Again, just because we tried them and they didn’t work doesn’t mean that they don’t work for someone else. It most likely means that Lukas’ particular health issues are not the same.

Super-Nu-Thera- before any real intervention. He took it as directed by Kirkman Labs. At first, I thought it was helping. I then took him off the vitamin but didn’t tell anyone AT ALL- including my husband. After he had been off it about two weeks, I asked how he was doing and everyone, including my husband said that they thought he had shown improvement in the last few weeks. I then knew Super-Nu thera wasn’t helping because he had shown improvement without even taking it. No one noticed when he went off of it. About 6 months later, we had some extensive blood tests run on Lukas and we found that he had high folic acid levels in his body. It was probably for the best we stopped giving him more. His doctor, Michael Goldberg, thinks that vitamin B is good for you but he isn’t so sure about high dosages. The developmental pediatrician who diagnosed Lukas said that it wasn’t harmful and that if you were overdosing, you might have some tingling in the fingers until the vitamin is removed. Our specialist did not like it. He worries that certain vitamins can actually make things worse if given in high doses. Either way, I didn’t really notice anything significant with Super-Nu-Thera and everyone who didn’t know that I removed it said that he was showing improvements. Super Nu Thera may be bought from Kirkman’s Laboratory http://www.kirkmanlabs.com/ and more can be read about the use of vitamin B6 on their website (at least you could before the FDA decided to raid them for claiming anything can treat autism.)

DMG- DMG is actually something that runners have been known to use. I tried it myself and didn’t notice a single thing. Again, Dr. Goldberg doesn’t discount DMG but he isn’t sure about the high dosages. I tried Lukas on it for about 6 weeks and didn’t notice a thing. This also can be bought at Kirkman’s Laboratory. Some parents report their children are hyperactive while on it. Others swear by it. You can purchase it through Kirkman’s labs.

TMG: the big brother to DMG. Again, I can’t say I noticed any measurable change. I also tried it myself and can’t say that it did anything for me either (in terms of my own mental fog or being able to run better) Some parents report that TMG is better than DMG because it doesn’t make their children hyper.

Listening Therapy- a friend was kind enough to lend me her discs. Otherwise this would have been cost prohibitive to us. Lukas enjoyed listening to the music with headphones and it wasn’t aversive. It only took up fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes at night so it wasn’t something that took away from “real” therapy. I honestly can’t say that there was a sudden surge in skills or better language or better listening comprehension. I think Lukas found it very relaxing to sit and listen to it so he tended to be calmer but I think that is more because it was almost a form of meditation and relaxation for him. Perhaps this wasn’t a “wow What a difference” intervention for Lukas because he didn’t really have any sound sensitivity. There was no language improvement. More information on the Listening Program can be found at: http://www.thedaviscenter.com/therapies/t-listening.htm

SID “Sensory Integration Therapy”- This was composed of many sensory exercises to include Swinging , brushing, rolling, jumping, playing with tactile things, etc. Lukas loved doing all of this. Lukas Loved to be swung. He would just relax his whole body when you brushed him with a soft brush. He would dig right into the rice boxes and play with the sand. I don’t think that it was worth paying someone for. Some places may charge 60-100 dollars an hour for this. I think that this wasn’t helpful because Lukas didn’t have tactile sensitivity and had no issues with eating or touching things of different textures. There wasn’t something concrete to measure in terms of “is this helping him?” Did it help with hyperactivity? Sure! Studies show that children who exercise are less hyper and stimmy when they have had plenty of time to exercise. Some of the activities we did included jumping and wheel barrel walking and running and playing around with playdough. These were fun and a form of exercise. I finally just added things that were “stimmy” to our ABA Like having a box full of packaging peanuts for him to dive into (a great reinforcer for the therapists to use) Or placing a wooden ladder in our yard for him to climb on. I also placed a tree swing in the yard and bought lots of play dough, etc. These things helped his gross and fine motor skills. However, this was not some magic bullet. SID practices were useful reinforcers and tools but it didn’t help him talk. It didn’t change the way he thought. It was merely a good reinforcer and way of building fine motor Strength. It wasn’t worth paying someone for when I could arrange all these activities at home or build it into the ABA program. This wasn’t something I needed to pay lots of money for. There is an excellent article published in School Psychology on this. Before I anger anyone, let me restate that I don’t think this harms any children. SI therapy did NOT improve Lukas’ speech. It did not improve his hyperactivity overall. I think that it can be a worthwhile activity for parents to engage with their children. We even tried brushing our child after an OT recommended it. The first time I did it with Lukas, he looked at me like I was crazy. J Here is an

Article on SI which does not give it a high rating. The article can be read here:

ARTICLE ON SENSORY INTEGRATION

Epsom Salt Baths: Lukas loves baths and he loved pouring salt into his bath. He would lay and soak for half an hour with his eyes closed. We still give occasional Epsom salt baths but it is more for pleasure than for business. J He loves to relax in it However, it did not help him learn to speak, learn to think, to control his behaviors, etc. One reason may because he doesn’t have phenol issues that are obvious to

Us (although… the jury is still out on red dyes.) You can read more about that

Here: http://autismawakeninginia.bizland.com/autismawakeningdietinvervention/id10.html ) Kirkman labs offers A cream version instead of baths which is more expensive. You an read their explanation of why it may help http://www.kirkmanlabs.com/products/minerals/magnesium/Mag_Sulf_Cream_Spec225.html

Kava Kava- Kava Kava is an herb. We tried it because we heard a lot of antidotal evidence that it helped calm people and it helped those with chronic fatigue syndrome and Fibromayalgia sleep. Since we had the incredible nonsleeping child, we gave it a go The only thing is that I don’t think it actually did anything other than give me a sense that I was trying something. Perhaps we needed to give it a longer go. We only tried it for about 5 days. I did take some kava kava myself and found that it made my tongue numb J I also heard of a case in Seattle of a man who was charged with driving under the influence because he looked like he was drunk. Turns out he had some kava kava tea. It can have a benadryl like effect on some people. Either way, it didn’t solve our child’s night waking.

EFFEXOR- Effexor is a prescription drug. Effexor increases both serotonin and norepinephrine thus affecting two important neurotransmitter systems, unlike other SRI's. May help attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). An antidepressant that often helps anxiety also. We tried Effexor when our son experienced an increase in hyperactivity. What was the result? An even larger increase in hyperactivity. We don’t seem to have luck with these kind of drugs to reduce hyperactivity. There was a study done on effexor and autism. Unfortunately, the study is not the best. It is an “open” study which means that everyone knew what each person was on and it was a retrospective study which means that parents were given a questionnaire to rate how the child “seemed” after starting effexor. These studies concern me only because I haven’t always found teachers/parents reliable in giving concrete observations on how much a behavior has improved or worsened. We once mentioned to a teacher that we were thinking about stopping a medication. The next week, she reported that Lukas was more hyper and that we obviously needed to get him back on it. The funny part was that we hadn’t taken him off it yet and our tutors had not reported any increase in hyperactivity.