climb all the way to the top of an indoor playground at the mall for the first time, while following and playing with his big sister (yes: he was INTERACTING and PURSUING). This happened with no prodding...he just ran in and did it. Once again, a first!!
Yesterday, my husband and I heard Nathan, plain as day, say his first 3-syllable word: Popsicle. Sure, it sounded more like "pop-puk-oh"....but OMG, as a budding Speech Pathologist, I LEAP FROM MY CHAIR when I hear that a kid who previously could only produce 2 syllables, usually reduplicated ("pop-pop", "op-eh-op-eh", etc), can now approximate all 3 syllables of a 3-syllable word! We have tried EVERYTHING to get to the point where Nathan could make his mouth say more than just babble and more than just 2-syllable pairings! I held off on SUPER-EXCITEMENT until today, when he said the SAME THING again: "POP-PUK-OH"...music to my ears!! :)
I don't know how much of these gains are from camel's milk and how much are from chelation. We do chelation almost every weekend. We started seeing improvement....small things here and there, very gradual....from the beginning. He is still staying away from the foods he is allergic to, and he is still on most of the supplements ordered by his DAN! With the supplements and diet, we saw Nathan "calm down." He was able to stop rampaging through the house, going crazy with stimming. His gut functioning and belly distention got better with diet and enzymes. When we started chelation, THAT'S where the leaps and bounds have occured. We never know what we are going to see with a round of chelation, so regardless of when we started the camel's milk, it would be difficult to pick it apart. The jump in understanding and complying in what we say to him...his first couple successful trips to the potty at school...the EYE CONTACT...the interactions with others...this all coincided with chelation.
When the time is right, we would like to see what else camel's milk can do. With the holiday/birthday season upon us, we are holding off on shelling out the bucks for it, as well worth it as it would be. But until then, we keep plodding along....enjoying every bit of progress we can get! Doctors can shake their heads or ignore what we've done, but I don't care...
The progress cannot be denied in this house!!
Until next time!.....
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