It’s been a minute since I’ve shared an update on Beck. Many of you know but for those that don’t, Beck has been diagnosed with SPD and Verbal Apraxia. He’s unofficially diagnosed with autism, although I believe it will most likely be categorized as Asperger’s as he gets older. In December, he was unable to answer a basic question about himself like “What’s your name?” and never told us he was sad or thought something was cool. His ‘self-awareness’ wasn’t there. He didn’t sing, couldn’t count to ten, didn’t say color names and had a really hard time with social cues and anxiety. While we were making progress through therapy and appropriate supplements, as recommended by his doctor and team, we were starting to plateau and I could tell he was getting really frustrated (which I assume comes with age). Our doctor had recommended doing a heavy metal detox when we initially started doing tests, but I had decided to just take things slow. In January, I decided to try it out and see if it helped at all. For me the goal isn’t to fix him, but rather help him thrive. Everything he gets are according to deficiencies his body has and needs supplementing, which has been determined via bloodwork and samples. The detox was explained to me like a pipe cleaner, removing any build up that might be causing his mitochondria and cells to not fully absorb his vitamins. Personally, I have always felt way better with detoxes and cleanses so when a friend started her detox, I was intrigued, started asking questions and decided to give it a try as she started feeling more revived. It’s been six months since we’ve started and here’s all of his gains:
You can find a background story on Beck’s initial plan by clicking here. We have since switched a few products with different brands and cut back as he has developed and caught up. I try to keep everything really simple. He gets a glass of juice, and we hide his vitamins in the juice. It’s important to have high quality vitamins that don’t contain more toxins and fillers, otherwise you’re just wasting your time and money. Here’s the line up:
Until next time! xo Since giving birth to tanner and going through my second postpartum season, I’ve found new favorites for breastfeeding and healing. A few of these are favorites from my first round but most are new that didn’t exist or I didn’t know about. So let’s get to it:
Motherhood Maternity sleeping bras. You’ll want to size up due to engorgement. Jockey Modal Tanks. I’m not a fan of “nursing” tops with bras built in. I love these lightweight undershirts because they are perfect for pulling down from the top and layering under any top. I can lift my top up and easily nurse while keeping my mid-drift covered. Gap Sculpt Compression Leggings with a high waist (helps get that postpartum belly down while helping me feel “together”). Belly bandit. This helps compress your muscles and heals your abs faster. Silver Nipple Shields. These are absolutely magic. They heal and soothe within hours and completely replaced nipple cream. Well worth the splurge and makes nursing so much easier. Trust me and You’re welcome. Freemie Breast Pumps have made pumping so much easier. Unlike other wireless pumps, freemie pumps allow me to pump up to 8 oz in each cup and the pump can work with other systems (so I can also use my medela bottles and shields if I want). It’s also extremely affordable compared to other competitors and clean up is a breeze. It’s extremely quiet, allows you to be mobile and the cups fit in the sleeping bras under a normal shirt making it awesome for pumping in public without anyone knowing. I’ve loved the products from Legendairy Milk. I use the organic sunflower lecithin when I start getting clogged ducts and it’s stopped mastitis from developing. They’ve given my clients a 15% discount as well: SARALYNN15 Bamboobies cloth breast pads are still a favorite. My Freshly Picked diaper bag is sill in amazing shape and allows me to stay organized with two kiddos. Lastly, this nursing coverup apron makes nursing Tanner so much easier and has helped during the times when he gets easily distracted out in public. It’s been awhile since I’ve written an update on Beck’s speech delay healing. I wanted to share where we are with his speech but first, I need to dive in to exactly everything that was happening for symptoms. To be clear, this isn’t a pro or anti-vaccine article, but it’s meant to help families with children going through similar situations to help save them time and money.
In February 2018, we noticed Beck’s eye contact decreasing more and more. He also was starting to show signs of autism but also ADHD. We couldn’t exactly pinpoint what was happening. He had “ticks” which I could only describe as repetitive barking noises. Beck’s ability to register us talking to him, or his receptive language, was almost gone. I could be right next to him saying his name and he wouldn’t look for minutes. We knew he could hear but he couldn’t listen. Beck also had body temperature regulation issues. We would have him wrapped in down blankets, cuddled in our laps, in the heat of summer, and he would still be shivering. His ability to focus on an activity was hard pressed. But if he found something he loved, it was like no one else was in the room. We couldn’t pry his attention away and if we took whatever had his interest away (like to eat or change his diaper), there would be a tantrum that lasted for hours. But the most apparent symptom was his speech delay. His tantrums and frustrations were starting to turn into full blown headbanging, hitting and kicking fights. We were at our whist end. In April 2018, we took Beck to see the dentist. It was there that we discovered he had a submucosal brake tongue tie. At this same time, we just got done with our sixth round of croup, which we then were described a refillable steroid, in case Beck’s throat closed up again and we needed to get it opened immediately. We started seeing ENT doctors, talking to our pediatrician and doing tons and tons of research. The funny thing is, everything started to click and make more sense as the Facebook memories were popping up in my feed, showing us videos and photos of Beck as he was growing up. We noticed that it was more difficult after 8 months to get his attention. That his eye contact and focus decreased. And we also noticed his sounds changed from using “ba, ga, ma, and da” to nothing — more like coo’s. In June 2018, things started to click. We made an appointment with a neuroscientist that is a world-renowned naturopathic doctor for August ‘18. This is when we realized that Beck was vaccine injured. At our 8 month appointment, he received a round of vaccines (Polio included). After, he spiked a fever, pushing 104-105 degrees and went lethargic. Our pediatrician didn’t seem too concerned as he didn’t have any other symptoms. We were told to put him in an ice bath and rotate between Tylenol and Motrin. We are lucky that he never had a seizure or worse. Our pediatrician never told us that what happened wasn’t normal and never encouraged us to file a VARES report. It was after this that we noticed the changes I wrote above in Beck. After we did more research and reading about families that have gone through similar experiences, we decided to start Beck on a high grade multivitamin called Intra-Kids from Drucker Labs. We’ve read that many kids with speech delays have seen huge successes, so we decided to give it a try. The first two weeks were hell. I’m not going to lie one bit. Hitting, biting, screaming, you name it. At two weeks, it was like the storm clouds moved out and the sun started shining. Out of nowhere, he started using sentences like “Whoa, look at that dad!” “What’s that over there?” To be clear, he was using single words like “me” “dada” or “up”. He had never used these words by themselves, let alone, all together in a full formed sentence. Fast forward to September 2018. We saw the new doctor for a second time (August was our initial consult) after having blood work and urine tests done. We discovered his mitochondria were damaged (from the vaccines) and instead of being busy with keeping up with his developing brain and body, they were busy still trying to heal from the vaccine injury. His cells weren’t able to oxidze and produce the energy his body needed. In short, it was like his brain/body were being deprived of oxygen. In order to do these tests, we had to take him off his multivitamin for an entire week. Neither of us expected much change with being off of it, but by day 8, he had reverted to back to how he was in May 2018. Lost his speech and the tantrums and frustrations were in full force. We were amazed by how much he regressed. To support his body, system and development, we came up with a list of targeted supplements. We added this to the multivitamin he was already on. Within days of going back on the multi-v plus the additional supplements, we noticed his receptive language increasing ten fold. My husband noted “how sharp Beck has become”. He is finally in the “copy stage” where we can tell him what something is, and he has the ability to repeat it. He is putting sentences together like “No don’t. You naughty mama. That’s enough” as he points his finger at me. Yes, his speech improving doesn’t mean he’s always my sweet angel. His curiosity and kindness towards others and his environment always amazes us. We love having him ask us “who’s that” or “what’s that” and to be able to ask him to help us around the house or go find a certain item. So, what’s the secret sauce you ask? Here’s what we’ve done to help Beck:
The ‘ticks’, body temp regulation issues, eye contact issues, etc have all gone away. His speech, the most prevalent issue, is what we’re currently still working on and slowly improving each day. I hope this helps others going through similar situations that aren’t able to find the answers they need. I’m an open book so if you have questions, please feel free to reach out via email. If you would like more background on Beck, click here to read my “A Mother’s Feelings on Speech Delays” post. |