Week 1 of camp a success!

He had a great first week at camp.  We're calling it school, becuase he is signed up to attend in September.  He has a momment of hesitation before entering the doors, but once he's inside, he doesn't look back.  On Friday he waltzed in and approached a set of twins who were painting and said "Hi Guys!".  Then he walked over to the teacher and gave her a big hug and asked her what they were doing.

He can theoretically attend this nursery school until grade 1, as they have an afternoon kindergarten program.  I'm starting to think that Centennial's afternoon program won't be as helpful as Play and Learn, because he isn't around neurotypical children.  He won't learn social communication or social skills from other kids further down the spectrum. 

We now have a zero tolerance rule for aggression.  This includes, pushing, hitting, spitting, throwing, crashing kids or their sandcastles.  If he shows aggression, his bowling priveledge is removed for the day.  If he is gentle at school, using his words, he gets to go bowling.  He's been bowling at least once a day this week.  On Thursday he went twice, once before and once after school.  On Friday its half price, so the alley was busy.  I paid attention to his scores for the first time.  He played 5 games by himself, and his highest scores were 103, and 107.  The lowest score was 85. His scores were better than all the other kids playing (about 20 kids in age rage 10-15).  He's actually really good. We might be able to remove the bumpers.  They have a Youth Bowling League on Saturday mornings starting in Sept.  I think I'll sign him up. 

Its really exciting to see him motivated to go to school and interested in a sport.  Its certainly not my choice of school or hobby/sport. I'd prefer he went to a school closer to our home, with our friends. I'd prefer he picked up a hobby that I enjoy too.  I'm really starting to dread bowling.  However, I think he's really thriving with this new routine.

I've added back Gaba into the mix. I read about it again in Dr. Jepson's book and it does help to calm him down. Glutamates are turned into Gaba in neurotypical people, however, Charlie isn't able to produce his own Gaba, so he has an excess of glutamates, and a deficit of Gaba.  This causes excitability.  This is also why MSG is a big No No. Here is a book called 'exitotoxins:the taste that kills'.  I'll have to read it.

http://www.amazon.com/Excitotoxins-Taste-Russell-L-Blaylock/dp/0929173252

Ex-ci'-to-tox-in: a substance added to foods and beverages that literally stimulates neurons to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees. Can be found in such ingredients as monosodium glutamate, aspartame (NutraSweet®), cysteine, hydrolyzed protein, and aspartic acid

I wonder how many neurons I fried working at Campbell Soup?

Yesterday I cooked the lamb shoulder from our freezer order of mennonite/grass fed meat.  I marinated it with garlic, lemon, oil, salt and mint. Then I braised it with chicken broth.  The kids loved it.

Tonight I cooked the rib steaks on the bbq.  Yummy too. He also really liked the hamburgers I made from their ground beef.  I might ask them if I could buy a few more pounds of ground beef. 

He's toileting about half the time now.  We've removed his diaper at home during the day. He still gets one for school and night.  He protests, but he'll go. He has more control now.

His supplement schedule involves:

1/2 digestive enzyme
1/8 ts taurine
1/2vit C
mB12 on day 2 and 3
2-5ml fish oil at night
probiotics: culturelle and hmf  forte

I love the morning after an mB12 shot.  I wish everyday was like that. On Friday, at the end of Day 3 right before a shot, he loses eye contact, he starts to tantrum.  He also gets diarrhea.  I wonder if I should try to give him a shot every 2 days?

I picked up some cal/mag/zinc/potassium and oil of oregano and grapefruit seed extract. Tonight after his fish oil, I slipped a fewdrops of oregano oil in his mouth and he woke up, spitting and gagging.  Ooops.  That stuff is potent.  I wonder if I can get it down another way?  I'll try the grapefruit seed oil next, he might be able to handle that one while asleep.

I'm going to try the minerals tomorrow morning.  I noticed his behavior and communication was excellent after having an epsom salt bath, which has magnesium in it.  Magnesium gets the highest scores on the parental survey.  Maybe I should put the oregano in his bath water?

I'm going to make up pamphlets and flyers and advertise the  Gluten free/Casein free coaching service at select preschools and agencies and offices.  Time to get back to work!