Rockaway Beach

We're home from a week at Rockaway Beach, Oregon. For those of you unfamiliar with the area it's about 30 minutes south of Cannon Beach. It's a lot quieter. Less people on the beach and in town. A lot more peaceful. We've also noticed that Cannon Beach and Seaside tend to be in a cloud cover most of the time and we've had amazing weather at Rockaway.

We went on the trip with Jon's cousins PJ, Tami, Madison and Jadon. We have a great time whenever we are around them. Tami and I have lots of things in common and I think Jon and PJ are two peas in pod. Maddie is the best babysitter we could ask for, she loves playing with the girls and she's great at taking care of them. Very responsible for a 10 year old. The added bonus is that they don't seem to mind the added noise level when my kids are involved! :)

Madeline had fun. She loves the ocean! She'd stay in that FREEZING cold water all day. She loves having the waves crash down at her feet.

Abby wasn't too sure about the beach. She wanted to head straight for the water but she only wanted to be at the actual beach for about 20 minutes and then she was pointing back at the house.

Here are some pics!

Finally Ready!

The house is finally ready to sell. The sport court got the finishing touches put on today and we are totally kicking ourselves for not finishing it sooner. It's beautiful.

We showed the house this afternoon to a couple, friends of our neighbors, that has already looked once before. We are giving them until Monday morning to decide on it. If they don't want it then I'll post it for sale by owner Monday morning.

So exciting!!

losing it

This is for all of you that send me emails about how I sound like I have my stuff together.

As I've probably mentioned Madeline has sleeping issues. Well, first Abby had sleeping issues and Madeline slept through the night and now Abby sleeps like a dream and Madeline is up.

It's 9am on Friday morning and Madeline has been up since ONE A.M.!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which means I've been up since ONE A.M.!!!!!!!!!!!!

She came into our room at 1 and asked me if we could go downstairs...uh, NO! It's time for bed. So I got in her bed with her and listened to her script (recite cartoons) until 5am. At that point I completely lost it and had to leave the room for fear that I might jump out the window. She of course followed me right out of the room. So after 3 or 4 dances of me bringing her back to her room I woke Jon up to make him deal with her. Of course, she wanted nothing to do with him. So she screamed her head off. She's very mommy focused right now. Lucky me.

So here we are. It's 9 and I've already been up for 8 hours. I've been cussing like a truck driver all morning and most of you know that is very unlike me. Madelines upstairs screaming her head off for her wonderful therapist, Debbie, and I'm supposed to be a mom all day when I really want to run away. Hopefully she'll fall asleep in therapy or right after and then we won't completely screw up tonights sleep either.

Specific Carbohydrate Diet

I'm getting a lot of questions about why we should be trying to eliminate carbs in Madelines diet. It was actually a little hard for me to understand too so I'm going to try and explain it for you guys and for myself.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is a nutritional regimen that is promoted as treating a variety of chronic and auto-immune disorders including Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, coeliac disease, autism, cystic fibrosis, schizophrenia, dyslexia, depression, dyspraxia, Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder and more.

The rationale of the diet described in Breaking the Vicious Cycle is as follows:

When the body receives complex carbohydrates (disaccharides or polysaccharides) these substances must be broken down before they can be absorbed.

In the body of a person who is not able to break these substances down efficiently, an influx of undigested material causes harmful bacteria to flourish.

Bacterial overgrowth is accordingly followed by a significant increase in the waste and other irritants they produce.

Irritation in the lining of the digestive tract results in the overproduction of mucus and injury to the digestive tract, which in turn causes malabsorption and makes it even more difficult to maintain proper digestion.

The purpose of the diet is to break the ongoing cycle caused by an overpopulation of harmful bacteria in the gut. When the body is able to absorb the proper nutrients from simple sugars and other carbohydrates that are easy to digest, the inflammation and other complications caused by many auto-immune diseases can be lessened. The goal is to rid the body of complex saccharides so that the gut will be able to heal itself and enable further healing to occur.
The method of the diet is to keep the gutflora well balanced and to allow the gut to digest all of the food it is given, thereby starving out the harmful bacteria.

Ok so that's still a little confusing.


The Use of the SCD in ASD

Pamela Ferro is a Nurse in Private Practice in Mattapoisett MA, and a parent of a child on the autism spectrum. She has treated well over 300 children with ASD utilizing biomedical approaches in her clinic.

"Children with Autism who are implementing SCD are demonstrating remarkable improvements in bowel function, language, eye contact, self-stimulatory behavior, anxiety, and mood. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet unlike other specialized diets works by removing the foods that cannot be properly broken down. The vicious cycle of malabsorption, maldigestion, inflammation, and food allergies seen in children with autism can be corrected using this dietary approach and healthy digestion can begin."

The latest research appears to prove that SCD is the best diet for Autism Spectrum Disorder!

The researchers are finding out that it is the fungi and bacteria in the GI tract that cause GI problems and neurological problems such as autism. The research studies also indicate that that it is starches and certain sugars that feed these fungi and bacteria. The SCD eliminates the foods that feed these microorganisms. Without these foods,the pathogens starve and leave the body; the child is no longer a hostage to billions of pathogenic invaders that poison the gut and the brain.

Here are a couple more links:
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/autism/autism.htm
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/autism/Specific_Carbohydrate_Dietary_Trial_8_27_04.pdf

However, I have no idea how the heck we are going to try and do this with Madeline. All she wants to eat are carbs. Rice and corn chips constantly. UGH!!! I went the store yesterday and bought every fruit and vegetable. So far the only things I can get her to eat are carrots and dried apricots! Well, it's a start! :)

Another Dr appt

Today we went to see Dr Leigh Ann Chapman. She is a naturopath in Portland that has been treating kids with Autism. She has also been traveling around the area speaking to parents and relatives on the correlation between the gut/immune system and Autism. We have seen another naturpath in town for the last 8 months but we haven't seen the amount of progress we would like so we opted to get a second opinion. I'm glad we did.

Dr Chapman was great. It was amazing to watch her read over Madeline's test results and see completely different things from what the other Dr saw.

She noticed that on Madeline's food allergy test all of the carbs were overly reactive. Meaning that her body is not processing carbs the way it should. She is a total carb lover too so the next step of minimizing carbs will be very difficult. We will also give her some digestive enzymes to help her digest the carbs correctly.

She also noticed that her Vitamin D was very low. Plus she was low on Zinc, magnesium and calcium. The top 4 vitamins/minerals. Not good. So she is adding in supplements of those.

Dr Chapman is also trying a vitamin A protocol. There is evidence that children that regressed after an MMR (measles mumps rubella) shot have an underlying case of measles in the gut. Vitamin A in a large dose can kill off the virus.

She's also doing some testing for abundance of yeast and other bacteria that may need stronger medicine.

She agrees with me that Madeline has major stomach issues and that without fixing those it's going to be very hard to get her out of her fog.

She also mentioned the need for chelation. This is the one thing about this whole process that scares me but it may also be the one thing that gets the best results. I'll be reading more about it in the next couple weeks to see if I can make up my mind.

This appt was very promising. I really liked the doctor. She admitted that Madeline was an interesting case. She's not an easy one to unlock. I think Audra and her ABA tutors would agree. :)

Links:
http://www.chapmannd.com/
http://chapmannd.com/uploads///Vitamin%20A%20in%20autism.pdf
http://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/medical/chelation.htm

I went up to Seattle last week to look at preschools. I think we have decided on the Snoqualmie Valley school district. This would mean we'd move onto snoqualmie ridge. It's beautiful up there. I've clocked the mileage and it's about 25 minutes to mom's, 20 to Missy and Sharon's and 10 to Julies. It's not the ideal location but it's the best school so I have we have to go with it. Of course, I'd much rather be a lot closer to mom's but the schools districts that are closer are not as good.

We are waiting on the man to come and paint the sport court and then the house will go on the market. We actually showed it to a couple last weekend that were friends of our neighbors. They'll come take another look once the sportcourt is complete. Hopefully they'll buy it and we won't even have to put it on the market.