Necessary Roughness

One more Cleveland post, then I’ll start scanning the news again.

We had four sessions at Osteomed, two Monday and two Tuesday. The first session started with the aluminum block test. My daughter flunked dairy, so she was treated for that. Four hours later, in the second session, she was tested again and cleared dairy. She began treatment for food additives and dyes.

Tuesday morning she was tested again, and she failed red dyes, especially Red Dye No. 40. There was concern that this was particularly stubborn, and we may have to restrict that dye in her diet. Tuesday afternoon she cleared the dyes during that test, even No. 40.

The red dye test is intriguing. My “older” daughter really wanted some jello last week, so we got some strawberry jello and made it. When all of us ate the jello two days later, my “younger” daughter ate a whole bowl by herself — significant because she usually doesn’t like to feed herself. Later that night, she was completely off-kilter, hyper and irritable. Maybe it was the dye, or the gelatin itself. If she stays “cleared” of red dye, it might be an interesting test to see if a little bit of jello sets her off. I’d be sure to do that the day after everyone gets a good night’s sleep.

My daughter has been more vocal lately and has answered a couple of questions in “Circle Time” at her preschool. She is quite good with nouns, and we are working with her on verbs and channeling her wants into verbal requests. We are doing several things to help her out:

• Preschool. The interaction with teachers and other students has been great. She hasn’t been completely anti-social like some autistic kids. The teachers have been cooperative in revising her Individualized Education Plan. They also work with her using suggestions from the P.L.A.Y. Project. I’m a free-market capitalist to the core, but in the case of this particular public school, I am grateful to the citizens of Licking County for supporting this.
• Occupational and Speech Therapy. She has one hour a week with a great occupational therapist and a half-hour with a speech therapist. She requires work with fine motor skills but has improved a lot.
• Allergy Elimination (link dead) through Osteomed. Engineer that I am, I have difficulty accepting the diagnostic tool and especially the treatment regimen with the glass vials. There is little low-level “control” — where one can measure the treatment’s effectiveness with other tools. I’m also open to the possibility that I don’t have to believe in the explanation for a process to work. We are trying this because other people have credited this with their success.
• Supplements recommended by Osteomed. She has been taking small doses of Zinc in solution, Sambucol to boost immune responses, Super Nu-Thera which is a formulation high in B6 and magnesium, and probiotics. She is just starting cod liver oil and dimethylglycine.

After her next visit in December she may be ready for chelation therapy. She would be treated with DMSA, a mercury-removing agent.

We have not started formal Applied Behavior Analysis therapy with our daughter due to both money and time. Children’s Hospital recommends 20-30 hours a week of intense drilling in a special area provided in the home. What training isn’t done by parents and friends would have to be done by paid college students and other personnel.

Insurance helps with some of this cost, but a lot still remains. It doesn’t cover the trips to Cleveland — my hotel points cover, well, the hotel. If you’re interested in defraying some of this, you’re welcome to check out the newly installed PayPal donation box on NR’s main page. I do mention the blog’s cost; NR costs more time than money to produce, so anything over the first $45 or so a year goes straight to my daughter.