Monday, July 27, 2009
7/27/09
So what a difference the supplements make! we stopped Tyler's supplements, per doctors orders, on Friday. We are supposed to keep him off supplements and juice until after we do his urine tests on Tuesday. Tyler didn't fall asleep until 10:30 on Friday night. On Saturday morning, he was playing fine but definetly did not seem like him self. He was a bit more spacey than usual.. by Sunday he had stopped babbling which he had been very chatty the whole week. He also was very restless and had a hard time sitting still long enough to eat. In general, you know eating as been an issue but I haven't seen him rock in his chair since we first started the study, I don't htink he was trying ot bang his head and luckily he's tall enough now where he won't but he was rocking a lot in his chair. I think thats the biggest change we've seen, other than the sleep patterns is the restlessness..whihc was already quite high to begin with! Anyway, here is a pic.. by the time we got the video he was abit more settled then when he first began rocking.. I actually had to hold his chair in place so he wouldn't flip over. He also was banging his feet against the chair when he wasn't rocking. You'll also notice he has a support at the table, i.e. thomas lap top. Usually if he has a support at the table, he's not at all restless. It was so weird to see the regression which I would say took us back over a year.
Steve and Grandma took Tyler horseback riding again and I have a few pics and some video. Tyler started to get upset as they pulled up to the facility so Steve was a bit anxious that he wans't going to go well. Steve put a lot of supports in place to get Tyler into the facility without melting down and the staff there are also wonderfuly supportive. They said by the end of the ride, he was doing great and trotting around and giggling while he bounced up and down! he also really enjoyed feeding the horse carrots and asked for more carrots to feed teh horse by going to the bin where the carrots were kept. We've since discussed the sign for carrots so Steve can use that next time to teach Ty the carrot sign.
Ok back to the supplements.. this is the first time we've removed the supplements since beginning them and are convinced they are making a huge difference. we look forward to the next steps of adding the new supplements. This pic shows Tyler chewing on his shirt which has become his favorite past time. Although this is common with kids and autism, we are trying to find a way to extinguish the behavior. we talked to OT a bit about it and she mentioned how they somtimes use chewing gum as it's a socially acceptable way to get that oral fixation..I'm not 100% convinced Ty is ready to chew gum. So we also talked to teh Dan doctor about it and he had some ideas of supplements to try so I think we'll go that route first before introducing chewing gum. Some kids have chewy tubes, bibs, etc. but it's not a very socially acceptable way to go through life so if we can find a way to stop the behavior, it's is obviuosly preferred.
I think that's all for now. Big week, urine tests, new supplements, starting b12 shots again, last week of preschool and orientation for splash camp.