Book Review: Healing Autism Naturally

Being some 15+ years into our journey with what we highly suspect to high functioning autism with little more than a diagnosis of PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder – not otherwise specified),  I had high hopes of finding information in this book that I hadn’t already heard. So I was very eager to offer my services to Ms. Cash as a reviewer.
After reading Healing Autism Naturally by Becky Cash I came to the conclusion I must have had some great teachers, early childhood intervention people, doctors, and others in my corner. If you’re a veteran of this journey, this book will provide you a great overview or review of the tons of information thrown at you from other sources.
I found a few points of particular interest with regard to nutrition. I had the overwhelming feeling that I’d heard that information along the road somewhere but had forgotten it.
However, if you are new to the world of autism and have recently had a child diagnosed or if you even suspect this might be your child’s diagnosis, this book is a great place to start.
While parts of the book seemed like a huge advertisement for one of the many nutritional supplement companies out there, don’t let this discourage you. You can find supplements without the attachment to this company.
Mrs. Cash’s writing style is relaxed and easy to read, like reading letters from a distant friend. By the end of the book, you feel as though you know the Cash Family, at least a little bit. You also come away knowing you are not alone as the parent/s of an autistic child.

***NOTE: I was given a complimentary copy of Healing Autism Naturally by Becky Cash in exchange for this review. This review contains my honest opinion.

County Fair: Day 2-7

Ok, so writing about our experiences as exhibitors at the County Fair each day didn’t happen. I admit, I’m not the most regular blogger, nor am I the most widely read blogger in the blogosphere either. LOL

Day 2: Monday. It was our first day to be benched. This meant almost 10 hours of sitting with the dogs in the dog barn. It went rather well. In the late afternoon the Cloverbuds showed their dogs in Showmanship and Obedience. This means it was Mary Ann’s turn to show Tyra. They did great! Obedience was going well, until Tyra heard her former owner’s voice (yes, she was there). After hearing the voice of her former owner, Tyra had great difficulty focusing on Mary Ann. Lesson learned.

Day 3: Tuesday. We actually did not need to be at the Fairgrounds at all! We went in the early evening to watch the Team and Brace obedience shows. We learned a lot. Mary Ann might be eligible to compete with Colby, Tyra, and/or Cheddar in Brace in a couple of years.

Team: 4 handlers with their dog so 4 people and 4 dogs follow the instructions of the caller/judge at the same time. It gets interesting when you have a dog that gets confused about which person is his/her handler.

Brace: 1 handler with 2 dogs. Handler gets his/her dogs to perform different commands following the instructions of caller/judge. The dogs are tethered together, so they must be of similar size and stature.

Both Teams and Brace for handlers and dogs that work together “off-leash”. In otherwords, very advanced. Not where we are yet.

Day 4: Wednesday. Bench Day & Agility Day. Cloverbuds put their dogs through the agility course before the others. Mary Ann and Tyra did very well. In fact, their run this day was probably the cleanest and best run the two of them have had to date. All Cloverbuds received beautiful ribbons and medals for their participation in the different shows.

Christopher and Colby had one of their best runs also! In fact, their run was so well executed, they got first place in their division! Blue ribbons and a medal were awarded.

Day 5: Thursday. Rally-O Day. Christopher was feeling a bit pessimistic. Unfortunately, Colby urinated before he and Christopher could even start the course. As we learned on Sunday, urinating in the ring means immediate disqualification. No problem. The problem we had with it was the way the judge handled it. I’m hoping she was rude with the kids because she was having a bad day or something.

Day 6: Friday. Bench Day. After being benched on Monday and Wednesday, we were all ready for the week to be over. All in all, everything went well.

Day 7: Saturday. Our only Fair-Free day that week! We did not go to the fairgrounds. We did not talk about the fairgrounds. We spent the day eating popcorn and watching movies.

All of our pictures are on the memory card, which is in the camera, which is in my husband’s car, and my husband is out-of-state on business. So, pictures will follow – eventually.

County Fair: Day One

Yesterday was the first day of our County Fair. My two oldest children, Christopher and Mary Ann, joined 4-H with the Clever Dogs' Club.

Christopher was supposed to show his dog, Colby. Colby and Tyra were both groomed on Wednesday at a place we’ve gone a bunch of times. Wednesday evening was the pre-fair agility event. Colby wears a different collar for this than he does normally. He got a new collar with a metal buckle. So did Tyra. We were planning to use these new collars for the dogs’ bench time at the dog barn, so we left the collars on them to let them get used to them. Saturday afternoon, Colby wasn’t acting like himself. Saturday evening, Christopher was brushing Colby in preparation for Sunday morning’s show when he noticed Colby’s neck was swollen, hot, oozing, red, and very tender to the touch.

We suspect Colby had an allergic reaction to the nickel in the metal of the new buckle. We did some research into potential causes for Colby’s symptoms, it all pointed to “Hot Spots” and Allergic Reactions. Found more information that suggested treating with a small dose of Benedryl. Yep. Benedryl, the exact stuff I take for allergic reactions.

With all of this said, Christopher was unable to show Colby in Sunday’s Obedience Class and Showmanship Class. Collars, leads, etc. were causing Colby too much discomfort.

Christopher went into the Showmanship Ring first sporting a bad attitude and Tyra at the end of the showmanship lead. Once he started walking her around, he relaxed and smiled a little. The judge must have liked what she saw… Christopher and Tyra won 1st Place for Novice Class Showmanship!

This meant our day got a little longer – they were now eligible to compete for Grand Champion and Reserve Champion! Tears of joy for my boy and our 6 year old pup! While they did not win Grand or Reserve Champion, we are still so proud of them. They made it to that Ring! Very seldom, we heard, will a Novice win Grand or Reserve Champion. We suspect it might have something to do with Christopher’s lack of “Courtesy Turns”. We now know for next year! Knowledge is key!

Tyra did not do as well for Christopher in the Obedience Pre-Novice Class. They were almost finished with the exercise, they were given their final commands. As Tyra was preparing to sit, she decided she had to eliminate more. Automatic disqualification for elimination in the ring.

Tyra will be showing again today with Mary Ann as her handler. Cloverbud Showmanship and Cloverbud Obedience. Mary Ann is already practicing her “Courtesy Turns” and her winning smile!

Colby is scheduled to go to the veterinarian tomorrow.

Nicholas, my middle child, is already looking forward to joining 4-H with the Clever Dogs’ Club in the near future with our new puppy, Cheddar!

Cheddar was born in April 2011. He joined our family on July 3, 2011. He’s old enough to start training for Obedience and Showmanship, but he has to wait until he is One Year Old to start practicing for Agility.

4-H Pre-Fair

2011-07-31_4-H-PreFair, a photo by wallstreetredneckwife on Flickr.

The day was bright, sunny, hot, and humid! Typical end of July weather in Michigan. My two oldest children attended their 4-H Club's Annual Pre-Fair Event on Sunday, July 31, 2011.

The Pre-Fair Event for this 4-H Dog Club is the equivalent of a dance recital dress rehearsal. This is where they test their dogs to find out what areas really need work during the next week before the big dog show at the county fair. (This means, next week I'll be bringing you tons of excitement from the fairgrounds!)

Due to an infection, one of our littles could not be in attendance at the Pre-Fair, so I stayed home with the three youngest while my husband braved the heat and the sun to watch the children do their stuff. He took some great photos for me! :)

Colby needs to work on his stance during showmanship. He caught on amazingly well to obedience and agility!

Tyra needs to work on everything but her showmanship stance! She's leary of the agility equipment. Mary Ann needs to gain some confidence and learn how to "be a pack leader" (as my hero Cesar Millan, would say). She'll learn - she's doing well as a Cloverbud!

I am so proud of both kids and both dogs!

Absent

Remember the bike trip in May that I was all excited about? Did I tell you that I fell off of my bicycle? Did I forget to mention that I hurt my elbow and shoulder of my left arm?

Well, if I didn’t mention it before, consider it mentioned as of now.

Last week, my Primary Care Physician finally decided we needed a better look at what was going on in my arm. X-rays were not really telling us anything other than there was no fracture. Off for an MRI, I went.

Fast forward a couple of days… MRI revealed that my rotator cuff is partially torn. No wonder I’m still in pain and have drastically reduced range-of-motion!

Now, I have a referral to a Orthopedic Surgeon. First available appointment is July 19.

I wait.

Typing is a chore. Digital scrapbooking is a nightmare. I spend my time playing CityVille and FrontierVille on Facebook and playing CityVille: Hometown on my iPhone.

Holding anything weighing more than a few ounces in my left hand is out of the question. Changing diapers is impossible to do one handed.

Christopher has been a huge blessing. He’s cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, changing diapers… basically, he has become my left-hand! What I would do without him here, I do not know. I’ll find out in few weeks when he goes to Cross Country Team Camp.

Gift Number 21 of One Thousand

Number 21 on my list of A Thousand Gifts is too big to not have a blog post all it’s own. This “gift” is just that – a pure gift!

The back story -

A couple of months ago, I took our family pet, Colby, to the groomer. He was in desperate need of a professional groomer’s touch! I can groom him well enough, but there is something about the professional touch.

So I took him back to his original groomer, after failed attempts at finding a groomer closer and/or less expensive. The original groomer also happened to be the lady we got him from.

We (my husband and myself) had been talking for a while about adding a second pooch back into the family. When I took Colby to the groomer, I casually asked if she was still active with the local Cocker Spaniel Rescue. She said she still had contacts, but was not active since her knee replacement. To which I mentioned that I was hoping she was active because we were looking to add a another dog to the family. She proceeded to tell me about Tyra, one of her retiring show dogs. Tyra hadn’t been able to be shown for two years because of some mysterious bald patches on her back side. Due to age and the bald patches, Tyra could no longer be shown or be bred. Tyra needed a home, would we be interested?

Would we be intersted??!!??

How much would the adoption/purchase fee be, I asked. To which, Ms. A. replied “Nothing. Just get her spayed.”

That sweetened the deal tremendously! We had been looking at Cocker Spaniel puppies in the newspaper ($200-$600), the pet store (which we know is a total NO! NO!) wanted about $400. We checked with a couple of other rescues that had listings for dogs on Petfinder.com. They wouldn’t adopt to us because we have children under the age of 10!! WHAT?? That’s ridiculous!

So…

Of course we were interested – Tyra is Colby’s full sister! They are from the same litter. The disposition of the dogs from that litter is unmatched!!

So, a few weeks ago, I brought Tyra home for us to “try on”. We had to make sure the dogs were going to get along. We had to make sure that Tyra was going to tolerate being a family dog in a large busy family with toddlers.

She worked out beautifully…

Then she came into season. So I called the groomer/owner/breeder/handler to see if she could board and protect Tyra until the “season” passed. I did not want puppies. It was agreed that I would bring her back and she would finish her season there.

Husband and I went on a bike trip. I got hurt. I spent the last couple of weeks recovering. I still have a ways to go, but I can type some with my left hand now. Progress.

I called on Monday to check on my girl. No answer – left a message.

Owner/breeder/handler/groomer shows dogs, so I wasn’t worried when she didn’t call me back that day or yesterday.

I called again this morning… hoping to catch one of the other groomers in the shop. To my surprise I got Ms. A. herself! YAY!

Could I pick up Tyra this evening?

YOU BET!

Got home about an hour ago.

Gift Number 21 of One Thousand…

Home to Stay!

One Thousand Gifts

The author of a blog I stalk follow had a give-away during Lent for the book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp. (linked using my Amazon Affiliate link)

I’m a lucky girl, because I won!

This book is life changing. As I read (nope, I’m not done yet), I can feel my heart and soul stirring in a way I have not felt in a very long time. I’ve been struggling for a while to find all that is good, beautiful, and right with the world from the household bunkers of messy laundry, dirty dishes, and the clutter and clatter of 5 children.

Ann has a way with words! Her words, her expression of God’s words, are opening my eyes and my heart to the “little things”. “Little Things” are so important to me right now. They are the corner stones of the lives of two Catholic women I have been studying – Saint Therese of Lisieux and Blessed (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta. I’m still making all of the connections from this book to them to my life and faith as a Catholic Wife and Mother.

So, as a result, I’ve started my list. In the future, I will include photos or scrapbook pages when and where I can.

1. Able hands in substitution
2. bouncing giggles of tots
3. dark chocolate frozen dairy perfection
4. the unsteady reading of a child’s book
5. sleeping boys
6. health and wellness being restored
7. excited anticipation
8. willing risers
9. pig-tails in blonde hair
10. the smell of SPF 60
11. the hum and swoosh of a machine working
12. Three year old “magic”… TA-DA!
13. Two year old dressing self completely for the first time
14. Predictable lunch requests from youngest three children
15. Pineapple. YUM!
16. Gooey fingers after a cold treat on a hot summer afternoon
17. Skilled surgeons
18. Post-surgery telephone call from Dad, “Mom is doing fine.”
19. Math fact practice in the form of video game
20. Music in my ears

So you’re probably wondering where “big stuff” is from my list – like my house, my husband, and each of my children… they are all there in that list above, just in a small doses. Remember, I’m trying to appreciate the little things.

I’ll post these lists as often as I am inspired to do so. Not going to make a solid commitment to daily or weekly – it’s summer time and I need to “go with the flow.”