What I Do

The challenge of taking on the biomedical process for treatment of autism can be overwhelming and time consuming for the parent. My focus is on making it a reality in the home. My services immediately address the child's crisis not by just doing the hard work but by doing the right work.

I work closely with the child's integrative doctors, nutritionists and pediatricians. I facilitate lab testing to determine a home protocol for special needs diet, elimination and supplementation in the most crucial areas of autism related imbalances like yeast, inflammation and acidity. I work with the family's home treatment team of behavioral therapists.

I shop, I cook, I prep, I package and I help the child learn to eat. I offer hands-on coaching to parents and caregivers for addressing behavior, successfully. I serve as liaison between family, medical professionals, community and schools, as an advocate for the child, to ensure the best possible standards of treatment for achieving health, comfort, and the optimum capacity to learn.

Why In The Home?

It's in the home that the child must learn to generalize skills and behaviors being taught. By beginning here, we can assist the child to the highest level of function within the family and community environment, where real life actually happens, where skills are applied and progress is seen. Not just in data entry. This is where ability to function will show itself. This is where sleep issues are improved and wellness comes to be restored. This is the effectiveness of a biomedical model.

The Process

The process begins once the parent has decided to give the biomedical model a try for their child. My role in this process, once the integrative measures are decided on, is to actually implement those measures in the home. The decision to pursue a biomedical process can seem overwhelmingly daunting to the parent, potentially resulting in the abandonment of the protocol, for reasons that may not be fully clear. The diets can be exasperating to follow closely at first when the child is strongly resistant. Often when they are attempted for a time and no improvement is witnessed, that lack of improvement may be attributed to the one diet, when in reality that child may require additional dietary interventions, such as when children don't do well on the GFCF diet, (gluten free, casein free), because their yeast is out of control, and the high glycemic carb level of a typical GFCF diet has their candida inflamed to a physically and mentally intolerable degree of discomfort. That child may suddenly do well after combining the GFCF diet with an anti-candida diet, which is being supported by probiotic supplements.

During the first visit by me to the home to meet the child and parents, I would go over the completed basic questionnaire, which is available for download in an email from me. Through discussion with the parents I would get a feeling for any feeding issues, suspicious digestive issues, allergies and intolerances, any familiar signs of systemic inflammation, and that sort of thing. I ask a lot of questions about the child's history and behavior, and the parents' take on what the child is most severely currently struggling with. There is an observational period where I spend time around the child, usually with minimal interraction.

If it is then determined that the parents and myself make a good fit, and there is clear potential to work with the family toward improving the situation, then we would go about arranging for a personal nutritional panel if one has not been done, in order to obtain a more exact idea of the child's nutritional and supplemental needs. I would help to facilitate that process with an integrative or biomedical doctor of the family's choosing, or based on referrals.

Fairly immediately, and continuing over subsequent visits, I would formulate changes for improving the child's diet, while awaiting lab results to determine what other restrictions and supplementation therapy is appropriate. I would create a cooking and food prep schedule designed to both nourish and begin a detoxing process within that child's prescribed protocol, and I would develop tasty alternative meal options based on the child's present preference and/or ability to tolerate. Some of the visible positive results of this process are often seen very quickly; typically within three to four days.

I may then sit with the child, who may or may not be currently receiving feeding therapy, and work dynamically, consistent with my ABA home training to improve things. These improvements may include the child's tolerance to food textures/flavors, decreasing the gag reflex, and in turn, reducing self-restrictions and aversions. This particular process can be lengthy and ongoing, but can be extremely helpful in improving the child's situation.

If desired, I would work closely with the family's home treatment team of Behavioral Therapists, Speech, OT, Sensory Integration if used, and all additional alternative therapies including body work such as Craniosacral, Chiropractic, Homeopathic and HBOT.

So the road is a long one. With detours and spin-outs. There is a "detox process" to be expected at the onset. There are "yeast die-offs" to prepare for. And there can be challenging behaviors during this time. To commit, means to be willing to see the child through these stresses, with every available support and dedication to consistency in order to make that child's ordeal less fraught with suffering. The reward and relief comes when we see the happiness emerge and interaction begin to engage, then the obvious signs of comfort and joy, within a reasonably short period. All the stuff every kid deserves to feel. As for my personal role, to align with and begin to accurately read a child and his/her needs is a process, particularly non-verbal children. But it goes by fast, and I am patient.