Kim Stagliano speaks out on CNN Re: Wakefield Autism/Vaccine Retraction

You know, its my daughter's birthday. If one more "helpful" friend points out to me the link on the Lancet article retraction - the Autism/Vaccine link being tossed out and Wakefield being lynched... Excuse me, but do you think I'm NOT following it all? I'm trying to enjoy my daughter's birthday but everywhere I turn I can't seem to get away from it.

My son has autism and his story is very similar to many other children also on the Autism spectrum. My son was very much a healthy and happy child for the first year of his life - until he went to a well visit and received a toxic cocktail of multiple vaccinations (including the experimental MMR-V a mercury containing vax, a flu shot, and others). That night he ended up in the hospital. The doctors said he had asthma. Over the following year he lost words and stopped meeting developmental milestones. We started early intervention to help him get caught up but he never did and he was ultimately diagnosed with Autism. I refused to let the doctors and schools write him off as just another number. Therapy, ABA, OT, PT, Speech, Behavior plans - it is all great and helps but I knew we needed to do more for him. A big giant red flag was the fact that in Kindergarten my son got sent home almost weekly. In fact, I originally began this blog as a place to rant against the school nurse who kept sending my son home.. day after day, week after week. My son was always getting sick. He would come home and then he wouldn't seem sick. I identified that the sickness usually correlated to things he ate.
I knew people who had put their autistic children on special diets and were seeing results - I knew it wasn't going to be easy and it would also be a financial challenge. I did it anyways - at first on a trial basis. We noted immediate changes when we eliminated milk and so we proceeded with eliminating gluten. We started supplements. Bit by bit, we watched our son make gains. Huge Gains. Not only was he no longer getting sick at school (aside from the usual seasonal stuff) he started to behave better and have less tantrums. He still has autism but he is a changed child.

Our story is not a fluke.

Vaccines hurt my child and biomedical interventions are helping him.

I want to share this link/video to someone who is a rock star and someone who I am honored to consider my friend :) Kim Stagliano - mother of 3 children with Autism. Kim blogs at Huffington Post and is the managing editor of Age of Autism

Happy Birthday Belle!

Happy 5th Birthday to Belle!

Alex's finished movie - Ice Age Scrat visits Pixar UP!

Alex really missed going to Small Factory since they had a bit of a holiday/winter break between lessons. This weekend he finally finished his creation in whice Scrat from Ice Age visit's Carl and the "Up" house from Pixar's UP.

Enjoy!

Louise Kuo Habakus to visit Brick SEPTA

Louise Kuo Habakus, Age of Autism's 2009 Person of the year will be visiting Brick SEPTA in February. Please mark your calendars and plan on joining us for this informative (and FREE) event!

Brick Township Special Education PTA presents
an introduction to Parenting For Wellness A Health Empowerment Series
Louise Kuo Habakus, MA, HHP

Please join us for an informative and timely look at nutritional and perspectives on parenting and family wellness. We’ll discuss the “New Normal” of children’s health, and how to take back parenting and make our life health choices. Bring your questions about cold and flu season, including prevention, vaccines and immune system support. Life Health Choices is dedicated to building community and creating change through informed choices affecting our lives and our health.

Individual registration louise@lifehealthchoices.com

Free admission & light refreshments

Monday, February 22, 2010
7:00-9:30 pm
Veterans Memorial Middle School Auditorium
105 Hendrickson Avenue, Brick, NJ

For more info visit Brick Septa's website at www.bricksepta.org

Really Cool GFCF foods we've tried lately

It is so hard to believe some days that the Alex who stands before us today is the same child who was barely verbal and tantrum-ruled when he was diagnosed with autism. The same child who went from eating everything in sight to eating about 5 things and ate those same 5 things for years. Until, in first grade we switched him to the Gluten and Casein Free diet. The diet, which limits food ingredients and made things even more selective for him opened him up to a whole new world of eating. The same child who now will eat a turkey leg or a hamburger and not just chicken nuggets and pizza. Before starting "the diet" I had images of my child starving or wasting away because he would have no food choices, but it has most definitely had the opposite effect.

I've been really lucky lately in having the chance for Alex to try out some new gluten and casein free foods thanks to samples being sent my way.

Kenzoil review

I have shared many times how my son loves ketchup. The kid puts ketchup on everything - his eggs, his noodles, his potatoes, his fries, his chicken, his everything. A couple days ago he put ketchup on sweet potatoe, which made me gag but he ate it. Anyways, we tried a new condiment - Kenzoil. The name is reminiscent of something that goes in cars to make them run, I don't really love the name. But thankfully the product is nothing like motor oil. It is actually EVOO with basil, garlic and spices and you can use it in a gazillion different ways - as a sauce, dip, marinade. I first tried to give it to Alex similar to how he would eat ketchup but I assessed that the "taste" is a bit too grown up for him like that. Next, I tried cooking with it on his grilled chicken. Success and it definitely jazzed up plain bland grilled chicken. I also cooked his sunny side eggs with it and served his eggs on top of his Udi's bread like eggs in the basket, except they were greenish eggs. Another hit. Kenzoil is one of those products that I will just have to experiment with in terms of cooking but my goal is that maybe if I make Alex's food a bit more flavorful or seasoned he won't see the need to drown them so much in ketchup. Since it is a gluten free condiment, I'll definitely be trying more things with it.

Gluten Free Pita Review
Which brings me to Gluten Free Pitas. Since Alex is now eating more than 5 things - when we received a package of gluten free pitas from GFL foods they didn't last very long in my house. I used these for school lunches and stuffed them with grilled chicken. And that Kenzoil I just blabbed on and on about - the pitas go really well with it. I could not taste any difference between these pitas and a "regular" non-gluten free one. I don't think Alex ever ate a non-gluten free pita before, so this was a first for him. He liked how the bread was shaped like a pocket - this was very novel to him. When I gave him suggestions on what we could stuff it with - the only thing he wanted to put in it was chicken which was just fine with me.

Boomi Bar & Prana Bar review
While on the topic of school lunches - I have to pack Alex's lunch every day. It gets old because I do feel like I give him the same things over and over. I received some samples of Boomi & Prana bars which are gluten free, and they have a line that is also dairy free/vegan. Note: some of the gluten free bars have whey protein in them, so as with everything check the ingredients. These are laden with nuts. My husband happens to be allergic to nuts and for a long time we didn't give Alex nuts because we felt he could be allergic to them even though the results from testing were not conclusive on that. I've been allowing nuts and introduced almond flour with no issues. Still, I watched carefully for a reaction and proceeded with caution on these since his father has a nut allergy. Alex preferred the Coconut Acai prana bar over the the Apricot Cashew Boomi Bar. He started out with both of them quite enthusiastic but didn't finish them. I shared them with them and found these energy bars are really quite filling and I liked the taste. I'd buy them in the future, but be sure to cut them in half and just send him with a partial bar so they didn't go to waste.

I'm so thankful that Alex has gotten the chance to try these new foods out and expand his repertoire bit by bit. I am still impressed that he is being so adventurous and has clearly stepped out - taken a giant leap- away from his old limited diet ways.

What will he try next?

Related Links:
www.kenzoil.com
www.glutenfreepitas.com
www.pranabar.com

Disclaimer - I was provided with samples of the above products for our honest no holds barred review.

And he eats a Hamburger thanks to Video Games

Alex adores cooking games and food themed games on the Wii and Nintendo DS. His favorites include the Cooking Mama Games and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I've always found it very funny and ironic because he plays all these games that involve food that
1) he can't eat because of his GFCF diet
2)If he could eat it with GFCF accomodations, he won't because he is very selective - which is common in kids on the autism spectrum.
However, since we went to Disney his food profile has expanded and he has been on an uphill climb, trying new things almost weekly.

And so it started, like this.... Alex has always been obsessed with making miis on the Wii. We used to try to be diligent and not let him make a million of them. But we have since caved and have come to enjoy the crazy miis that he comes up with or makes from the instructions on the mii characters website.

This one is a personal favorite:
The Hamburger head mii.










So, he has asked a few times for a Hamburger for dinner. I've held off on making it for him because, well... I figured he wouldn't eat it. But, he asked again and I thought I would just try it. If he didn't like it, I'd make him something quick like a sunny side up egg, another favorite of his as of late.

After procuring the $5.99 bag of Kinnikinnick buns from the grocery store I headed home to make burgers for the family.

He ate one, and then asked for a second! On the second. He asked if we could...

1. Slice the Tomato
2. Tear the Lettuce

These are steps from the Cooking Mama game and he scripted the game sequence as I did the above two steps. You can see a video of Cooking mama here making a hamburger.

Really, I wondered if he would eat this 2nd one with the vegs on it. His first one only had ketchup.

Today, my son ate his first (and second) hamburgers in his entire life!

Related Links:
Consider the Nintendo Wii for Kids with Autism

A Day to be Awarded

The schoolyear got off to a rocky start for us at school with some issues largely revolving around food. But, things are looking up for the most part. As with anything there are good days and not so good days. Today was more than a good day.

After school I had to load Alex into the mom-van and drag him along so his little sister could make up a dance class that she had missed last week (going to the dentist). While she was in the class having fun - Alex and I waited in the car.

A car pulled up next to us and it happened to be a para from his class. Her daughter is older and also takes classes at the same Dance Studio that my daughter attends. She asked me if Alex had told me what happened at school today. Of course he hadn't - he is usually not very good at telling me what happened and I have to really pull it out of him and ask just the right questions. She asked me if I'd looked in his backpack, but I told her that I hadn't because we came right over to dance class. So she tells me...

They had an assembly today with a singer, Mr. Sprout. He asked for kids to volunteer to come up and sing a solo and Alex volunteered.

My son, who in the past has not even been able to ATTEND assemblies, or had to attend them wearing ear muffling headphones. My son who hates clapping. My son who doesn't like microphones or loud speakers.

My son, My Alex. He got up and he sang with his sweet little voice over the microphone on the stage in front of the entire school. There was clapping, and there were a lot of tears (from his teachers and paras who are "in the know" about how HUGE this is for him).

In his backpack I received a really nice note from his teacher. I seriously could frame this. When I'm having a bad day, I will read this.. over and over and over again.














I am so proud of Alex. He actually made me cry. The past 2 assemblies he has been participating, CLAPPING along and enjoying himself. Today he actually volunteered to sing in front of the entire assembly with the Presenter Mr. Sprout. It was beautiful. He has come so far already!

In his green folder, I found this Star Student Award.




For: Participating and singing during our Assembly.







I am so proud of Alex every day for his hard work but today even more.