As a teacher, it is my natural instinct to go into research mode and after my son's diagnosis, that is exactly what I did.
Overall I have found that there are hundreds of treatments for ASD, all with stories about how their child was miraculously "cured" of ASD by this treatment, (I hate that word "cured" as ASD is not a disease!). I used to read all about a treatment and go to bed dreaming that I found the right one for my son; that he took the pill or did the therapy and woke up the next day.....fully communicating.
I started, (along with my doctor's guidance), the B6 and magnesium therapy. This was the first treatment I found. It was natural / non invasive (to an extent) and easily accessible. The research/medical journals I read conducted an experiment on children that were weak in school, and claimed that it increased their concentration levels. Others stated that ASD children had a deficiency in magnesium, or that B6 with magnesium decreased any side effects from the B6, together improving verbal skills, non-verbal skills, and social interaction skills.
Sounds amazing, right?
What it failed to tell you was how to get your 5 year old ASD son, who has issues with texture, to swallow the bloody stuff. We tried everything! What finally worked was hiding it in a chocolate (B6) and putting it in his juice (magnesium). Although even that didn't last long as my bright spark of a son soon worked it out, refusing to cooperate. His concentration did improve but to this day I do not know if it was because of the treatment or due to the intense ABA therapy he was doing at the time. I like to think it was a bit of both, but to be truthful even when I stopped the treatment after 6 months, (because the battle to get him to take it became too difficult), his concentration levels continued to improve.
Next I read about
chelation therapy (which uses medication or other agents to remove metal,in particular mercury, from the body). This study asserted that ASD children have decreased detoxification, so have a build up of mercury in their system. It hypothesized that "If similarities between mercury exposure symptoms and autistic symptoms are so great, could it be possible that, in fact mercury can be blamed as one of the main culprits in epidemic of autism?". Now I believe in a kind of providence, and this time it came in the form of radionics. This form of diagnosis is done through analyzing some of his hair, so it was completely non invasive, a big relief after the exhaustion of the B6/magnesium therapy. The results found him to be healthy,
his toxin levels were practically zero, so no detoxification needed for my son.
I also read about Animal therapy, but my son is scared of any animal coming at him, so we did not pursue it. Getting him a bunny rabbit to stroke was the closest we got. He refused to hold her, and would only stroke her if I held her very still on my lap. Even then, it was done with trepidation. He does love his rabbit, but only because she is in a cage and so can't come near him.
More recently, there has been the broccoli sprout treatment (sulforaphane) which has said to improve irritability, lethargy, hyperactivity, awareness, communication, motivation and mannerisms.. Now my son likes broccoli because he likes eating the "little trees" as he calls them, but he won't eat them everyday...who would? I bought him the sulforaphane tablets but after the B6/magnesium and a hilarious afternoon trying to teach him to swallow a tablet (in which he kept pushing the tablet forward with his tongue), I have put it on hold for the time being.
So for a long time I have relied solely on his language, occupational and ABA therapy. They are the ones that have yielded the best results up til now, through good old-fashioned hard work!
So this is as far as I have trekked through the treatment jungle. There are a lot more treatments out there, some I am willing to try like scuba diving (a form of hyperbaric oxygen therapy) and aroma therapy, and others I am not, like risperidone (antipsychotic drugs) and secretin (used for digestive problems).
There is a lot out there in the wilderness, and my advice is to continue to walk the safe path of recognized therapies, because time has shown that they will yield the best results.
