This is from the TACA website:
"Having a child with special needs require focus and diligence.It is important to focus on the three core components of managing your life after the diagnosis. Think of these three areas like a stool - without one leg the stool will fall over.
Traditional Therapies
Traditional therapies are the intensive early interventions provided to help the child:
Minimize behaviors
Enable learning
Set and achieve goals and objectives
These therapies include:
One-on-one therapies such as applied behavioral analysis (ABA), Floortime, RDI and others
Speech therapy
Occupational (OT) or physical (PT) therapies
Social skills
Read more info on traditional therapies under "Behavior" in the column to the left.Biomedical Therapies
Treating children with autism with only one therapy either biomedical - or - traditional therapies is not enough. You need to focus on both.
Biomedical therapies include:
Testing for genetic disorders and baseline testing
Testing and treating for other problems besides autism
See "Medical" in the column to the left for more information.
Biomedical therapies take the longest to yield results but diligent effort, research and persistence will pay off.
There is a high percentage of autistic individuals that have medical conditions besides autism. These conditions need attention and treatment.
It is important to never let the excuse that "your child has autism" be the reason for NOT TREATING a medical issue that requires treatment.
Remember: Autism is treatable via biomedical interventions. There are a lot of choices.
Consider going to a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) conference. Regardless of where the next DAN conference is - it is worth the time and travel.
Find a DAN! doctorKeeping Family Healthy
One of the most devastating events to happen to a family is the diagnosis of a special needs child.
Many families focus on the needs of the child while neglecting other children, spouse and family members.
Even though time is precious - paying attention to these other relationships is key.
Managing health of care takers is also important. Do not neglect your own health needs while caring for a special needs child.
It is important to investigate local support groups for family and marriage counselors in your area
The divorce rate the U.S. is high enough - but odds increase when you have a special needs child. It is your job to buck these odds and whenever possible stay married.
An important note is that special needs children do better in a two-parent family.
Keeping family healthy is an important part of the stool and should not be ignored."
The reason for the trip to Seattle was to see a new doctor. Since 2005 we have worked with a couple of doctors who specialize in biomedical interventions for children with autism. They are often referred to as ‘DAN!’ doctors. Find out what DAN! is about here.
As far as I know, there are no DAN doctors in Idaho. Most of them do phone consults but I wanted to find one somewhat close to us that we could actually have an appointment with once a year or so. After doing some research I choose a doctor from several potentials. I had talked to her on the phone and really liked what she had to say. We spent three hours with her at her office.
First she went over all of Will's history - what he's doing now, what we have done in the past, and what we would like to do now. So we went over what vitamins and supplements he's taking now and changed that up a bit. And we talked about what testing would be beneficial to him. Since he's already had a lot of the basic tests done, we are going to move onto some more specific ones. The biggest one being a test to check for leaky gut. We also talked about his asthma and she gave us some great info on how to handle that better. I felt like we covered everything and she really took the time to individualize his treatments to HIM and not just what everyone else is doing for kids with autism. She's very accessible and quick to answer questions. Being monitored by a DAN doctor keeps us connected to a world that is trying to treat autism. Instead of the world who says all you can do for autism is behavior therapy.
We decided to also have Autumn evaluated. She has always exhibited a lot of the medical conditions of someone on the autism spectrum - without actually having autism. Gut issues have always plagued her and all I've gotten from regular doctors are suggestions to treat symptoms. So, we have a plan for her too and I'm anxious to see if it will help.
Oh, another thing that I'm happy about - both the kids are going to have their titers checked. Meaning- through a blood test we can find out what they are still vaccinated against and what they are lacking. Since Will's diagnosis I stopped all vaccines for the kids. There is a safer way to do them and I wasn't about to keep loading them up on vaccines before I knew how to do it safely. (don't bother arguing with me about it) Once we have the results back then we can decide what they are not currently vaccinated against and then proceed with caution. One at a time in single dose vials. Very happy about that.
So, all in all, a very successful appointment, happy with the plans, insurance is picking up most of it, and we liked the doctor. She has all the medical knowledge of a regular ped., but treats from a more holistic point of view. Love that.
coming up...... the final leg of our trip.
Great info, Tara. Thank you. When you get time, let us know of the details of treatment for Will and Autumn; I am very interested.
Posted by: gramma jayne | February 15, 2008 at 09:54 AM