Nutrition, Occupational Therapy and Laughing

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I wonder if anyone else (not really If, but who in here) has had luck with nutritional analysis, juicing, supplements, allergies, things like that - in relation to AS, ADHD, etc. My son was seen by a doctor of physical medicine, who had us track his food for a week, but it turns out our insurance only covered the initial visit.

The same thing happened with Occupational therapy. He was referred to it by the physical medicine doctor, for the purpose of giving him a sensory diet. He was still having a lot of fidgeting, rocking, tapping, noisemaking in class and we were looking for an alternative to medication. (While it is helpful for some, we have been down that road and i just don't feel its right for him). Once again though, after the initial visit, the insurance denied any actual "treatment" so they just gave us some suggestions and hints.

Laughing - its all I can do sometimes. LOL (see?!) I don't know why but sometimes instead of getting frustrated and being mad or upset, I find myself cracking up at the sheer persistence he has sometimes, or just at the absurdity of what he is upset about. I don't need help in this department lol I just wanted to share.

BUT - so yeah, anybody who has done the nutritional analysis, or had allergy testing and gone that route, I would be really interested in hearing what your experiences have been with it. Same with the occupational therapy - what kind of things have worked? They suggested the thera band to encourage isometric contractions and a gel ball thing to sit on too.

my daughter uses a theraband around her chair at school which seems to help some. my son has a weighted blanket which he wraps himself up in~this seems to help also.......have tried the GFCF diet , but didn't make any difference here.

When my son was diagnosed he was referred for Occupational Therapy, Language Therapy, he was put on the Feingold Diet, given nutritional supplements, analyzed for metal intoxication, analyzed for the presence of yeast, he had the Chromosome X genetic testing (for possible mental retardation), he had head scans, they wanted to do an endoscopy and I don't remember what else. Of all this I did everything but the endoscopy and the chelation therapy, I was overwhelmed and at some point I thought it was too much.
The Feingold diet was very strict, they wanted to limit everything that had oxalates in his diet, which was almost any fruit or vegetable he liked, no foods with colorants, no preservatives, etc. The amount of nutritional supplements was staggering, he had to take like three or four different medications with each food. It was a very trying period. In the end a neurologist that saw us got concerned about the quantity of chemicals in the form of supplements and how strict his diet was and referred us to a nutrional pediatrician who determined through bone analysis that he wasn't growing at the rate he was supposed to, in other words, he was almost getting malnourished! My child was miserable, we were miserable and at some point I made the decision to make some compromises: I sticked to the dairy free diet , because he had been diagnosed as allergic to milk, I sticked to the gluten free diet because they had found the portions of unbroken wheat molecules in his blood, so I kind of believed in the possibility that those molecules could be depositing in his brain and producing some of the symptoms he showed. Regarding the supplements, since I went back to a diet rich in ALL vegetables, protein, fruits, carbohydrates (gluten free), etc, I discontinued everything but the calcium and the Cod Liver Oil, which were the most natural among all the chemicals he was taking. I continued with the OT and the LT and he after a year graduated from the LT. Now he is doing the OT every other week. I forgot about the chelation therapy (for eliminating the heavy metals from his organism) and I forgot about the endoscopy, but I did do several of the antibiotics to control the yeast contamination for some time.
He is doing a lot better now, I don't know exactly what of everything I am doing is helping and what not, but I am a little afraid of changing anything right now. I don't know if it is the diet, or the therapies, or he is just getting more mature and handling things better, or a combination of all three. But he is a lot better now than when he was first diagnosed, we are also happier, since before it felt almost like torturing him with all the limitations in his diet and the incredible quantity of medication. In a few weeks we will be starting a "socializing therapy" to help him with that issue which I think is his major problem, especially because he is painfully aware of his limitations in this area even if he is still so young (only 6). I have heard conflicting things about this kind of therapy but I am willing to try it.
Regarding the OT they do several kinds of things to address different motor problems and sensory integration problems. We did get the ball and the bands and do the excercises. But I cannot really tell you what has helped and what not,, since it is difficult to isolate the effects of all these interventions put together. But I can tell you that he is more willing to try sports, he is swimming really good, he agreed to try and play tennis and he even suggested that he might be interested in trying soccer (which I don't think is a good idea, too competitive), but we will see. All this might be the OT making him more comfortable with his own body and more confident of his capabilities.
Anyway, I congratulate you for your optimism, I on the other hand, get frustrated often or overwhelmed or just very very sad, because I know my child is not happy especially with his lack of friends, the bullying at school and his difficulties with mastering new skills. He is extremely aware of his limitations in on these areas and that makes him very unhappy at times.

Hi. My son was seeing an OT for a short while. She didn't offer any changes to his diet, however we are supposed to be doing OT homework every day, but he doesnt like it.
Homework consists of:
commando crawling
spinning in an office chair-(sit with back straight and a small ball under
his chin, to keep the right posture. Spin
10x to the right, then 10x to the left)
sit ups x 10 (knees bent arms crossed on chest)
moon dusting x 10 stand up straight touch opposite hand to foot
without bending knees.
lay on tummy lift head,arms,legs off the floor (balancing on tummy) hold for a count of 5 do this 5 times.

Maybe you could ring your autism support line. I know here in Australia, when I rang Autism Victoria they sent out a lot of photo copied ideas, for all sorts of things.

Any way not sure if any of that is what you wanted but someone else might find the information useful. cheers aurea

When things were really ugly I found laughing was a good redirection tool and it kept things from getting escalated.

I have a friend with aspergers who recently went through a severe bought of depression. after blood work and some other stuff the doctor diagnosed the problem is being allergies.

While he wasn't forbidden gluten, when you cross off everything he is not currently allowed to eat there is nothing left with gluten in it.

He can't have any
Cows milk products
banana's - though he'll be able to start back on those if he follows this diet religiously
white flour
wheat flour
corn
soy

He should also stay away from sugar and white rice.


I've been following the diet too since I felt better than ever when I was at his house and eating like that. In place of white/wheat flour we use teff, amaranth or buckwheat flour. For milk/cheese goat, sheep and buffalo's products work. We eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, brown rice, swiss chard and quinoia. The whole foods store is the best place for us to get this stuff. I also just discovered gluten and dairy free organic mochi which is cheap and when combined with honey very delicious

My son is 4. The two biggest things that have helped him so far are OT and the GFCF diet.

He's been getting OT since he was 2 1/2, and that has made a HUGE difference for him. It has to be someone who knows a lot about sensory processing disorder! I have read so many parents' comments online about OTs that didn't know enough about it and were doing things that were counterproductive. But we started seeing results from the very first session, and his teachers used to be able to tell from his behavior when he's had OT and when he hadn't. Now it's not so obvious, but he is definitely much better regulated overall. He's still clumsy and has a lot of muscle weakness, but soooo much better off and able to cope with the world.

The GFCF and sugar free diet was recommended to us just recently by an allergist because we found out he had a lot of environmental allergies. It is also preservative, additive, and coloring free because of my husband's issues. But that combination has really made him A LOT more social all of a sudden. It is literally like a curtain went up. He actually wants to play at the park, he has conversations with people, he participates in class. Last week, the teacher came out early and told me that she didn't want to make a big deal of it in front of him, but he actually started speaking up and participating in class.

But on top of all that, he's also been getting lots of other therapies. He's also been on Omega 369 supplements, plus calcium and a multivitamin for the last 1 1/2 yrs. So it's definitely a combination of a lot of things, but my husband is only doing the diet, and it is even helping him. Even he notices it.