5 things that made a difference in Justin’s life
When Justin was first diagnosed with autism it was in 2001. The internet was just getting going and autism only effected 1 in every 165 children. Most doctors didn’t know much about it much less what to do about it. We were in uncharted territory. It seemed that every doctor that we saw wanted to put Justin on a lot of different medicines.
We were afraid since he was so young that if we started, he would be on them forever. We begin to explore alternative medicine and practices from different countries that helped with autism. The first thing that we had to address was his diet like most children he was a very picky eater we used to laugh about we did not know what kind of magic McDonald’s fries Hield, but that’s all he wanted to eat, so our first thing that we did was start him on juice plus.
Juice plus is an excellent fruit and vegetable supplement. That will make sure your child gets all the fruits and vegetables they need every day. They also have great programs for adults. The gummy‘s taste very good so it was never a problem getting him to take them. Justin struggled a lot with sleep or let me correct that we struggled to get sleep. He did not seem to need sleep at all. He could stay up for three days and if he hit a 20 minute nap he could stay up another three days.
We had always went to a chiropractor with all of our other children so we began to take Justin for weekly visits to it seem to calm him down and helped with his sleep patterns. He still goes once a week. I can tell if he misses a week because his anxiety and his tension levels get out of control. Chiropractic is an excellent program for everyone. Everything in your body must go through your spine including but not limited to your nervous system and your digestive system.
None of our children have tubes in their ears or get sick very often we see Dr. Kirk Keener in Centre, Alabama. Chiropractic introduced us to ionic foot baths and also to essential oils. The foot bath is incredible. When you start out, the water is clear, it helps detox your body including heavy metals. We were not sure how Justin would react to it because you do have to keep your feet in water for about 25 minutes but he’s always done well with it and we also do this still once a week, the essential oil company that we use is young living and we would rub his feet with lavender and put lavender in his bathwater to help him sleep.
We also let Justin develop hobbies that he likes. He has always liked taking care of animals so we volunteer at the pet shelter and we also let him have a cat now we have two. We also encouraged him when he said he wanted to try cooking and for a while he did full immersion.
He learned Japanese cooking and even dressed in traditional Japanese clothing, while learning about their culture even though some of the things that he likes seem strange to us, they seem , even though some of the things that he likes seem strange to us, they seem very normal to him very normal to him very normal to him. The Japanese culture appeals to a lot of children with autism.
Our friend Kadin Seabolt has his own YouTube channel all about Japanese anime. I don’t understand it but they all love it. I realize that a lot of this may seem common in todays world.
Lotion now comes with lavender already in it. Essential oils are a household product and chiropractic is much more mainstream. Much of this was considered alternative medicine when he was diagnosed. Justin did start taking singular for his asthma and allergies. Sometimes he still has to have breathing treatments but all in all we are very happy with all his results.
If you have an alternate way that you help your child with autism please let us know. We would be happy to hear from you. Love y’all