Since Riley started therapy I have been doing countless amounts of reading and research on Auditory Processing Disorder, Autism, and Asperger's Syndrome. After reading and discussing with his therapist we have decided to Clean up our house and our eating.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I really like cleaning products. I love the "clean" smell my house has after using lysol, bleach, armstrong, windex etc... There is some evidence that these "cleaners" can possibly aggravate his symptoms. About 3 weeks ago I ordered Shaklee housecleaning products. These products are organic, natural, non toxic and the best part ....... It works! Once I got over not being able to "smell" the clean, (which really didn't mean anything except I was filling my house with chemicals that smelled) and actually evaluated how the products were working I was extremely impressed. I'm not sure that this will make a huge difference with his diagnosis. I do know this isn't hurting him and if there is any chance that we can help even a little bit, we will do it.
The second change we have made is using supplements to help fill in dietary gaps. Children with sensory issues all tend to have eating problems. Thank goodness Riley is a good eater and does not have oral defensiveness. He does however get on food kicks where he only wants certain foods. He has starting having sleep problems and extremely horrid night terrors. I talked with a nutritionist about what to add and we bought some good quality dietary supplements (also from Shaklee). Again we are willing to try whatever it takes. Since starting the supplements there have been no night terrors and he is sleeping a TON better!
This week we started reading "Eating for Autism the 10 Step Nutrition Plan" by Elizabeth Strickland. The first step is getting rid of preservatives, additives, food dyes and artificial sweeteners. It has been an eye opener looking at labels and really trying to clean up the kitchen and pantry. It's been a bit difficult trying to adjust our eating habits but it's a work in progress and hopefully we will continue a bit at a time. We really love our mac and cheese around here so I'm going to start making it from scratch. If anyone has any healthy all natural recipes please email them to me. Raine1974@insightbb.com. I'll try to keep the blog updated if the Epley's don't eat each other first :)
