Autism Nutrition

It is common wisdom that early intervention is crucial in the treatment of autism. Yet, we know that despite early intervention, many are still autistic. What about children who do not receive early intervention? What is there for autistic children who are older? When should a parent give up autism treatment? The journey of my daughter, Vanessa, may shed some light.

Autism treatment with Lovaas Technique

Vanessa was diagnosed as autistic in 1992, when she was over 3-years-old. In those days, there was hardly any facility. She participated in some Lovaas Technique trials conducted at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The Lovaas Technique was not available in public schools or commercially. Autism specific special education was limited to The Rainbow Centre, which had a close association with NUS.

We enrolled Vanessa in a private kindergartens and hired a speech and language therapist for an hour two times a week to act as a shadow in class. Vanessa also had some one-to-one weekly therapy. Vanessa has always been a compliant girl with the occasional tantrum if pushed too hard in class. When the placement at Rainbow came, we enrolled her.

Autism treatment with Glenn Doman Approach

Then we came across the Glenn Doman approach to treating brain injuries. The theory made sense to us but it required a huge commitment in terms of time and money. My wife quit her job to implement the programme and we stopped after a couple of years – from exhaustion but without regrets. With the Glenn Doman program and a strict natural diet, Vanessa lost the hyperactivity and slept through the night.

Fortunately, we got back her placement at the Rainbow Centre till her ‘graduation’ at age 12. We spent the next year and a half in an expensive private school till her placement at the Autism Youth Centre. These were the ‘steady state’ years….no major problems but not much improvement either. Vanessa was still very autistic.

Teenage Blues

As Vanessa entered her teenage years, our headaches began. Behaviorally, we noticed an increase in temper tantrums. She would throw tantrums sometimes two or three times a day. She was also getting more lethargic and she rarely smiled. Obsessive behavior like throwing things out of the window increased several fold. There was an increase in hyperventilation, massive sleep issues and a horrible allergic rash around her eyes that made her looked like a raccoon half of the time.

Vanessa was drooling very badly. We had always brought her around in public places like shopping centres since she was little. It was now quite embarrassing to take her out, especially when she would stomp out in a rage, smack in the middle of a crowded supermarket. My wife and I felt as if we have wasted all those years of effort.

The allergies, body itches, drooling and sleep issues suggested to me that Vanessa was not only autistic. She was also physically sick. I felt horrible. At that time, I was practising as a holistic physician and dishing out health advice to others, while my daughter’s health slipped. Besides, she had a strong personality and would not take medication or supplements.

At about that time in 2003, I was practising alongside a US-trained naturopath who was making great progress at treating younger autistic kids with nutritional supplements. This caught my attention and I was determined to implement it for Vanessa.

Yeast Infection

First, we had to test for yeast infection. This meant get her to pass motion where we can collect the stools. This was a no-go so we decided to treat her for yeast anyway…she had the clinical signs. We did manage to get blood, hair and urine specimens for other tests. So a beautiful biomedical autism treatment programme was drawn up – only to meet with her disapproval. Vanessa absolutely refused to take those awful tasting supplements. (I tried them so I know how awful tasting they were).

I really tried all sorts of strategies, like adding the supplements to juice, Ribena drink, apple sauce, peanut butter. I even tried hiding the supplements in some strong smelling fermented soybeans (natto) which she loved… no go. About five months went by and she still had not taken a single supplement.

So I tried homeopathy which was easier to implement but it did not do her much good. This was, in fact, the second time I tried homeopathy. The first was in a few years earlier. Meanwhile, her allergy was getting worse, on days her eyes would puff up like a goldfish.

Breakthrough

Being in the naturopathic medicine business, I started searching for better tasting supplements. These were not as potent but at least I would be get something in, I thought. She still refused. I thought that was it. The old man has made some compromise, it was time the young lady showed some respect… So one morning, I mixed some of the better tasting supplements (taste better but not fantastic) into a cup of juice and told her sternly “Drink up!”

“No!” she replied.

“YES, DRINK UP!”.

She did, in 5 seconds! Then she asked for a sweet. I obliged.

Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist

At about that time, I filled the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) and lodged it online with the Autism Research Institute. She scored:

• 11 for Speech / Language / Communication
• 22 for Sociability
• 22 for Sensory / Cognition / Awareness
• 22 for Health / Physical / Behavior.

Total score was 77, which put her at the 60th to 69th percentile (moderate to severe).
0 = perfect and 180 = maximum severity.

Her supplements also changed over time as we did more tests. About 15 months later, another ATEC score showed:

• 11 for Speech / Language / Communication (no change),
• 18 for Sociability (18% improvement)
• 13 for Sensory / Cognition / Awareness (41% improvement)
• 13 for Health / Physical / Behavior. (41% improvement).

The overall score was 55, an improvement of 29% over 15 months. Remember, Vanessa was already 15 years old when we first started biomedical autism treatment. I tell this story to parents in my practice who are having difficulties getting the supplements in. It took me 5 months to get the first supplement in. So don’t give up!

“Respect her”

Vanessa’s biomedical autism treatment continued with the works: B12 injections, mercury detoxification, amino acids, antifungals, homeopathy (classical), etc. Then one day in August 2005, she again refused to drink her supplements. I told her she was not to leave the dinning table until she had drunk the juice and supplements. She sat there with me for 2 hours! I had to cancel my appointments that morning.

I will never forget what happened next. She made another attempt to leave the table and I said: “No Vanessa! Drink your juice first!” She looked at me and said “Respect her.” My heart melted. I let her go, I cried for a moment.

We took a week off supplements and I tried to start again. Vanessa saw me taking out all those supplements from the cupboard. Before I could pull open the first capsule to mix into the juice, she snatched the capsule from my hand. I thought she was going to throw it away. Instead, she popped it into her mouth and swallowed it neat, without water! I was totally surprised, as I had previously tried to train her to swallow capsules without her chewing them, but had no success. From that day onwards, she swallows all her supplements.

New Milestones

As of 11 March 2006, Vanessa has achieved the following milestones:

• Tantrum free since August 2005.
• Speaks very clearly, no longer swallowing her words.
• Stopped throwing things out of the window.
• Goes to bed independently at 9.30pm and sleeps through till 6.30am.
• Minimal drooling.
• No visible allergic rash.
• No more hyperventilation.
• Makes requests and choices on recreation e.g., “go to the park”, “go to the movies”, “go swimming”. And, she accepts “no” for an answer.
• Stopped gluten free diet with no consequences.
• She can cook a few dishes under supervision.
• She helps the maid fold the clothes.
• She continues to enjoy reading.
• The teachers at St. Andrew’s Autism Centre tell us that she volunteers to answer math questions and often wins the math contest.
• Her instructor at the Riding For the Disabled told me she is a “new person”.
• She is able to attend overnight camps without the parents.
• She smiles often when spoken to, though she still does not speak a lot.
• She would approach some teenage girls, touch their hands and smile.
• She chooses her own books at the library.
• She laughs at certain jokes.
• She would imitate a baby crying in an attempt to amuse her parents (we are now quite tired of this joke).

I lodged another Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist score last week with the ARI. Vanessa scored:

• 7 for Speech / Language / Communication
• 12 for Sociability
• 9 for Sensory / Cognition / Awareness
• 13 for Health / Physical / Behavior.

Her overall score is now 41. This puts her in the 10th to 19th percentile, somewhere in the mild to moderate range. Below is a summary of Vanessa’s progress in terms of the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist score:

What is significant about her progress is that:

• She was 15 when she started biomedical treatment
• She did not receive any significant amount of conventional autism therapy

Moving Forward with autism treatment

We are now looking at Relationship Development Intervention as we feel she is ready to be taught how to appreciate relationships. As for biomedical autism treatment, no change except she will be stopping mercury detoxification and we have just started mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

We are very happy for her. Yes, she is still autistic but she has come a long way from being classified as “Moderate to Severe” to “Mild to Moderate”. Vanessa is a very lovable child and we are now reasonably confident that she will fit well into a group home setting. Hopefully, that won’t be necessary; we still have hope that she will recover fully.

It may be a false hope. But that was what some people said when we started on this journey of autism treatment three years ago.