MB12 injections

We started MB12 injections last Wednesday for Gabe. As of today, we have done three injections. At first, Gabe didn't seem to mind them and kind of laughed them off...but now he is not a big fan. I think he thought that it was a one time thing, but now that we are coming after him every three days with them he is over it. lol Poor baby! The things he has to go through. We are definitely noticing some small, but good changes so far. He is having a little more clear speech and it seems that it's forming easier for him in his head. I also noticed that he is starting to drink water out of water bottles and he is tipping the bottle back himself without assistance! That is huge because he use to try and would end up making more of a mess than it was worth. He has ALWAYS hated the taste (or lack there of I guess) of water and never wanted to drink it. He would just go without a drink all day if he had to, but then he would drink his bath water or pool water. I never understood that one, still don't actually. Kids are weird. Anyways, yesterday at the pool he drank like half my bottle of water and then drank half of Mike's bottle of water coming home from the gym. He said he gave it to him on a whim thinking he would reject it probably. When he asked him for it, it was all gone. hehe So, tonight for dinner he gave Gabe his own bottle and he drank it, plus Mike re-filled it twice in like a two-hour period~! How cool is that? Not so cool when it came to potty training though actually.....he had a big accident from all that water. I will take that over not drinking it though. Gotta take the good with the bad I guess! I will have to go and buy those little snack size water bottles for him to drink out of so he doesn't over drink. He has a tendancy to do that, I actually think it's part of his stemming issues or something. Once he takes one drink he likes to finish the whole thing.

Anyways, the bigger news is that he has split a banana with me the last two days! WITHOUT any gagging or bad faces after tasting it. Before the MB-12 shots, he would have at least made a sad face while chewing it and taken like 20 minutes to chew up one small piece. Today he ate about 6 bites of my Dole organic banana (which may I add are THE BEST organic bananas) ! What a big boy....I am soooooo proud of him! He really has come soooo far with eating. Sometimes I don't think even a typical child could go through what I've put him through when it comes to taking away and changing foods on him as much as I have this past year. It's amazing to me and he amazes me more everyday. God has truly blessed me to have such a wonderful little boy!

PS~ Anyone know where in the midwest you can buy the new Betty Crocker GF cake mixes? I've looked at Meijer, Wal-Mart, and Kroger with no luck! I really want to try them...but I'm not sure if they are casein-free too. Anyone know?

Family summer pics!

Gabe's first trail ride! :)






My perfect, handsome little boy!
My WHOLE WORLD!





At the 4th of JuLy Festival :)






Watchin' Fireworks with Mamma :)






He was so excited, & I was SO nervous he was gonna get burnt!

Going out to eat

So, I go back and forth everyday about going out to eat. Before we started Gabe on the diet, we would go out to dinner at least once or twice a week. It was fun for us to let Gabe try new foods and places since he went for years without trying ANYTHING new. So once we fixed his terrible food issues, we were so pumped to go out to new, exciting restaurants. Now, all I can think about is what the cook is or isn't doing back there with Gabe's food, plate, utensils, etc. It's crazy...or I'm crazy maybe? lol I get myself so worked up about it that I can't eat sometimes. There are times though that you just HAVE to go out to eat and I'm not one of those moms that can stand to seclude Gabe from eating out with us. After having a few bad experiences, I decided that there HAD to be someone at every restaurant who had vested interest in their company, aka a head manager. So, for the last few weeks when we've gone out, I've politely explained to the server that Gabe has some very serious allergies to foods and to no disrespect, I would prefer to speak to the head manager to assure no contamination occurs. Each time the server has been more than understanding and gotten the manager. I explain that Gabe has many allergies and that even the slightest amount can really harm him and the managers have always seemed very caring and patient. One manager at a local restaurant called Champps even brought me the oil they use to fry chicken in to be sure that I felt comfortable with using it. :) I am no longer nearly as worried or anxious about eating out, especially at the places we have been recently.
I just wanted to share this info in case any other parents out there felt the same as I do about eating out. It is so scary to put your child's health (and behaviors for the next week) in to someone else's hands. Try this the next time you go out to eat and see if it helps! I hope so! :)

Allergicare clinics ~ BAX3000

I'm not sure if anyone has Facebook or not, but if you do then you know how people request to be your friend all the time that you don't know/remember. I have had that happen a lot and ended up deleting the people later on. Well, I don't know this man well, but he is a really nice chiropractor located out of New Jersey who is, from what I have gathered, in to alternative/holistic medicines and was asking me if I had ever heard of an Allergicare Clinic. I've been talking back and forth with him for a while now getting info here and there about it. Apparently, it has been doing amazing things for kids with autism and allergies/sensitivities. That being said, was enough to catch my interest and attention!

He emailed me an actual hand-written letter from a mom who's son was treated by this BAX3000 machine. He has ASD and was on the GFCF diet. From what the letter said, she has been able to completely remove him from the GFCF diet now after treatment and he is making huge gains in speech and receptive language skills. I think the boy was around 2 1/2 when he started the treatment. The website for the Allergicare info is www.allergicareclinic.com . It definitely seems a little "out there", but what treatments that we do aren't? lol
From what I read, the way it works is that you are hooked up to a machine through clips on your fingertips. The clips send lazor impulses through your body that trigger your immune system to respond. Eventually, with the gradual exposure over and over, your body should start giving off a positive response to the alergy instead of a negative one. The treatment at the chiro office here by me is $1000 total for everything from start to finish. That isn't bad really I guess if it works. It all sounds a little too good to be true to me, but I am researching it actively. I will do ANYTHING I can to improve Gabe's quality of life! Now, that doesn't mean that I jump on anything anyone tells me to try. Mike and I sit down and do our homework usually for months before we decide to do something. We have to be %100 comfortable with it and it has to be completely safe. This seems very safe, but Mike is very skeptical about it. He just doesn't see how a lazer could travel through you and cure your allergy. I don't claim to understand it at all, but I do think it is very interesting and I always enjoy learning about anything that could possibly help our kids! Plus, I don't really see why this Dr. would have any reason to lie to me about it working and he seems like a very nice guy. I wouldn't be going to him and paying him to treat Gabe or anything since he lives in another state. That makes me feel like he is really trying to help, not scam anyone. It's sad that we have to be so careful not to get burned or scammed by people these days, especially with the autism community. So many bad people out there these days!
If anyone wants to read the hand-written letter he sent me please let me know and I can email it to you or something. :)