So proud of my girl

We’ve had a good week this week. We had swimming on Monday but Beth wasn’t feeling the best so we ended up coming home early. I had a feeling that she may have been getting her period as she was feeling a bit out of sorts all day but it didn’t happen. She was due 2 weeks ago but as it was only her second one I figured that it wouldn’t be regular. I convinced her to wear a pad that night though and she wore one to school just in case the next day. When on Tuesday nothing eventuated I gave up and she went off to school on Wednesday as usual. Wednesday night when she went to the toilet before bed I heard her in the bathroom putting a pad on so went in to reassure her that she didn’t need to wear one after all. Well low and behold she did have her period and was changing her pad from earlier that day. When I checked with her teacher she told me that no, they had been checking on Beth each time she went to the toilet and she hadn’t got it at school. That means that she must got it when she got home and dealt with it herself! I’m so, so proud of her. I can’t believe how freaked out we both were and now she’s dealing with it like a pro. It really gives me such hope for her to be an independant person one day, she took on the challenge and dealt with it.

We went back to the naturopath/allergist today. Nerida said that Beth was clear of the vitamin B. Woohoo, about bloody time. I know it was only really 3 times but it was very limiting. It’s good to move on. She tested Beth for several things that didn’t show. She was fine with Vitamin A which is mainly in fish. Likewise with mineral mix, salt mix and grain mix. This was interesting as this is the gluten test. That’s why I chose to do the elimination diet allergy testing rather than be hit and miss. It’s a huge lifestyle change to cut gluten and casien (also clear) out of your kids diet on the offchance that there may be an allergy. I don’t mind doing it if it’s proven to be there but I’ve always felt that I could take Beth of gluten and it may be some sort of additive that Beth has a problem with and not the wheat. I’ve said before, lots of kids like Bethie have such poor or restricted diets due to their ‘rules’ as to what they can eat that you can’t stuff around with what they DO eat. This way we know exactly what the problem is. The plus is that we only have to eliminate it for 25 hours at a time. How easy can it get?

Anyway, yeast mix was ok, so were stomach acids. Hormones were ok as were lots of fats and beans. It was great to get through the list so quickly. When we came to the Amino acids Nerida said she wouldn’t be surprised if there was a problem as it is common for kids with autism to be allergic. She said that she has had amazing results with autistic kids when this one was sorted out, she had dealt with kids who didn’t speak and they started to. She asked if Beth is an angry girl and I said that no, she does get upset though and has whopper tantrums but usually they culminate in her bursting into tears. I do know several kids that do however have anger issues. Nerida said that eliminating the amino acids will help that as sensory overload is lessened and they can cope with things much more. I asked if this would happen after the treatment and she said that when we go back she would get some drops for me to replace the amino acids in her system. This should bring improvements. Similarly she gave me some iron medicine to boost Beth’s iron which in turn should give her some much needed colour as she is very pale.

Next Nerida said that she would veer away from the foods and work on Beth’s brain. She said that there were 6 different areas of the brain and she would treat them one by one. I’ll have to get her to fully explain this as she’s doing it as there is nothing about this in the handbook that I bought. Hopefully I can relay it fully here. The only real limitations to Beth’s diet today were no meat or cheese. No biggie, she loves her veggies so I made her fried rice for dinner.

This afternoon we had Sensational Kids. Rod was away sick today which was a shame (he popped in to say hi though) but I had a good chat to Whiskers (Beth’s nick name for the Occupational Therapist) and we came up with some good things. She wants Beth on a sensory diet which involves an activity each morning, noon and night. This means something physical to rev up her engine. She then wants me to do some sort of pressure on Beth. This could involve lying on Beth or using a type of special brush to go up and down her arms and legs. This will ground Beth and hopefully help her to sleep at night. I can massage her and brush her, something that she’ll love. My difficulty will be in the morning. I suggested waking Beth up by using the pressure techniques then having a dance before we go to school. It must be the other way around though. Bridie is my difficult one so she might crack it if we stop dancing so that I can give Beth bear hugs or massages. Still, I’ve got to give it a try. At school it could be a combination of the 2, Beth could carry something to get her activity and the weight of the box/chair could act as the pressure. It’s very interesting, hopefully I’ll have one of Beths aides with me one day when we go as it’s always good to get the explanations first hand rather than through me. I can relay the things we need to do but find it more difficult to explain why we are doing them.

All in all we had a good day. Dare I hope that she may just be getting a wee bit better?