I tend to focus on BuddyBoy’s progress (in either direction) when I’m speaking with others, simply because he has the most difficulties in our world, and has the hardest journey of all my children. He is not the only one that needs my time and attention, however, and getting a rather large chunk of both of those is my youngest son. Let me share his journey with you this time. 🙂

SuperBoy was born super healthy, very happy, and was an excellent feeder. For about ten days. Then he started to fuss when feeding and eventually started crying after eating, and then stopped eating completely. To save you the pain of the journey we went through then, let me just sum it up by saying: “Oesophagitis due to severe protein intolerance”. The words “Omeprazole” and “Neocate” became standard household language, and life revolved around whether our SuperBaby would eat and sleep (and poop).

As he grew (upwardly and outwardly) we were careful with what food we introduced, which our new paediatrician didn’t agree with. So against my instincts (which I usually don’t ignore) we tried him on gluten. After cleaning up the vomit over the next twelve hours, we decided we wouldn’t do that again. We came to the same conclusion with dairy, and later on soy, after an accidental exposure. He ate a healthy diet of lots of fruit and vegetables, and later on meat as he turned out to be fine with it. Then he developed rashes from fruit and we had to limit his fruit intake – he was not impressed.

He was a social little creature, but his speech just wasn’t coming along. By this stage we had a speech therapist visiting BuddyBoy, and we had her assess SuperBoy as well. She agreed with us that he didn’t seem to have Autism, and that he had excellent receptive speech. He did however, have an expressive speech delay. So we worked on this using the techniques she suggested, without a huge deal of difference. I attended a conference where I learnt about a link between speech problems and systemic yeast. I treated both boys for yeast with natural supplements, and all of a sudden, our SuperBoy started talking. He hasn’t stopped since.

He’s still intolerant to a lot of foods, and has had major issues with his gut. He had the proverbial “Buddha Belly” for a long time, and was usually constipated. We’ve had a number of tests done, and tried various treatments and therapies, and he is now usually fairly regular, with a belly that is no longer threatening to explode if you prod it too hard. He started being rather fussy with his food – vegetables were no longer appealing (can’t say I blame him) and then he started being fussy about meat as well. He also doesn’t like to drink – the toddler that used to guzzle several bottles of water a day, is now rarely finishing off two glasses of any liquid.

We’ve also had a lot of issues with his behaviour. He has more spectacular meltdowns than BuddyBoy does, tends to be explosive at the least provocation, and screams so loud and so often that I’m surprised the neighbours haven’t called the police on us. He needs to be ‘handled’ in just the right way to avoid a major screaming fit, or having him launch himself at one of his older (and much bigger) sisters. We talked to BuddyBoy’s doctor about SuperBoy and she suggested treating him for Pyrroles – an issue that is common in our family. It made him worse.

On a hunch, I started giving him a supplement that I had recently started BuddyBoy on – one that was excellent for methylation issues, and Cerebral Folate Deficiency. He did superbly. He calmed right down, was able to control his behaviour when he became angry, and was no longer screeching. I knew it was that supplement, because when we ran out one time (it has to be the most expensive one of course), the behaviour escalated again. Then we started the IonCleanse footbath and it all came flooding back.

We had to scale back on the number of times he was cleansing during the week, which helped to reduce the behaviours as well. He’s also eating virtually nothing now, and drinking even less. I’m not sure what effect the footbaths are having on his body, but obviously something is going on. We’re getting some help for these issues, so I’m hoping that he will improve soon.

For those who are following BuddyBoy’s progress, here is the latest:

• He pulled his sleeve down inside his jumper after I put it on – usually I do this for him.
• School commented that “they’ve been hearing a few new words lately”, and that he was watching what the other children were playing with, leaning against one girl quite comfortably. This is a big change for him as he used to avoid other children in particular.
• I was playing with him, making ‘Indian’ noises, and he imitated me. This is a big, big, thing in the ASD world – our kids are not known to imitate much and this has never happened spontaneously before.
• The speech is still coming on – lots of echolalia, and several words relevant to the situation. For example, he was standing on his windowsill, looking outside and said, “dark”, which it was. Another evening he was swinging on his industrial strength curtain rail, and the screws holding it in came out. He came crashing down on the floor and said, “Ouchies, ouchies”. Tonight he was wanting Daddy to change the settings on the colouring in ‘dot’ size in an app, and got most frustrated when Daddy made it smaller. “Bigger, bigger” came out quite forcibly – indicating that he not only knew the word, but what it meant, which leaves me hoping that all those games we’ve played with ‘bigger, smaller’ etc, have made sense to him.
• We’re getting kisses – real ones with lips puckered up. He has also been happily hugging family members, and has come several times to get one of us to keep him company. He’s also found his once favourite soft toy – “Bo Potts” and likes to have him in his bed at night, and take him to school.
• At dinner time he wanted more food, and I asked him, “Where’s your bowl?” and he immediately ran off to get it. Usually we have to prompt him several times, and even point to the actual bowl (meaning we have to be within sight) for him to follow through. While he went and got his bowl, he then got distracted by his iPad, and I found him a minute later with bowl in hand, playing with the iPad. 🙂
• He has become more easily frustrated again, and has taken to shredding heaps and heaps of paper. He is also insisting on sameness – something that has not usually been an issue but is now.
• He is still having episodes where he will become very upset and cry for no discernible reason. This is usually the day after a footbath, and fairly short lived. We’re also seeing a lot more agitation where he yells or loses his temper.

As it has now been nearly a month since we started on the IonCleanse, we have had to do more ATEC scores for everyone (see my first post on IonCleanse for more information). For our ASD girls, the scores dropped by 3, 7 and 1 point. SuperBoy’s increased by 7 points, due to his change in behaviour and food and drink intake. BuddyBoy’s went up by 5 points – I was expecting his to go a lot higher actually, as any new protocol will usually increase hyperactivity and aggression markedly. While the points may have gone up, I am sensing a change in him in particular – he is more ‘aware’ and ‘with us’.

I’m expecting that these issues will settle and we will then hopefully see the ATEC scores reflect the progress we’re seeing already. In the meantime, we’re keeping calm, and IonCleansing on!