Our story is a little different then others you will read on this site, but hopefully you will find it and my son Jack worthy of you’re your to read it and help us.
Our son John Edward Slater (aka Jack) is the oldest of two children and our only son. He was born exactly on his due date: Sunday August 6, 2000. My pregnancy was without complications as well as his labor and birth: being completely natural and only 5 pushes. He reached all his developmental milestones on time- if not early—walking by his first birthday and having seven “words” to communicate his wants and needs. He was a social baby enjoying being around people, being hugged and held while giving great eye contact.
However things changed, three weeks into his 15th month of life and after his immunization shots that month we slowly watched him loose all his language while starting to “stim” when he was excited. Soon he did not respond to his name or other verbalizations but was over sensitive to other pitches and frequencies. Being a Special Education Teacher of the autistic population for over 24 years I brought these “red flags” to my pediatrician’s attention. Being told not to worry and that the regression was typical since a new baby was in the house did not sit well with me. I pushed forward trying to get help for my son. It was not until 9 months later that the doctor’s agreed to send us for an “oral motor” evaluation due to Jack only eating stage 3 baby foods at the age of two.
This started our journey to find out what was happening to our son and how we can help him. We had bad experiences and we had ok ones, but finally after being given three different diagnosis from three different doctors, I turned to my gut feelings as a parent and with my years experience in the field and informed my EI Coordinator what services and schedule my son would have. Now being a parent of an autistic child I have to be his best advocate possible. Some people might think I’m nuts, but I feel I should try anything, with in reason, that might help my son. We have tried: Gluten Free/Casien Free diet, other elimination diets, supplements, B-12 injections, different types of chelation, sensory integration therapy, cranial sacral therapy, yoga, occupational therapy, therapeutic horseback riding, dolphin swim therapy, NAET-acupressure treatments, allergy treatments, as well as dance classes, piano lessons, socialization groups, my husband went to Massachusetts for a week long training program at the Autism Treatment Center of America etc… None of these treatments or therapies are covered by insurance.
With each therapy we have tried we saw small improvements, not knowing if the improvements were due to the treatments or just his natural course of growth and learning. I feel that you have to find your child’s individual combination of therapies and treatments that will work for your child not the child down the block etc… We have been lucky enough to find one of those therapies: Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments-HBOT (also not covered by insurance).
Jack has been slowly chelating heavy metals for the past 3 years. The HBOT has shown some great progress in such a short time while it has also had the benefit of mellowing out the side effects of the chelation. Due to this we have been able to increase his chelation therapy while still seeing the benefits of HBOT. Jack has been more verbal, making independent natural comments (vs. rote taught) to us each day, using words and phrases he has never used before and expanding on what he says. His eye contact has improved as well as his awareness of what is going on around him. The connection that he is making with us and others around him has brought tears to our eyes.
Our hope is to get help to continue his Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments. They say for the autistic population 40 treatments; on the average will bring about the best results. Jack has had 20 treatments; however we can not on our own take care of the expense of the other 20 treatments. Since we have seen such great results our hope is to have assistance with the last 20 treatments, so we can continue to see our son grow and connect.
Thank you for your time reading this and for your help