What the future will hold....

What the future will hold

You know the happiness you feel when you hear "great news"; just like if I won the lottery or something like that. Today my daughter's ESY program called me (I am not going to lie I panicked because I thought she was acting out or had a meltdown in school). The teacher noticed my voice and he knows me for months; all the teachers and assistant aides know me which I love because I want to hear their feedback on how things are or what happened with my daughter. Well, long story short... he told me what I have done with my daughter that she is using more words now and she can express herself more than a month and a half ago.

I told him that she is going to private speech therapy and she is of course going to start with a new company ABA services because I just felt the other company wasn't doing their job. The behavioral specialist for the summer who is working with my daughter and other kids told me, she can go to the district school and be in an autistic school classroom and not where she was before.

You can't imagine how happy and content that made me feel. I have read the internet, doing gluten-free, low sugar, 5% on Gluten Free cookies per week. I have read everything and am not doing medications at all on her; only strict vitamins and her vitamin D that she is low on.

Her pediatrician tested her to see if she has gluten in her system and he said that; I am doing a good job because there is no gluten at all in her body by her blood work.

If it works for my daughter I would do the impossible so I can make her future a better one; my goal is for her to communicate more with people and be able to be understood. I don't expect miracles I just expect little steps and then we will see what the future holds.

I am not the mother of the year, but I try my best to make her better in any way. She has so much love and is affectionate to me and her siblings. She does have her mood swings, but that I was told my her teacher that it's a puberty thing and a girl mood swing; not the autism.

I go every week to her speech therapy and feel joy inside when I hear from afar that she says more words and tries to make her self understood. That is what I know that I am doing the best I can.

I am a parent of a child with Autism 

I have a daughter who has autism; it's difficult because for years I blamed myself for her diagnosis and thought I did something wrong. Going to therapy I have learned that it's not my fault and have to let go of that blame that I have. 

I have done the impossible to go in Autism mom chat groups and talk to her teachers and now she is finally starting her 2nd session of private speech therapy weekly. I'm gluten - free with her and refuse to medicate my child. I take her to the chiropractic weekly and always keep communication via phone and email with her school and attend all her meetings. What my daughter was before she has changed a lot and is not as worse as before when she first had her diagnosis of autism (ASD).

With her gluten Free I make sure there is no contamination with the foods we eat and I read all labels and several websites on what contains gluten. I give her Omega capsules and vitamin D plus multivitamins that are gluten Free and buy them from her biomedical doctor. I'm trying as a parent to be the best I can be for my child and of course take care of my other child who is okay and talks too much . 

All I wish is for her words to come out more and for her to express herself more. I know there is no cure but I just baby steps then we will see how it goes. 

My worry is that she won't be able to express herself and half a life on her own later on. I want to improve and I'm doing the best I can . These vitamins and thins are costly but money will never be a issue for my child . I also give her probiotic that are expensive but the best. 

She is going to be 12 years old soon and I just know she can and I believe she can more with this private speech therapy plus school and plus summer school they have for autism kids here. 

Any moms that have ideas or stuff that they want to share are welcomed to let me know and I am a person that is not a doctor but can share my experience with my child. I did cut dairy from her and no sweets or sugar stuff . 

I will share more in the days . 

 

Updates, probiotics and info on gluten on lipsticks...

 

It has been a long time since I haven't posted any blogs on my daughter's progress. Angelina continues on "Gluten-Free" diet and with her Methyl B12 injections given every 2 days in her buttocks. Last week, we went with my daughter to her biomedical doctor Dr. Patrick Elliott in Philadelphia. I was so glad to hear from him that he has seen so much progress from my daughter and he asked me several questions (kind of a test but knowledge check in his part), it came out that my daughter's autism has reduced significantly. I know there is no cure for autism, which I am aware of and this is not a disease in no way or shape.

 

What the doctor did "ADD" for her to take was VSL #3 Probiotic vitamins (that have to be refrigerated all the time), which are natural and gluten-free. Of course she continues with her Methyl B12 injections every 2 days, before it was every 3 days but now he wanted to increase the intake.

 

 

My daughter is not celiac in any way, but has extreme gluten sensitivity when she consumes gluten in any way. We all learned it here the good and bad way and even her school is aware of it. What I love about the schools are that if you do make them aware of their allergy to gluten, they can provide gluten-free lunch (you do have to provide a doctor's note when you do this).

 

There are a lot of gluten-free products everywhere now which make life easier for me and everyone who is allergic or celiac. When we go outside I am not that worried if it will be uncomfortable to hide things from her. I do wish a lot of other places do include gluten-free food, I guess it is still a work in progress throughout the years.

 

I am not going to lie, until now I still read labels and have my bookmarks from websites to help me. What I did actually discover from my neighbor is that there are a lot of lipstick products that contain "Gluten" and that was shocking because it adds more to my list now.

 

http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/GlutenFreePersonalCareProducts/fl/Gluten-Free-Makeup-Brands.htm

 

I have included above a website on information on gluten-free lipsticks.

 

I also am including below a website that talks about Probiotics as well.

 

http://www.autism-help.org/intervention-biomedical-probiotic.htm

 

This week I will be blogging more. I know that everything that I am doing with my daughter, there is no evidence that it helps her autism but so far it has helped me as a parent and that I am happy and glad so I just go for it and continue. 

Gluten-Free Products that are everywhere (especially Wegman's)

Learn to read labels

   

      I am a fast shopper now because I have learned how to read labels when I shop for Gluten-Free products. Honestly, I love going to Wegman's because they have a big section of GF foods and their prices are really good compared to other places that I have searched in the internet. Because of my daughter's diagnosis of autism, I shop gluten-free and casein-free (non dairy) foods. But, I can say that since Angelina has been eating gluten-free foods, her constipation and gastric problems have gone down 80% from what she was before starting in GF. 

       Here are a list of GF products that I was able to search on the web and find them especially where I go shopping. I will include only gluten-free products and for every taste (meat eater or non-meat eaters). Hope you find it useful my info:

• Almond Milk (vanilla or original) 
• Good Karma Flax milk 
• Ener-G Rice Loaf White 
• EnviroKids Peanut Butter Panda Puffs Cereal 
• Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Chocalate Cake Mix 
• Brown Cow Vanilla Cream Yogurt
• Tofutti Cream Cheese Imitation Plain 
• The Real Deal Veggie Chips Baked 
• Amy's Dairy Free Cheeze Pizza Rice Crust 
• Amy's Rice Macaroni with non-dairy Cheeze 
• So Delicious Coconut Milk Dairy Free Vanilla 
• Go Veggie! Grated Parmesan Dairy Free 
• Original Tings Corn Sticks, Crunchy  (imitation Cheetos)
• DariFree Milk Alternative Chocolate Flavor powder 
• Wegmans Peanut Butter Creamy 
• Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta (any type) 
• Wegmans Juice, Apple Organic
• Annie's Homegrown Cookies Cocoa & Vanilla 
• Eco-Planet Organics Hot Cereal Instant, Apples & Cinnamon 
• Mi-Del Cookies Chocolate Chip 
• Rice 
• Quinoa 
• So Delicious Minis Non-dairy ice cream, Coconut Almond 
• Joy Ice Cream Cones Gluten-Free 
• Wegmans Brand Pasta Sauce (Gluten-free) 
• Schar Wafers, Vanilla 
• Sam Mills Pasta D'Oro Pasta 100% Corn 
• Wegmans Food You Feel Good About Tortilla Chips
• Wegmans Food You Feel Good About Hummus
• Kunzler Beef Franks Gluten-Free 
• Dietz & Watson Beef Franks Gluten-Free
• Lightlife Organic Smoky Tempeh Strips, Fakin Bacon 
• Wegmans Chicken Breast Nuggets Gluten-Free
• Ian's French Toast Sticks 
• Bisquick Pancake and Baking Mix
• All Wegman's Cheese are Gluten-Free or the brand "Cabot" 
• Glutino Pretzels or any type that says "GF" on label

      There is much more food products that are GF, it doesn't have to be necessarily in the "Organic" aisle. You just have to be sure in the "ingredients" section that it says "GF" or gluten-free. I also posted on my previous posts, a website that if in case you are "On the Go" there are restaurants that serve GF foods depending on your location. For people with smartphones, you can download the application and enter your zip code and it will tell you a whole list of places http://www.findmeglutenfree.com/ .

Hope you find my information helpful !!! I can honestly say that my daughter has "zero complains" on eating gluten-free foods. 

*For people who want a variety of GF foods, do not waste your time going to "Weis Supermarket" (they do not have a great selection). Just a heads-up...