Adventures in Autism & other stories of early intervention

{ A couple of GOOD Days for Kai... }

Just taking a quick break from editing to thank everyone for the comments here and on FaceBook and for just there for us in general.  Tomorrow is Kai's team meeting...we have one every couple of months to check on his programs and his progress.  I really feel like these team meetings are such an important part of Kai's early intervention and making sure we stay on track and stay consistent with how we all respond to certain behaviors, both good and not so good.  We are really focused on social goals and pragmatics...and understanding emotions. 

Anyhow, I was thinking about this because I invited Kai's most wonderful teacher, Mrs. M to join us, and her email back to me just made me laugh out loud.  I love when people get it...and most importantly when they "get" Kai and who he is and they see his potential and when they gladly join our adventure...it makes me happy.  I hope Mrs. M doesn't mind that I am sharing this...can I just say again how much I LOVE the last sentence???  ~M

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Hi!  Thanks for including me...Please let me know if there is anything I can tweak or add to Kai's day to keep him challenged.  We've had a good week and he's been pretty even and really engaging with the other kids.  I have noticed a bit of clock/time obsession emerging.  Which has its positives since it's keeping me on schedule!  But at the same time I haven't wanted to over encourage it...I also wanted to mention I love your autism blog and I have very much enjoyed being part of Kai's journey.  He's just an amazing little guy and I am so thankful that he opened my classroom door last August!  (and closed, and opened, and closed...!!!)   

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{ Suspicion confirmed...and the culprit is... }

...GLUTEN.  I'm not surprised, but then I kind of am in some ways.  I actually wondered aloud a couple of days ago if Kai could have gotten something with gluten or dairy in it which could explain some of the craziness going on around here lately with the doors, light switches and verbal stimming.  We have been pondering why his symptoms have gotten so bad over the past several days and we figured it was the Rodeo vacation in addition to me going out of town and some big changes with HAB workers and a change in daytime care...and perhaps those are still factors, but I just went to make Kai a waffle sandwich and noticed that there were only two left in the box of regular mini waffles.  An easy mistake to make since the boxes look almost identical.

Interestingly, he has been on this diet since March 7, 2007 - wow, that is almost 2 years exactly...time sure does fly!  The only other time that we are aware that he ate a cracker with gluten in it, he got a mysterious fever that night, and I assumed he was getting a bug, but the next morning he was fine.  Ok, so maybe it was a coincidence, right?  But now, I am just getting the confirmation that yes, this diet REALLY does work for Kai, as well as many other kids on the spectrum.  I realize it may not work for everyone, as is the case with any type of treatment, but it really is amazing how much it impacts his behavior and autism symptoms, as well as his ability to attend to people and tasks.  I'm still a believer.  ~M