Here is a link to the interview. I met this mom at an autism recovery conference probably 2 or 3 years ago. She does not have a child with autism herself but is very in tuned with the autism community as her husband and extended family work heavily in this community. The site is based on the premise that the body has an inborn ability to heal itself and keep itself healthy as long as there are no interferences. Stay and look around for a while. The information on her site is very informative!
I hope you enjoy!
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Innate Motherhood: “After being disappointed with the mainstream approach to healthcare, more and more people nowadays are learning and turning to natural options to deal with their health challenges. What was the first “light bulb moment”, so to speak, into the natural philosophy that led you to recovering your children from Autism?”
Wyndie: “Hmm, my lightbulb moment is pretty amazing actually. It was right after the doc ever so casually applied the autism label to my oldest. I remember just sitting there in a daze while he finished talking. When he left the room and I was gathering my belongings to leave, his nutritional coach looked me in the eye and quietly said “It doesn’t have to be permanent; it can be reversed.”
WHAT????
That was the moment I realized mainstream was not the only option.
Innate Motherhood: “We are starting to see parents question the safety and effectiveness of so many mainstream interventions, and have a growing interest and want for more natural information, not only for themselves but for their children. With so many types of health challenges that children with Autism face, we understand that parents like you are trying to give their children optimal recovery by utilizing multiple approaches to regain nuerological, brain, immune function, and overall body function. Could you summarize the different types of natural help you have done for your children and how each has been vital in your childrens’ recoveries.
Wyndie: Well this could get wordy! (Lol)
We started almost immediately with the multi-faceted testing available through Great Plains Laboratory (www.gpl4u.com). This was so important because with this, we saw mitochondrial dysfunction in one child, we saw high blood ammonia, we saw parasites, yeast, pathogenic bacteria, we could basically get a snap shot of many of their body systems that were in great distress. These tests showed me things we would never have seen with traditional testing. Regular docs don’t even know what some of this stuff is but it was vital to have this information so we could treat them effectively.
We loaded everyone up on multiple supplements (www.nbnus.com) to make up for deficiencies that were too drastic to overcome with food. It’s different for these damaged kids… their body burden is sooo heavy with toxins that they cannot get real nutrition from their foods. Most of them won’t even eat real food. When we first started recovery, two of my kids were living off of chicken nuggets, pop tarts and oreos. It’s completely impossible to build up a body’s immune system on that diet!! These supplements were vital and the testing showed me exactly what supplements could target what problem. These two things are so important to start with.
Having a health coach who was fluent in autism was a life-saver for me. She gave me books to read and guided without being intrusive. She was there for me at every turn and answered questions that were probably incredibly juvenile, yet she never made me feel like I was inferior. She became my partner in health who shared the same goal I had… getting my kids back!
Then we worked hard on diet. I am a military wife so the military approach in this house works just fine. I know many parents are too guilt-ridden to force their children to eat well. A friend told me that if she had waited for her child to cooperate in his recovery, he would not be recovered. We felt the same way, we didn’t give the kids choices in their foods. I now saw food in a completely different light… it was killing my children’s brains. We went through our pantry and locked up everything that had gluten or sugar in it.
Seriously, we have a locked portable pantry b/c my husband, being a grownup, eats what he wants and while I will not try to control his intake of gluten or sugar, I insisted that these items not be where the kids could get to them. Kids going through withdrawal will do crazy things to get their drug fix (gluten/sugar) and I wanted to be able to control their food intake 100%. Diet is absolutely crucial in recovery.
We hunted around through the various autism diets before we found one that I could fit pieces into our lives without making me crazy. As we learned how to eat the Body Ecology Diet (www.bodyecology.com) way, my kids made huge improvements! This diet controls yeast much better than anti-fungals and yeast protocols do. Food is sooo very important. There are no free bites of food. If you put something in your mouth, it will either hurt or harm you. Up to this point I had only given the kids harming foods (b/c I didn’t know better) but when I learned how deficient their bodies were in basic nutrients, we drastically changed their diets. I will freely admit that my son went on a food strike b/c he could not have his gluteny chicken nuggets. I bribed him to eat a bite of veggies with promise of a bite of nugget. It took him three days to agree. During that time, I would offer him food, explaining if he would take just ONE bite, he would get his nugget. On day three, he agreed to gag down a bite (with much drama). Once we established that pattern, he would have to eat more and more veggies to get a bite of nugget. Then I switched to gluten-free nuggets. This took some time but he and my daughter both made great progress. My son actually didn’t have asthma any more once he was gluten-free. That was a biggie b/c up to that point, he had to take 5 meds daily to be able to breathe!!! Everyone’s eczema went away and we started getting eye contact.
We also chose to use chiropractic therapy. Since I was still very new to this alternative way of thinking, I needed a lot of help. My regular doctors abandoned up and refused to help. So a chiropractor was the easiest person to turn to. Our chiro knew everything about how the body worked and how to keep the CFS in line, how important it was to detoxification. We went 2 x a week for about 2 years. This was especially critical while we were chelating.
Next up, we did chelation. We had spent the first year loading up the kids with minerals and taking care of deficiencies as best we could. But those metals had to be moved out of their bodies. I spent months researching methods. I had already been told that I could not count on the military docs to help in any way so I sought out an integrated doctor. These doctors are useful b/c they had an MD and can write scripts and oversee things as necessary but they are versed in alternative medicine so when I proposed chelation, he didn’t squawk, he just agreed to help with testing and checkups. During chelation it is supremely important that minerals intake be kept optimal. Chelation does remove metals but it also removes minerals. We gave copious amount of minerals daily and our doc ran blood tests every 3 months to make sure we were still on track in that area.
I chose an oral method of chelation. Obviously I could not do IV since the ped would not help and oral is easier anyway. There is a wide range of information about forms of chelation and we chose to go with the safest method. In fact the way we did ours was less harmful than the way the FDA recommends for lead poisoning. Andy Cutler (www.noamalgam.com) has detailed out a practical way to use oral chelation on children and he gave us much help during the preparation phase. We started at 3 mg of DMSA every 4 hours around the clock for 3 days. This way, when the DMSA grabs the metals, it gets reinforcement to carry it all the way out. When a person gets a bolus dose of DMSA and no follow up, it only moves the metal but doesn’t remove it from the body. With continual dosage, the DMSA is given enough time to escort whatever it grabbed and leave the body. We saw improvements almost immediately and within 3 rounds of chelation, my son became typical. It was amazing to see! He could function out in public. My older daughter gained speech and cognitive reasoning. My younger daughter absolutely reeked of lead during chelation. For her, chelation resolved the posturing problem she had lived with all her life. Her wrists and ankles had always turned in, and with chelation they straightened out. She also started absorbing food and stopped looking like a starvation victim.
We were able to finally get to Occupation Therapy (OT). When a child is so ill, it’s almost cruel to have them do therapy. As another good friend said, it’s like asking a child to run a mile with a broken leg. But since we had cleaned up their brains a bit, we felt it was good to help them catch up on all the things they had missed. My son could not even rotate his trunk (at the age of 7), had no balance and still had sensory defensiveness/seeking. My older daughter had missed SO many milestones, she just needed basic skills but she also had major sensory issues so OT helped them with all of these issues. It was important that they be able to catch up with all the things they had been too sick to do. My poor son told me later that while he had autism, he always felt like his body was floating off in space and he couldn’t be grounded. That explained so many of his odd behaviors! I cannot imagine living well if I felt like I was not grounded to the Earth. My younger daughter did not need OT b/c we had started her recovery so young and she had not missed more milestones than I could help her get back at home.
We also chose to use neurofeedback. This really helped with anxiety and focus. My son was always very VERY anxious and this completely removed that anxiety. For my older daughter it helped with language and attention. We did this therapy for about 3 years, taking a break in the middle.
Whew! That’s a lot of stuff! lol
Innate Motherhood: “As chiropractic patients and wives of chiropractors, Erica and I strongly advocate for and recommend chiropractic care for family wellness. We provide much information on our website that show the benefits, success, and need for pregnant mothers, infants, children, and anyone suffering from health challenges. There are so many misconceptions about chiropractic, but what we found is a wonderful success story can transend and debunk these claims, and inspire those seeking great help to be open to it. Can you tell us your personal chiropractic success story and how you came across it for your children and yourself?”
Wyndie: Well as I studied about recovery, I had heard from many others that chiropractic care was important, but like all things money is a factor. We put it off for a bit while trying to figure out what things took precedence for our bank account. The more I learned, the more I realized that it was more than important, it was vital b/c the kids were SO toxic and that detoxification process would not be easy, but it could be made worse if their CNS was not in line. I could clearly see in my mind, a kink in the detox process if I did not allow chiropractic. So with this on my mind, I went to the health food store and low and behold, there was a chiropractor there that day!! He was so friendly and even though my son was very afraid of him (remember anxiety and selective mutism were major factors for him), he had kid-friendly toys there. He was so gentle with the kids and respected my sons fear, not getting in his space and tolerating the mess my daughter was making of his stuff. J We talked and I just blurted out that I wanted to chelate and what did he think of that. Interestingly, his wife works with kids with autism in the school system so he was not new to the subject and he explained in English why it would benefit them to have chiro care and that he WANTED to help. Now remember I talked about my pocketbook? Recovering children is excessively expensive. Just one child can bankrupt you… we have three. So the first visit in his office, we discussed finances. He lowered his price to barely anything so we could afford him. That won me over right there because he was choosing their health over his bank account. I have found this to be the case across the board with chiropractors. We have had more than one chiropractor through the years but always the important thing to them is to align the body and restore the software that God put in our bodies and we had messed up.
We continue to see a chiropractor two times a week. For some time we were down to every other week, then once a month, but upon getting a moving x-ray, we saw some really intense spinal issue that needed more frequent care. I will never be without a chiropractor again. Although autism is gone, our goal is not to just survive but to thrive. I believe you cannot thrive in this toxic world without having a good diet, clean water and a straight spine.
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