Disney 2008

This past Feb. we headed down to Florida to visit Jay's dad and Step-mom. We had a great time! We all headed to Orlando for a few days to enjoy some Disney fun. In my opinion, Disney is the BEST place to go on vacation when you have kids. My family went to Disney every year as I was growing up and it holds so many wonderful memories for me. I always get a bit weepy walking into the Magic Kingdom Park with my own children. This was Fin's first trip but Carson's fourth. Each time we go, we feel the magic and can't wait to go back. On this trip we stayed at the Nickelodeon Hotel (our second time there) and really loved it. We usually stay on Disney property but I have to say that the Nick Hotel is amazing and just a perfect place to stay with preschool age kids.

Griffin loved the character breakfasts! Carson is a little scared of the dressed up characters so, he tends to stay away.



A pic from our room to just one of the amazing pools at the Nick Hotel.


Carson enjoying a diet caffeine free Coke (pre new diet). This pic cracks me up because he looked like the older retired snow birds on the beach.

Griffin's first trip to the beach/Ocean. He likes to eat sand, just like his big bro.

Carson is getting so big and handsome. He loves going to the beach!

I wanted to post more but am still new to this blog stuff so, I have not gotten the hang of it yet. I will post more as I get better at this.

Thanks for reading - Em

How did this happen?

It's Jay again...

Let me preface this entry by stating that I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV (although that would be really cool and we'd have a lot more money.) As many of you know, we've been to numerous doctors and therapists. We've also researched a lot of info on-line and are currently reading five different books. So...how did this happen? In my opinion, there are a few different factors involved in how this happened. First and foremost, Carson has several food allergies (or intolerances.) He's allergic to wheat, dairy, and eggs. Looking back, Carson was a very sick baby with several ear infections, RSV, asthma, etc. He was on breathing treatments of Pulmicort and Albuterol on and off for at least a year for his "asthma." He was also on antibiotics every time he had an ear infection. I think that many of these illnesses were caused by his food allergies, which we had no way of knowing that he had. Then you throw in a few vaccines here and there and BAM! you have an ASD. The vaccines, antibiotics, etc. are not processed through the body correctly due to the food allergies and the digestive system not working properly because of his "leaky gut." His immune system was constantly compromised without us even knowing it. You know how your doctor always asks if your kids are sick when it's time for vaccines and if they are, they can't get the vaccines at that visit. The reason for that is because your immune system can only fight off one thing at a time. So, as Carson's body was fighting off his food allergies, it could not fight off the vaccines or process them properly through his system. I learned this from Jenny McCarthy. It makes perfect sense. One of our doctors told us that as we were feeding Carson anything with gluten or casein in it, we were feeding his speech and developmental delay. As the gluten and casein breaks down, they become what are called peptides. When you have a leaky gut, the peptides escape out into the bloodstream, continually traveling through the brain causing delays. I believe what Carson has is allergy induced autism. There is a great website on AIA. His body cannot rid itself of all of this gluten and casein and it feeds a huge build up of yeast in his system, which would explain why he has been constipated forever.....until NOW! More to come.....

Bringing you up to speed

It's me Jay. As Emily stated in her earlier post, this blog is intended to keep family members and friends updated on Carson and also to hopefully help other parents who have children with an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder.) We're also going to share other family information, special stories, etc. Although at times it seems like our whole life revolves around and is consumed by Carson's ASD, there really is much more to our life. We have a great life and we're very blessed.

For those of you just reading this who do not know us, let me bring you up to speed on how we got to today...

Emily and I met in 2000 while we were in college pursuing our Bachelors Degrees in Human Resources. We were friends for about a year before we started dating. In the summer of 2001, we began dating "officially." We had some ups and downs that year (more ups) and by the summer of 2002, we were engaged - June 8, 2002 to be exact. Emily has many wonderful qualities that attracted me to her initially. She's smart, beautiful, and talented (she's a great singer.) Beyond all that, Emily is a beautiful person inside. She truly makes me a better person and I knew that I couldn't let her slip away (even though I was a commitment-phobic person.) We were married on February 1, 2003 in front of many of our family members and close friends. We knew that we wanted to start a family right away. We were both 28 years old at the time so we immediately started trying to get pregnant (of course, not until after we were married.) After trying for about five months, we were frustrated and decided to see a fertility specialist (fun stuff, right there.) Of course the month after the visit (without any type of fertility), we found out we were expecting. We were so excited! We immediately told everyone (we're not good at keeping exciting news to ourselves.) We started picking out names and knew we were going to find out the sex as soon as we could (again...not good with surprises.) I totally wanted a boy but of course said it didn't matter as long as he or she was healthy. My wish came true and on March 15, 2004, Carson Thomas entered the world. He was perfect and beautiful. The first year was a big adjustment for Emily and I. We were both working full time and I was going to school for my Masters Degree two nights a week. I remember thinking in a year from now, things will be better and easy once he sleeps through the night, starts walking, talking, etc. Little did I know what we were in store for....at just over two years of age, we realized, with some coaxing, that Carson wasn't developing at the rate that he should have been. No parent wants to see that or admit it but it was hard because we had two nephews that are the same age as Carson - Blake, who belongs to my sister Kristie and brother-in-law Brian and Luca, who belongs to Emily's sister Amiee and brother-in-law Ron. About this same time, in the summer of 2006, we found out that we were expecting again. We were thrilled because again we had been trying for about six months. During this time, Carson was tested at our local school district and also made his first trip to the pediatric neurologist. The EEG testing came back normal and this is when we first heard of PDD-NOS. PDD stands for Pervasive Development Disorder. We started an infant preschool program that fall. We had good and bad days in the program...lots of problems transitioning from activity to activity. By the early part of 2007, we learned that Carson qualified for the ECDD (Early Childhood Developmental Delay) program at our school that would begin in the fall and also started seeking out additional speech and occupational therapy. On April 12, 2007, our second son, Griffin James entered the world. Again, perfect and beautiful. Since Griffin's birth, we're adjusting to having two kids. Thank God, Griffin is one of the easiest babies ever. He is almost always content and happy. He's a perfect fit into our somewhat crazy life. During the past year, we've started treating Carson's ASD with several different approaches. He sees a chiropractor, massage therapist (for cranial massage), and an occupational therapist weekly. He also attends his preschool program half a day, five days a week where he receives speech therapy twice a week and OT once a week. He is making great strides. He is also on some dietary supplements because as we found out from another of our doctors, he has "leaky gut", meaning the lining of his stomach has a tear that allows things (peptides) to get into his bloodstream, which have been feeding his speech and developmental delay. Toward the end of 2007, we started Carson on a GFCF (gluten free, casein free) diet (so we thought.) Gluten is wheat, oats, barley, rye, etc. and casein is dairy. We noticed some improvement from his diet. However, a couple of weeks ago, we also realized that we were messing up with diet. On April 17, we went totally GFCF. The things happening are amazing.....coming in my next blog.

Hello

Hello.....Hello....this thing on? Testing, testing..........

Hello,

Welcome to Curing Carson, the on-line journal of two American parents living the dream with a few twists and turns along the way. This blog will be published by us as a household. So, hold on to your hats, mom is writing, dad is writing and well, at some point I guess the kids will be writing too.

A large focus of this blog will be the stories, musings and thoughts of two parents curing (recovering) our son of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We are in no way experts but with the help of some of our on-line heroes and research, we are finding our way in this very controversial approach of bio-medical healing of allergy induced autism (AiA).

Now is a good time to mention that neither I, nor my husband write for a living and although he is a word and grammar freak, I am - well - not so much. I write my thoughts and feelings and will without a doubt have some spelling and grammar issues along the way. If it bothers you, sorry, you can just make fun of me like Jay does. I am use to it.

Without further adieu we are -

Mama (Emily) - that is me folks. I am the mama bear, crazy lady of the house and sometimes an emotional wreck (when dealing with autism). I will talk from my heart and share my deepest thoughts and feelings hoping that it might help just one other person along the way, and to also help myself deal with the mental gymnastics that seem to keep me up at night.

Dad (Jay) - Dad is without a doubt the obsessive one and the one from time to time who struggles with finding the light at the end of this tunnel. He is our Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) expert and well, just the best daddy any child could ever want.

Carson - Carson is our first born son. He is our amazing kiddo with cool spiky hair and the most joyous heart of anyone I know. He is a true free spirit and takes little in his life too seriously. And, yes, Carson has autism. In another post I will fill you all in on the long two year journey we have been on to get us to this point. Let me tell you, there is much joy in where we are now and although, conversing with my son is a bit different than the way others may, there is simply nothing better.

Griffin - Fin is our little guy. He is just over a year old. He is a stitch and the child that God knew we needed. He is joyful, easy, and well, funny as heck. He is a little pig and although he is only in the 10 percentile for weight, eats everything all day long. We will be writing about Fin, his milestones and also what it is like to parent a typical child since a great deal of what we are experiencing with Fin is new to us.

We are a Christian household and let me tell you, had it not been for our faith, we might have lost it long ago. Now, with that said, I can promise you this, I will swear, I will say things that might be alarming, I will be angry from time to time. The Lord knows all my imperfections and we talk about them in great detail often.



Jay and I have an amazing family that surrounds us and our babies with love and support. Some do understand this world better than others but we know the love is there from everyone. Let's face it, autism is out of most people's comfort zone, we understand this but most do try and for that, we are grateful. With all this said, some of what might be discussed on this blog could be "news" for some family members. Remember, this is our safe place to talk and help other families dealing with similar struggles. We in no way, mean any harm.



Lastly, this blog is not just about curing autism. It is a family journal and will include stories of all areas of our big beautiful life.



Enjoy! And if you feel the desire, comment.