The eye of the Storm

This is what happens when you have a child with Red flags for autism:

You go online and discover three thousand different treatments that costs thousands of dollars each. Supposedly, you're supposed to just pick one and hope it works because if you don't you're out another few thousand on the next treatment. No one in the autism community or the medical community can agree on anything. Jenny McCarthy uses the biomedical approach and Dr's prefer the ABA training approach. Basically on the left we have a community who wants to treat the inside of the child, and on our right we have a group who wants to treat the behaviors. Both groups are highly skeptical of eachother. Now you're left with a bunch of confused parents and kids who need help. Oh and timing is very important. I'm constantly reminded of how important early intervention is. It's just what intervention I'm actually supposed to be using. I have no idea which direction to take, and even if I did, I couldn't afford any of them.

My instinct tells me there is something wrong with Coopers insides that are causing autistic traits. I faxed his pediatrician a bunch of information of internal yeast infections and leaky gut syndrome. He said he'll be open to new ideas, but he reccommended I look into Lovaas and Play Project.

I contacted Play Project today and talked with a consultant. For $3,900 I can have a consultant visit my homes six times during a one year period and give me tips on how to interact with my boys. This also includes a website membership to chat with other parents, most likely to complain about how we just got suckered into spending $3,900 for the program.

The Play project consultant suggested I go see a neurologist in Grand Rapids that can do the full testing and give a diagnosis. That would only cost me $1,200 per child. So for $6,300 I get it in writing they have autism and a consultant drives to my house six times. This is supposed to be the cost effective approach.

The Lovaas method requires me to basically hire a swat team of professionals to come in and train my kids for 25-30 hours per week for a year.

Keep in mind that none of these methods is concerned with whats going on inside my boys bodies which my insides (or gut if you will) are telling me this is where the problem lies.

I read in all my hours I've spent googling biomedical research on autism that removing milk could alleviate autistic behaviors. I tried this with both boys. Cooper is noticeably better when he doesn't drink milk. By noticeable I mean he doesn't rock and make wierd grunting sounds and he will look at you instead of staring into space. With Darby, there is no noticeable difference, so Darby drinks cows milk. Cooper drinks Rice milk or soy milk. Now Rice milk is nearly $4 for a half gallon. With cows milk averaging around $2 for a full gallon, I'm paying nearly 4x the cost of regular milk to give Cooper an alternative milky white beverage. And that was hurting our budget. That is peanuts compared to this other therapy!

I have no idea what to do. It's a frustrating place to be. I wish I knew the right direction to take.

Lord, can you light a path for me and maybe part a red Sea or two? We've got some big hills to climb and I'm going to need your getting up them. I promise to give you all the credit.