A Parent’s Guide for
REVERSING
AUTISM
A 7-step plan to help your child
heal and recover from autism
By Donna Blackmore
Copyright 2011 Donna Blackmore
Smashwords Edition
No part of this book may be reproduced without the consent of the author
Smashwords License Statement
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please visit smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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For legal reasons I am obliged to insert a disclaimer at the front of this book.
‘All recommendations made within this book are based on the research and personal experiences of the author. All children with autism are unique individuals and should be treated as such. Most autistic children will respond to the following regimen, although each to varying degrees and within different time frames. It is recommended that you consult your health practitioner if you are considering starting or stopping any medication or supplementation. There is always a possibility of risk where matters of health are concerned, therefore readers should not use this book unless willing to assume that risk.’
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Step Two: Parasites and Candida
Step Four: Removing Toxins from the Home
Step Five: Chelation (Detoxing)
Step Six: Alternative Therapies to Trial
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My second child developed moderate to severe autism with accompanying bowel problems around 18 months of age after receiving the MMR vaccination. He had been fully vaccinated up to this point in his life. He wasn’t so severely autistic that he would self-harm, but he did lose all speech, tantrums were frequent and sometimes even in his sleep at night. There was minimal eye contact or recognition of his name, and routines weren’t to be disrupted or the ensuing tantrum would be monumental.
As Oliver was unable to communicate with me, most of the time I had no idea what his tantrums were about. I was aware though that his tantrums were not about a naughty child trying to get his own way but mostly frustration or fear based. He needed to see that everything was ordered and following a certain pattern and if there were a deviation from what was expected then a tantrum would be the result. He was hard to understand and hard to live with. Social occasions were limited to immediate family and very close friends.
Plenty of research has been done on the link between vaccinations, in particular MMR and autism over the past decade or so. (1*) I now know that the condition my son developed was ‘autistic enterocolitis’ which was originally labeled as ‘ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia’ by researchers in 1998. (2*) The symptoms of which exactly described what my son experienced. He suffered from severe gut pain, mucousy or crumbly, pale loose stools, diarrhea, as well as loss of speech, minimal eye contact, monumental tantrums, irritability and obsessions with routines. We endured 3 years of autistic behaviour. Oliver suffered incredibly with stomach pain, which was often accompanied by fever and several hours of bed rest. My son at two, three and four years of age would sit, sometimes for hours, screaming on the toilet and most often would only manage to do a small amount of loose, mucousy (slimy egg white appearance) pale stools.
Before the diagnosis of autism I had taken my son for a hearing test around 2 years of age mainly because he would not respond to his name when called. I was told he had perfect hearing. After numerous tantrums at around 2am where he would semi awaken and thrash about in his cot in anger not in fright I took him for an EEG scan of his brain. The pediatrician suspected he might have been having mini epileptic fits I think. That test also came back negative. Eventually around 4 years of age Oliver was diagnosed as having ‘Pervasive Developmental Disorder’ (just another term which fits under the autistic umbrella).
As with everything in life there comes a crisis point. Mine was the day that we were playing outside and my 4 yr. old ‘newly diagnosed’ autistic son picked up a large rock, and in frustration, attempted to hit his baby sister on the head. I was just slightly too far away to intervene, but for some reason, maybe the weight of the rock, Oliver just missed and my little girl was saved from certain brain damage or even death. During a teary visit to my pediatrician the next week he informed me that there was nothing he could do to help me as there was no drug for autism! I was actually hoping that he would suggest respite care for Oliver several days a week to give me a break, but he did not even offer to help with that. I left his office determined that I would find a solution for myself.
The only lead I had at that point was a book that my mother had given me 12 months earlier entitled ‘Fed Up’ by Sue Dengate. My mother had given me this book as she had heard that it might help with ADHD of which my eldest child suffered. My eldest son did not have the hyperactive from of ADHD but the inattentive form only. I knew that the book suggested modifying the diet of these children so that is why I had not read it. I was so overwhelmed coping daily, sometimes hourly with my eldest and his ADD, Oliver with his autism, a toddler, renovating our large federation home and managing my husband’s plumbing business, that I could not even begin to think of altering their diet. But that visit to the pediatrician’s office was the turning point. I went home and had read that book by the end of the day and began the diet the following morning.
In the book it suggested removing all additives/preservatives from the diet plus dairy and possibly gluten, which is in wheat, rye, oats, barley and triticale. The focus of the book was more on additives in food than the removing of gluten and suggested an ‘elimination diet’. She gave you the option of removing wheat but only if several weeks on the diet had produced no significant improvement in behaviour. I decided I was not going to muck around and would remove everything including all types of gluten. The following day I began the elimination diet on my eldest and Oliver for the next 3 months.
After only one week on the diet Oliver’s bowel motions improved dramatically. He sat for less than a minute on the toilet with no screaming whatsoever and yelled out “I’m finished”. I was amazed and went in to find him with a big smile on his face and a healthy, large, brown perfectly formed bowel motion. After three years of suppositories and fevers and screaming this was a momentous event!! That was all the encouragement I needed to know that I was on the right track. It has been 10 years now since that day and bowel motions have not been an issue from that day to this!!!
After three weeks on the diet I chastised Oliver and, instead of ignoring me, as he usually would have, he looked up at me and realised that I was annoyed with him. He became concerned because he had done something to upset me. He was actually understanding that I had feelings too! He was four years old. This moment and the moment on the toilet are permanently etched into my brain as turning points in Oliver’s life and mine. Oliver’s tantrums decreased and his behaviour and speech continued to improve greatly over the next few months and years on the diet which I modified to include dairy but not just any milk, A2 milk! (Refer to appendices for more information regarding A2 milk).
As for my eldest with ADD, disappointingly, I did not see any dramatic improvements. I did however, identify some foods that would upset his stomach, (mainly salicylates) and ever since we have avoided foods that contain this natural chemical as much as possible. I’m sure if my son had been hyperactive ADHD I would have noticed a huge improvement in his behaviour but my son was already very quiet, calm and dreamy. I was actually hoping that the diet would give him more energy and help him to focus more but unfortunately it did not. I have persevered with other treatments for my eldest who has ADD and anxiety issues over the last ten years, of which supplements and physical therapies have proved to be the most beneficial.
I hope my story inspires you to do what is necessary to help your autistic child recover and reach their full potential.
INTRODUCTION
Congratulations on purchasing this book and taking the first crucial steps to reversing your child’s autism. The diagnosis or suspicion that your child has autism can be overwhelming and of course hugely stressful for you and other members of your family. Please don’t despair. You, yes, YOU! can eliminate your child’s symptoms of autism by helping them heal their bodies and minds and see amazing, sometimes miraculous results. This book is going to tell you how.
Firstly, I want to start by saying that our health, both physical and mental, is determined not just by what we consume but more importantly, by what our bodies absorb through the digestive system. Most autistic children have an inability to digest gluten and casein proteins. Even tiny amounts of gluten/casein can cause harm. Antibiotics can also irritate the gut lining, as well as impair the immune system. When the linings of the intestines are damaged, nutrients are poorly absorbed. This means that despite your child having a healthy diet their body and brain are deprived of vital nutrients.
Gluten refers to a mixture of proteins contained in wheat, rye, barley, triticale and oats (refer to appendices for more information on oats). Casein is a milk protein. Instead of the proteins in gluten and casein breaking down into peptides in the digestive system and then being further processed into amino acids as they would in a healthy child, in an autistic child they break down into smaller peptide fragments which leak through the intestines into the bloodstream, often forming opioid or morphine like substances (casomorphins and dermorphins). These then cross the blood brain barrier. The accumulation of these substances is one reason why autistic children may appear ‘spaced out’ and living in their own worlds. Research suggests that an enzyme vital for the digestion of these substances (“DPP-IV”) is missing or is inactivated due to an autoimmune mechanism. Researchers believe that the absence or inactivation of the missing DPP-IV enzyme allows the accumulation of these substances in the body, through a ‘leaky gut’.
Therefore, the primary treatment for the inability to digest gluten and casein is simply to remove it from the diet completely. If you follow my recommendations for diet and the seven step plan outlined in this book you could see significant improvements in your child in as little as a week. Casein can take as little as three days to disappear from the body, whereas gluten can take many months. Depending on your commitment your child should keep improving for many years to come.
This book has been written specifically to make following the diet simple and easy to start. You will be given suggestions for breakfast, lunch/dinner and snack menus, a grocery list and some of my favourite recipes. So please don’t tell yourself that modifying the diet will be too hard to do. Living with an autistic child is much harder. Seeing an improvement in your child, no matter how small, is extremely rewarding.
That first breakthrough, whether it be more eye contact, improved bowel function, fewer tantrums and increased speech will make it all worthwhile and will give you the confidence to continue. If you want to see dramatic, permanent and fast results then you need to implement the diet and stick with it. It forms the foundation from which all other therapies can be trialed. No other therapy will work as effectively as the diet. NOTHING! As a matter of fact, apart from some home administered natural chelation and supplements, the diet is all I have done with my child. The results were so dramatic I did not need to trial other therapies. That is not to say that I would not have liked to try some of the therapies mentioned later in this book, but at the time I changed my son’s diet, at around 4 years of age, I was either not aware of these other therapies, was unable to afford them or they weren’t available in my area.
In an ideal world it would be preferable to find a medical practitioner who practices biomedical treatment options for autism to assist you with the diet and other treatments, but they are hard to find. However, a medical practitioner is not necessary to successfully treat autism. A doctor or pediatrician to oversee the diet or alternative therapies you may wish to trial is not essential. I did all my research and treatments on my own and had limited support from any health professional. Almost everyone I consulted had no idea what I was talking about regarding this diet and its benefits, and still don’t.