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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:

•  Beck says his name when asked 
•  can tell us he’s sad or misses someone
•  asks to make phone calls
•  has an imagination and can act out rolls like being a puppy, pretending the floor is lava, making play food/kitchen play, pretend phone calls, or he needs to rescue a whale
•  is trying new foods and finishing meals
•  eye contact is improving ten fold (this has been a crazy improvement)
•  rarely stems
•  is naming colors, knows letters and has books memorized
•  asks us to cuddle, wants to see our face and asks to see our eyes if we wear sunglasses
•  his speech is making leaps and bounds. Strangers are starting to understand him and he’s having short conversations
•  describes things as awesome, cool, scary, big, cute, etc
•  is starting to do self-calming techniques like deep breaths
•  empathy for others
•  his restricted interests are starting to broaden
•  can wear clothes for longer periods of time, pick out his outfits and put on his clothes. Socks are still extremely difficult and is almost never worn but just him wearing a shirt for an entire day is a HUGE win
•  he had started going up to kids he didn’t know and saying “Hi I’m beck, want to play?” until the shut down happened. Therapy stopped along with exposure to outside people so this development is iffy.
•  he’s developing a teenager attitude, loves giving his opinions and has a sense of humor
•  he’s still gets super focused and “doesn’t hear” us talk at times, but I’ve noticed this happens more when strangers are around and slowly improving with close family
•  he interacts with other people and craves their attention in a positive way

There are so many developments to write and new things happen each day. I would best describe this last six months as amazing yet also very trying. His developments are like bundling the terrible twos, terrorist threes and teenager fours all into one stage. I can tell he still has anxiety with his speech and he gets scared when something doesn’t come out like he wants. He understands there is something wrong and he’ll hit himself out of frustration. But with all of the struggles, there’s so many more joys and positives that happen each day. He’s so much happier, more expressive and learning gets easier with each step. The amount of progress in six months is astounding to me. Close family even agree it’s like he’s a different kid and progress he’s made is unprecedented. If you were to ask me in December what my biggest fear was, I would have answered with him not ever being able to say his name or express his feelings. It’s so exciting to see him thrive and be so much more comfortable in his own skin.

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:

• Intrakids Daily Vitamin. This is a liquid that gets in his juice each morning and has been the staple daily vitamin that has worked best for our family.
• SPEAK formula by Lifetrients. This is just a pure blend of Omega 3, D3 and Vitamin E, which has been proven to help reduce inflammation. Kids with apraxia are typically deficient in these need an extra boost. This line came out and it was a no-brainer to switch since they offer it in liquid and capsule form.
• We were doing speech therapy twice a week and OT once a week until the COVID shutdown happened. We tried doing online meetings with our therapists, but they weren’t beneficial and became more stressful for both of us. We are now in the process of moving, so we’ll be finding a new team that he can hopefully finally see in-person.
• We still do chiropractor appointments (and sad we’ll have to find a new one… Dr. Joel has been amazing). We’ve also started working in homeschooling work, sensory work and keeping a visual schedule calendar for him to see.
• The heavy metal detox has been the game changer this last six months. There’s a ton of different options out there but I’ve seen so many doctors recommend this product and I’m all about keeping it really simple and easy. I initially started with a different product but switched and have kept with this brand. We use Results RNA and it comes in a 4 oz bottle and 2 oz bottle (so you can try the smaller first). It’s a simple spray that tastes almost like water and so many people can benefit from using this product.

That’s it! I do recommend checking out the post I linked at the beginning with his initial regimen, because catching up on those deficiencies was also crucial to getting to this point. A Daily Vitamin is probably the best thing we’ve ever done for him. We can always tell when we go on vacation and don’t bring the big bottle with us and he doesn’t get anything for a few days and his doctor was extremely impressed by the quality of his daily V.
Until next time! xo