Our son recovered from early-onset autism in 2008 after two and a half years of biomedical interventions. He had health problems from six weeks of age. Despite seeing many doctors, we struggled for a long time to understand his considerable problems. At 18 months of age his diagnosis of autism was suggested and by 20 months his health had deteriorated to the point where doctors now visited him at home.

At this point we found the web pages of Generation Rescue (1) and got in touch with a wonderful “rescue angel” , another parent who had followed biomedical interventions with very positive outcomes. We signed up with nutritionist, Jean Muscroft (2) and we read a very informative book called “Enzymes for Autism and Other Neurological Conditions” (3). We read about Epsom salt baths (4,5,6) and felt there was nothing to lose in trying these simple, traditional bath salts. We were very surprised to see they had an immediate calming effect. We also removed soya (7,8) and for the first time our son slept for 5 hours at night. Previously, he had never slept for more than 90 minutes at a time. He also stopped stimming and began making better eye contact. We then tried digestive enzymes and, again, we saw a wonderful change. Our son picked up a spoon and began feeding himself for the first time.

We were hugely encouraged by these improvements and were determined to learn more about biomedical interventions. We found Jean Muscroft to be an invaluable source of advice on diet, nutrition and testing. We still find it very difficult to put into words how much she helped us and how much this meant.

We went on to follow DAN! interventions (8) and later used Amy Yasko’s genomic testing (9) to refine our son’s protocol. We can’t say it has been an easy journey. We had a lot to learn and a lot to unlearn. There were some difficult days, but none as bad as before we started. While a few things we tried did have rapidly positive effects, very many did not. However, with ups and downs, slowly over the two and a half years our son completely recovered from autism. He was discharged from special needs and formally reassessed in 2008. He is longer on the autistic spectrum at all and his language skills are now actually advanced for his age. More importantly for us, he is a very happy, very sociable and very affectionate little boy who loves life.

Even with two parents on the autistic spectrum and with early onset autism, our son has fully recovered. For parents who see distressing problems in their autistic children, we hope our story will be encouraging.

References:

1. www.generationrescue.org (you can find a rescue angel in the “Begin Recovery” menu)
2. www.autism-aspergers.co.uk
3. Defelice, K.L.: “Enzymes for Autism and Other Neurological Conditions”, Thundersnow Interactive (2002).
4. Waring, R.H.: “Report on Absorption of magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts) across the skin” http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/articles/Report_on_Absorption_of_magnesium_sulfate.pdf
5. Waring, R.H., Klovrza, L.V.: “Sulphur Metabolism in Autism”, Journal of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine 10, 25-32 (2000)
6. Waring, R. H.; Klovrza, L. V.; Harris, R. M.: “Diet and individuality in detoxification”, Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine, Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine, Volume 16, Issue 2 May 2007 , pages 95 – 105
7. Gottschall, E: “Breaking the Vicious Cycle”, Kirkton Pr Ltd (1994)
8. Pangborn, J and Baker, S: “Autism: Effective Biomedical Treatments”, ARI (2005) (also www.autism.com)
9. Yasko, A and Gordon, G: “The Puzzle of Autism: Putting It All Together” (also www.recovermychild.com)

Our charity is run by parents and we value parent experience. As such, we encourage parents to share their stories.  Parent experience cannot be viewed in any way as medical or therapeutic advice. Each parent story is just that: one account as shared by one family. Your family’s experience may be completely unrelated.