Melatonin

Melatonin is something that our bodies produce to regulate our sleep patterns. People who have autism often have insufficient levels of melatonin in their bodies. One of the first things that we did when our son was diagnosed with autism was put him on a nightly little dose of melatonin. When I finally got my hands on Changing the Course of Autism by Dr. Bryan Jepson, I saw that melatonin was one of the suggested biochemical intervention treatments. I thought, Oh good. We are already going something right.

We were both working at the time and my husband was going to school full time. We were desperate to solve the sleep disturbance issues that Eli had that went along with his condition. He was constantly getting up in the middle of the night and staying awake until the wee hours of the morning. We were so tired!

We got the idea of using the small dose of melatonin from my mother. My brother with autism has been using melatonin most of his life, and without it his sleep is very disregulated. We started with a quarter of a milligram dose and worked it up by small increments night by night until he was ready to go to bed half an hour after taking it, with his regular bedtime routine, of course. In the beginning I think he only took like one tablet each night, which was half a milligram.

Looking back, I realize that the smartest thing to do would have been to consult his doctor. The problem was that his pediatrician, who was really quite good, knew little about autism. He could not tell me what to do for Eli's diarrhea or other symptoms. He did know enough to recognize some of the autistic behaviors in children and send us to get a diagnosis, and for that we are ever so grateful.



We like the Nutrition Now Melatonin. We like it because:

-It is in a chewable peppermint tablet
-It is easy to split with a pill splitter
-It is in a half milligram dose, which makes it easy to give only the littlest dose needed.
-Nothing artificial and no gluten, milk, or soy

Nutrition Now used to sell their own products on a very nice site and with great service. Now it is only available through supplement distributing companies. The site I currently use is HerbsMD.

I am providing this link for some friends who have asked to have this address.Click here to go to the Nutrition Now Melatonin listing on HerbsMD.com

Disclaimer: As you may be aware, I am not a medical professional and I am not qualified to give medical advice of any kind. I am providing this information for my readers as a piece of our autism journey.

Siblings

I am an autism sibling. I've had lots of my experiences come to mind lately as I've been thinking about what my family may be like in the future. I live in a very family oriented part of the country. It is not uncommon to see a woman my age or even younger tote three or four children to the grocery store. When people see that I have a four year old and no other children and no signs of expecting, I get asked, "Do you want more kids?" Rude, I know.

I have a memory bank full of experiences of what it is like to be an autism sibling. I wouldn't call my teenage years "normal." My brother is classically autistic in the moderate range. While there were definitely rewarding experiences, there were also lots of challenges.

This is a story I wrote for autism siblings in a previous post. Even though I am not much of a writer, I feel like for this story I included a good balance of the good and the challenging.
Read The Chocolate Effect here.

I did have some friends that were like the Allison in the story and I will always be grateful. (Admittedly though, we would usually hang out at other places besides my home.) My most Allison like friend, (as far as the purposes in the story goes, anyway,) was the young man that I eventually married. When we were just friends in high school Jason would invite himself over and hang out. He put up with my brother's antics marvelously. My sister and I coined the challenge of our brother with new people "The Jared Test" and when we were young adults we used it on all our dates. We learned quickly which of the young men were most patient. It turned out to be a very viable test.

So as I have my memories running through my head, and my future family before me, I've been feeling like I am missing a perspective. That is the one of the parent of the child that has the autism sibling. Are there any parents out there who are willing to share? What do you do with your autism sib kids to help them learn from, be patient towards, and in some cases, have normal social lives despite their challenges at home?

Another Chemical Free Step

I have heard that persons with autism should only eat organic foods. My thought was, that's nice, but who can afford that? I began washing our produce with special wash from the health food store and took pride in the fact that I had washed off waxes, sprays, and other contaminants.
I recently read this book:
The Organic Food Guide: How to Shop Smarter and Eat Healthier
by Steve Meyerowitz, and it's a great find on Amazon for under $10.
For being a short read, it explains a variety of topics concerned in the choice of whether or not to buy organic. I found the chapter on labeling very helpful. He tells the many reasons organic foods are better for us, and why all those nutrients in healthier soil makes the food taste better.
I took it for a test. I have been buying organic apples for weeks now. I can honestly say that I enjoy apples more now that I have found apples that are generally better tasting. Knowing I am avoiding chemicals and contaminants probably doesn't make them taste worse, either. :)
Now I want to buy nothing but organic. It is true that it does not always happen. Organic varieties are not always available, or always affordable. However, my family and I are taking steps to make it more of a priority to buy organic. Right now it is all of our produce, plus other products here and there. Here is a little collection from my own kitchen.
My efforts to provide organic foods for my family are in an effort to lessen the chemical burdens on my son. I believe that his predisposed little body contracted autism under the burden of environmental contaminants. Anything I can do to lessen the load on his sensitive body makes him a happier boy.

Signing Time

Signing Time is a series of products that were started by a Utah family in an effort to share sign language, the language of a young family member named Leah, with their friends and the rest of the family.



My son's first words were "car" and "ball" but they were not consistent, and after a time disappeared. His first consistent communications with us were signs that he learned in part from volume one of Signing Time. His first sign was "more." Then came "milk." It was like a mini miracle. Our son was talking to us with functional communication!

www.signingtime.com

If you are not a parent but have a friend, niece, nephew, or grandchild who is struggling with language development, why not surprise the parents with the first volume? I have learned from them myself, and I have been so grateful for the miracle of that first little sign my son made.

My son is still learning from the Signing Time videos at the age of four. (Animals, colors, and letter signs.) We started out with just the regular volume one. We have never used any of the other products, just the original series.

I probably live relatively close to these people, but I don't know them and I am not affiliated with their company, I'm just sharing what has worked with my autistic son's language development.

Image used with permission.

Another Chem Free Idea

Here's my son's used, beat up tube of toothpaste. He has actually been using this type of toothpaste for quite some time. I guess this one was a no brainer for me since it goes in his mouth and he swallows it. It is completely natural, and I opt to give him the fluoride free version. Why? I guess I am skeptical of this fluoride stuff when it comes to my sensitive little boy. I mean, if the label of fluoride toothpastes say that poisoning can occur if more than a pea sized amount is swallowed, it can't possibly be safe for his delicate system. That's what my fears have been, anyway.

Playground Drama

Anyone who has a child with autism knows that the playground can be like whatever a place of unagreeable people producing a series of untimely events would be like.

Today on the playground I was informed by a 10-12 year old girl that "your kid is weird."

OK so he was chewing on a low hanging branch. Any parent of a child with autism knows that you just have to pick your battles or you battle all day. So instead of telling him not to, and trying to force him not to, and having him do it anyway, I had fun with it. This particular girl and her friend saw a four year old boy chewing on a branch with his mom nearby asking him if it tasted good.

I saw them laughing and smiled. It was funny, I couldn't blame them. Then came her comment. She had no way of knowing at her age how offensive that was to me, so she got a polite little smile and we were off having our next playground drama adventure.

Maybe I'll save that one for another time, or more likely I'll have a new one by then. It all ended like it sometimes does, me carrying a struggling, screaming boy into the apartment to have a sit on the rocking chair with mom, (AKA "Dads," AKA "Daddys") and blanket.

My relax routine lately after a day like this is a work out routine after he is in bed and a hot bath with my lovely lavender-oatmeal soap bar that I bought from www.dancingmooney.etsy.com Just the thought of bathing with this soap gives me the warm fuzzies. No wonder, I just learned today that lavender is known for its' relaxing aroma therapies. I'm ready to try other applications for this essential oil! I simply love it.

Fever Talk

Why is it that children with autism become more talkative when they have a low grade fever? My son has a chest cold. Last night I checked in on him, and he was quite warm, partially because of conditions and partially because of a low fever. I was taking his temperature, holding the thermometer under his arm pit. He started fussing and saying, "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom!" Now that may not be so weird for a typical four year old who is feverish and half asleep, but two days ago I could not get him to say mom. I was daddy all day. I kept reminding him that I was mom. He would not say it. Granted, yesterday was better. I got called mom afew times, and he even pointed to a picture of me and said "mom." But to repeatedly say mom practically in his sleep was something else.