The Adventures of the Reese's Pieces Gang

Thomas was born at 38 weeks old weighing in at 7 lb 8 oz and 20 inches long. He developed right on track as a baby. He clicked into a beautiful routine at 6 weeks and was sleeping through the night by 8 weeks old. He rolled over, sat, crawled, and walked all at normal times. His first word was ma, which of course was very exciting for me since all the other said da first! :-) Thomas was a fun, happy baby up until sometime between 14 & 16 months. The first change we saw was that he stopped sleeping at night. He woke screaming 4-8 times a night. This was s difficult time for us, he would scream for 2 hours sometime never seeming to be fully awake, yet he seemed to be in severe pain. Several times we almost took him to the hospital.

We have since learned that these sessions of screaming probably weren't the typical night terrors. They may have been this child having severe intestinal pain as a result of his inability to digest dairy and gluten. As a normal 1 yr old Thomas was having whole milk each day and was starting to have wheat and other gluten grains in cereal and bread. He had loose stools ALL The time. Yet, because we knew nothing of food allergies/insensitivities we followed the suggestion of the health officials and gave him all the "normal" foods. And for the next two years...... never slept.

If you are seeking natural healing for your autistic child. Investigate the GF/CF diet. One of my favorite websites for information is www.taca.now. If they are struggling with sleeping well, look into a good clean source for melatonin. I like Kirkman's formula (http://www.kirkmanlabs.com/). If I had known about melatonin then I would've tried it. Thomas uses it now or it is very difficult for him to get to sleep at night, especially during the winter when he doesn't have as much time to play outside because he is in school until 1:15 then therapy until 7:15 most nights.

How could you help a mom with and Autistic child? If she has 1 or more children chances are she is tired! Autism is emotionally and physically draining. Offer to go to her house and play with the children so she can take a nap for a little while.

My final challenge for you today is to ask you to consider praying for autistic families each day this month. Today pray for wisdom for these families that God would guide their thoughts and research as they seek to help their child with the challenges of autism.