title

Zane, my almost four-year-old, is severely autistic. He also has a lot of sensory issues. He is, amazingly totally affectionate. I am starting this blog as a sort of journal through Zane's progress as I move him to rawfood.

Before three days ago...

Zane likes to play in the dirt and will entertain himself for HOURS just scooping it in his hand and throwing it in the air. Occasionally he will throw it at the house or in the air conditioner.

He likes throwing balls - over his head and behind him where he can see them leave his view out the of corner of his eye.

He is picky with food - will not even touch anything fresh, except a banana once in a while. I loves Tings and dehydrated corn.

He also has an aversion to stairs - especially going down. I practically have to carry him and even as a small baby I never needed a gate because he wouldn't go near them.

It is frustrating that for every one good progress, two bad behaviors seem to pop up. He gets floorplay/aba therapies approximately 28 hours a week.
He has made progress with this so far, however... he as started to grind his teeth - very loudly - and is much more insistant with what he wants (which may be a good thing given typical kids are like that, though I've no idea what typical kids are like - Zane is my only).


Three days ago...

I started him on raw food and also started a sensory diet program of brushing, joint-compressions, and other deep tissue exercises. He doesn't go for my yummy apple-flax cookies or dehydrator brownies but I have managed to disguise some fresh carrot-apple-celery-tomato-cilantro juice in his Odwalla green juice (that he loves). I also put cod liver oil, Isagenix Ionix, liquid vitamins, probiotics, Kombucha, and Mangosteen juice.

That is his daily juice concoction.

He also gets raw milk every day.

At night he gets a bedtime bottle with Essential Living Chelex, Isagenix Cleanse juice, Tart Cherry concentrate with a drop of agave (to sweeten the cherry), and my newest addition Cocobiotic.

Two days ago...

I noticed Zane zip up the stairs - one foot after the other, practically running up the stairs! We normally take one stair at a time. This in itself is huge, but it doesn't stop there.

He also decided it would be fun to go down the slide head first. He giggles so cute every time he tries it, thinks he's so clever. :)

Today...

I went with him to preschool and watched him pay attention in circle time! Normally the teachers have to distract him with things to hold and look at or something to keep his hands busy in order to keep him seated. The teacher passed around pictures of various animals and Zane examined each one. He took it when she offered it to him and handed it back to her when she asked. It was amazing. Then, he got a turn to stand up and take the color of the day picture to the calendar board and stick it there. He walked up there without any prompting and put the picture up when he was told to then turned to the teacher with such a proud smile to wait for her to praise him. Then he went back to his seat when she told him to. There was no incessant humming or eee-eee-eee sounds coming from him nearly all day today!

Then, this afternoon he spent a few hours with Nonni (grandma, but she refuses to be called that) and asked to go in her toy closet! (This is a small room under the stairs, perfect size for little kids, and Zane has never wanted to go in there, and would panic or tantrum if you tried to lead him there). He spent hours playing with the toys - playing appropriately with the train set, and would bring toys to my mom to ask her to help him play with them!!! She said he didn't hum the whole time. Then, he wanted to go outside and rather than playing in the dirt and throwing it in the air, he picked up the dirt and carried it to a bucket to begin filling the bucket!

My jaw is to the floor today and I haven't been able to stop crying. There are several factors that I think may be contributing to his progress. First, the raw food. I've been giving the juice concoction to him for many months, but just barely started to add real raw juice to it - and noticed subtle changes right away. Then, I added the reformed sensory diet and the cocobiotic drink and wow!

This week I will make several kinds of raw snacks to try to find things that he will reach for. Already, since adding the raw juice mix he is reaching for puffed peas and corn and not cookies or bread.