Stimmy, Stimmy ...and how to get that kid asleep

So we are in a "Down-face" right now. The last 1 1/2 weeks where hard on the whole family. Nicky is very loud, stimmy and over all just very uncooperative. You see it on little things during the whole day that something is bothering him.
That starts in the morning when he has to get dressed: He doesn't put his hand through the sleeve itself, he kind of fights it. It's a struggle.
But the worse is his sleeping pattern right now. He wakes up screaming during the night, he want the light on or somebody sleeping next to him. He also has a hard time fall asleep.You think he should be exhausted by the end of the day, especially with all the stimming and loud noises he makes. But hell NO! He is up, loud. And even he falls asleep, he wakes up after two hours, sitting in his bed. and seems like he is is done with sleeping.
So the first thing you look into as parents of an autistic kid is, "What have you changed that pushed him over the edge?" . Supplements are always a good guess, but also food could be the reason. Another is (and that's actually something good) that he is dumping toxins like yeast or heavy metals. In this process called Herxheimer reaction the child is feeling worse for a few days before an improvement occurs.
Because he is on a couple new supplements for over three weeks already i don't think is a Herxheimer reaction, it might be that the supplements itself (Olive leaf extract, artichokes and other nat. herbs) make him stimmy and sleepless.
So i left it out for three days and we already saw an improvement in sleep in the first night. Last night was actually good, he didn't wake up once after midnight and woke up for his normal school day time at 6 o'clock.
I also changed a few things in his bedtime routine. We give him Trytophan, which has Magnesium in it, along with other ingredients. Magnesium given at night makes you all sleepy and your body relax.
I also give him some herbal tea, called the Lazy Tea by Janosch with verlian, Anis, fennel, peppermint, Lavender. Very soothing, and he loves it so much, he drinks a full pot full over the late afternoon and evening.
Another thing is giving a bath with verlian herbs. I just bought the herbs in the pharmacy (welcome to Germany, where you get all nat. stuff!) and make a big pot of tea out of it.Beautiful calming bath essence.
There is a big section about sleep in one of my all-time-favourite autism books "Autism, Effective Biomedical Treatments" by Jon Pangborn . He talks about all this things and more, one is for example, that your body can not produce Melatonin, a hormone, that makes you sleep, as long as the lights are on. WOW! Nicky loves the light on at night, but he also has trouble to sleep through. As soon as we removed that bedside-lamp his night was so much better.

I am sure that there is so much more out there and if you want to share it with me, i would love to learn about it.

Let hope for a calm weekend, it's supposed to be sunny here temp's in the upper 50's.
Have a great weekend!

Holy ginger

So i made some ginger root-tea yesterday. I read in the Body ecology diet book that ginger root tea has some contracting effects on your intestines. Contracting is what we are looking for b/c of the constipation problems we are facing. So i boiled several slices of fresh ginger (love that taste of that root) and cooked it for 15 minutes. The recipe asked for Stevia to sweeten. But somehow Germany still doesn't allow that sweeter. Which is just bull, this is a natural sweetener and everywhere else in the world available. But i have a source (Hi Dr. F.!) to get it. So soon the sugar-trap will be gone and we will get more and more in the BED. The BED (Body Ecology diet) is a little tricky, but it all sounds so reasonable to me and for Nicky.

So anyway, i made that tea, sweetened it with honey and tasted it for myself. Well,YUMMY, spicy and it is a real thirst quencher. Nicky had half a sippy cup full, even he didn't like it first, he came back for more after having a sip.

This morning after N. woke up, he went successful to the potty. Never happened before in the a.m.

There are little things on the BED you can follow from the beginning. But there is a 80/20 rule (http://www.bodyecology.com/07/01/04/80-20_rule_essential_to_diet.php) i find hard to follow. But by time i will find a way. When we started SCD i thought, this is impossible to do. It's not, it's your child, and you would give your life for them. So cooking is just a walk in the park :o)

Have a great Sunday.

For all mac and cheese lovers - "Enjoy"

This is adapted from one of my favourite blogs, the SCD-girl http://scdgirl.blogspot.com/

Artificial colors and flavors? Ew.
You know, I've often wondered why artificial colors and flavors are illegal, but then I realized, by wondering, that I'd answered my own question. What ARE they, anyway? You don't know. I don't know. And that's why we can't eat them, because we have to know what a food is in order to know if it's legal or not. And let's face it -- artificial coloring and flavors are not food. We only eat food on the SCD. Perhaps this should be our slogan: The SCD: We eat food! In case you were wondering what prompted this post, well, let me tell you. I spoke with an acquaintance of mine recently who used to work at a large food manufacturing company. One of the items they produced was a macaroni and cheese-type recipe. The recipe called for two parts cheese, one part yellow food color. No, that's not a typo. So, for example, a batch would include 500 pounds of cheese...and 250 POUNDS of powdered yellow food color. The thing of it was, said my acquaintance, is that the food color cost just as much as the cheese! It was EXPENSIVE! You really wonder what's in our food supply, don't you? And people think we SCDers are the crazy ones...

After all i am glad we can not buy Mac and Cheese any longer - no more toxins for my kids!!
Enjoy your meal :o)

In a good place

I have to say i am getting used to the ups and downs in our life when it comes to Nicky. I know by now that even he has some "stimmy" days, he is either dumping toxins or just getting used to a new supplement. After some tough days he comes back in such a better way. Yesterday Philip, our 5 yrs. old was almost chocking on some food and he tried to cough it out. Nicky, sitting across him on the table, just started to copy coughing. It was too funny. I said to Philip "You got a frog sitting in your troath? Ribbith!" Guess what: Nicky started to move up and down while sitting in his chair. Just like that. We all started laughing so loud and Nicky clapped his hands and started also giggling. It was all spontaneous and he knew we are laughing with him. He had this big grin all over his face.

Moments like that keep me going. I know he is a hard nut to crack when it comes to diet and biomedical interventions. But we make steps forward, never back. We keep fighting yeast and we do antiviral therapy. I am also reading about the Body Ecology Diet (http://www.bodyecologydiet.com/). It sounds just so natural, like people should eat and how they did before industry started to "make" food. Toxins are in our body and cleansing your body is a good way to fight infections.

I put Nicky on a supplement that is all natural. It has ingredients like Pomegranate, Lavender, Thyme in it. It tastes a little strong, but i think it helps him.

Our DAN doc told us he is thinking out a Hyperbaric oxygen chamber in his office. This is a very new way to treat the kids and the result are stunning. I will be the first going in with Nicky, i can't wait!

That's from us, you see we doing good. Still fighting with the school system, but i hope i change one thing at a time.

As long as Nicky keeps smiling we are in a good place.