Sunday, September 16, 2012

Following The Routine Isn't Always Routine

It seems we're always giving out advice to special needs parents.  Feeding issues, sleep troubles, allergy  problems.  Not because we're perfect in ANY way or such great experts, but simply because we have a fairly well adjusted and VERY happy little boy, and people are always out for our "secret".  So it just seems kind of funny to me that we've been up since 4AM for not following our own advice, especially when I just finished telling a friend yesterday about how great our routine works for us in keeping him sleeping through the night!  Just what is that routine, read on and we'll tell you everything.

Just to let you know, we didn't come up with this overnight, It took a while and it evolved over a couple of years and will probably be different for every child.

It seems Jonathan had tummy troubles since the day he was born, he was a couple of months "undercooked" and because of that Mommy was having a bit of trouble getting production flowing, so the doc suggested artificial milk as a supplement and gave him a Soy based formula.  That almost immediately put him in distress and required a few more days in the hospital.  Little did we know that his tummy troubles had just begun.

Fast forward a few years later and in addition to the Autism, it turns out he's allergic to Milk Protein, Soy, Egg and Peanuts.  It wasn't until he developed an allergy to horses though, that I started wondering what caused allergies.   (He had been riding for YEARS with no issues)  Turns out it's caused by things like Tylenol!  There's also a link between gut flora imbalances and allergies as well.

Now the routine.
Breakfast was hard, with him being allergic to almost every breakfast item, so we usually give him a combo of Bananas, Pears and Cherries blended with two heaping tablespoons of Organic Oatmeal. After heating this to a boil, I pour it into a bowl and add cold "Oat Milk" (It's actually Pacific Oat Beverage) since it's usually a bit  too thick.  I then put in a capsule of Florajen 4 kids Since we don't want to bore him with the same thing every day, we switch things up with Apple's, Blueberries, Mangos, Strawberries ... the combinations are endless.  The staple is the Oatmeal
since it helps keep him regular, or as I like to say... Premium!

After breakfast I'll give him a blend of Green Pasture Fermented Cod Liver Oil in Licorice Flavor and Scotts Emulsion Cod Liver Oil (Though I'm replacing the Scott's with the better rated Carlson Brand).  The Green Pastures version is superior but the taste is too strong for my son to handle so I mix it with the regular Cod Liver oil.  What's great about the Green Pastures version is that it's produced the same way Cod Liver oil was produced centuries ago, and since it's not pasturized, it still has the CoQ10 along with dozens of other enzymes and beneficial bacteria that are all destroyed with the pasturizing process all other Cod Liver oils go through.

Lunch varies, but we try to always give freshly prepared meals since prepackaged foods don't seem to sit too well with him.  Usually give him NAC after lunch so it doesn't affect his appetite.
Dinner is similar to Lunch, then about an hour later we give him Natrol Melatonin (I think it works better than the Animal based version) with Oat Milk then let him soak in a tub with a cup of regular Epsom Salt, for at least a half hour.  Considering that our kids are usually sensitive to a lot of things out there, I wouldn't go with the ones who add Lavender or other things, keep it simple. To keep the water from getting cold, what I'll do is put him in when the water is about a 1/3rd full, then have hot water just trickling out of the spout, I'll then read a book for the next half hour to an hour or so. Once he's out of the tub, we give him the Cod Liver Oil blend again and usually he'll go to sleep within 15 Min. or so and sleep through the night.

So how did we screw up?  We only put him in the tub for about 10 Min... Not nearly enough time for the Magnesium in the Epsom Salt to absorb into his system, so now we're paying the price for that rush through ... Oh well, Live and Learn.

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