Sunday, May 31, 2015

IonCleanse by AMD, Month 5


May was month 5 of our IonCleanse by AMD footbath experience.  First - the study is now over, and released - the results were AMAZING, and I know lots of people saving their pennies for a machine. I want to tell you to buy it because if it doesn't work on your child (and we all know nothing works on every kid) you can return it for a full refund.  The customer service at AMD is stellar.

Even though the study is formally over, I will be doing an monthly roundup on how Dominic is doing from a higher perspective than my usual "right now" blog posts.

First - ATEC:  Holding steady at a 9.   All points remaining are in speech.  We all know the ATEC doesn't measure everything.

The ATEC doesn't measure everything though. It certainly doesn't measure the absolute social blossoming we've seen this month.

Dominic negotiated for a toy with a peer at school during a bartering session he attended as part of their lessons.

Not only did he go to his VERY first ever school dance, he went unchaperoned (no parents allowed) and was so happy to be there that he very literally skipped into the gym waving backwards at us as he moved forward. 

His pretending to be asleep also astonished us.   The level of cognition required to know that Daddy expected him to be sleeping, and to them pretend to do it so Daddy would leave the room is huge.

He has started asking questions

He has learned how to manipulate his ipad into facetiming random people.  He did it to me while I was in Chicago, and we ended up taking off the phone numbers because he was randomly dialling people.   What was adorable was when I caught him doing it the other day, I asked who he was calling and he pointed at the ipad and said "Mommy".  So now he thinks i'm in the ipad.


We are also now very settled into our regime from Pathways Natural Wellness Center, in Denver and eagerly awaiting the next step - delivery of our homeopathic constitutional remedy.   And we are almost 1 week into our Gemiini discreet video modelling program, plus one week of summer camp down.


Saturday, May 30, 2015

On the other hand...

Gemiini is going well - WHEN we do it at the table not over by the TV while he's soaking his feet.  So, we have a timing and logistical issue to overcome on the weeknights, but during weekends, this is what we're getting.



and



(please pardon my messy kitchen table)

I adore that he's picking up the signlanguage organically AND working on his articulation. 

Friday, May 29, 2015

Transition weeks are rough

Not only did we have an immediate transition from school into camp (only day off was memorial day), we also started Gemiini this week. 

So we are now making Dominic do work on his ipad instead of using it for playing games.  And we figured out how to lock the screen so he cannot change it.  He is not amused. 

We've had a combination of new routine (that requires getting out of the house earlier), new people and expectations during the day, and a battle of wills regarding the ipad.

Not suprisingly, its been a difficult week.  We've seen noncompliance outbursts, stimming, and general crankiness.

Here's hoping next week is easier.

On the bright side, his end consonant articulation is already clearer after just 2 days on Gemiini. 

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Dominic Updates and other Ramblings



~ While I was gone at AutismOne this year, Daddy taught Dominic how to sort his laundry into the appropriate hamper.   (we have a lights bin and a darks bin.  and he GETS IT).  Next up, teaching him how to actually do Laundry.


~ Dominic has figured out how to facetime me from our ipad.  He did it half a dozen times by himself while I was in Chicago, and yesterday facetimed me (I was in the office at home) from the living room.   He points at the iPad and says "Mommy".  Its adorable.


~ We start Gemiini tomorrow.  I talked with their customer service manager for a solid 45 minutes while in Chicago and I'm so excited about the potential here. (hilariously, she offered me a job)  Gemiini repatterns the brain, and I believe we are to the point with Dominic's healing journey that he's ready for this step. 


~ Today is the first day of YMCA summer camp.  Dominic has always loved it and we are hoping that he has a stellar summer.


~  I have started myself on the MitoSynergy regime after meeting their CEO this weekend.  He was doing live blood cell analysis in his room (relax, there were four moms in there with him at the time) and I watched bacteria (probably Lyme disease, but they weren't wearing name tags, so who knows) swim out of my blood cells when they were exposed to the particular proper copper formula that is in the MitoSynergy products.  This means that odds are good Dominic also has lyme.   The regime is ridiculously expensive (I asked for and received a discount) so if its something I need to do for more than a month on myself or at all with Dominic, I'm trusting the universe to provide.


~ My biggest take away from the Autism One conference this year is that I need to take much better care of myself instead of putting all my energy into Dominic.   I don't know yet what that is going to look like, but I'm excited to have gotten the opportunity to receive 3 new-to-me  kinds of energy healings from 3 very amazing women and have a feeling that I'll be working with all three in the future.


~ And as further personal evidence that the footbaths are saving my life - due to a snafu I went through the security machine at Ohare twice on Sunday so got an extra dose of radiation on top of breathing really gross air for 5 days in Chicago.  Felt AWFUL on Monday.  did an hour long footbath,  got loads of heavy metals out and within an hour was feeling human again. 



Saturday, May 23, 2015

Autism one!!

This is my third year attending this conference, and while it has been different every year I really enjoyed getting to catch up with everything and everyone. Highlights this year including getting my own live blood cell analysis, speaking in the footbath presentation even though I hate speaking in public, and spending a lot of time with the team TMR and thinking moms revolution ladies. It's truly a privilege to be around such astonishingly powerful women.

Here are some random pictures from the weekend



With the amazingly strong and compassionate Karen Kain who lost her daughter to vaccine injury, who reminds us every day that we have to take care of ourselves



This is Lonestar,  one of my TEAM TMR sisters and one of the leaders of Texans for vaccine choice - she has spearheaded the drive to kill all the vaccine bills in Texas and we are sending her to DC next


TEAM TMR Mamas


More TEAM TMR. Mamas


The amazing Alison and Lisa.  Such incredible ladies 



My new friend Crash and her dog Shadow.  


TEAM mamas


And this is Count, the lone dad in the Thinking moms revolution.  He took pity on my hungry self and brought me chicken wings for lunch on Friday when I worked 10- 2 in the TMR lounge.  

Friday, May 22, 2015

cuteness abounds

(editors note, I'm rerunning favorite posts while i'm at Autism One This year)


As I was peeling potatoes to cook for dinner last night, Dominic caught sight of several miller moths fluttering in my kitchen window.

To set the stage, the window is behind the sink, and on the window ledge are dish soap, a plant, my bacon grease jar, a misc. jar, and some small tubes Rod uses to brew.

So Dominic sees the moths, leaps up on the counter top and sticks his hand up under the mini blinds to catch a moth.  He gets the first one, jumps down, puts it in his bug container, and jumps back up for another one.  He manages to knock the lid off my  grease jar (don't ask how, i don't know) and the next thing I know, a moth has landed in the grease.  He fishes the now struggling moth out of the grease and jumps down. He then proceeds to wrap the moth up in a kitchen tpwel and wipe it off.  He was so dejected when the moth appeared to be dead.  He looked up at me and said "trash" with a sad face.

After he deposited it in the trash he jumped up to catch the next one.

Seriously, the end of moth season cannot come soon enough.

~~~~~

We have the best dog on the planet.  Dominic put a bandaid on him for no apparent reason this morning, and not only did Shanti leave it there all day, he curled up and snuggled with Dominic for a good while earlier today:




Thursday, May 21, 2015

another parent broke...

(editors note, I'm rerunning favorite posts while i'm at Autism One This year)

Go read it. 

The go read her last blog post before attempting murder/suicide.  Her very safety net was yanked out from under her.  She broke. I GET IT.  Its not very far off for me to reach to know the feelings she must've felt. 
 
And I'm telling you - unless this country, and every state in this country gets on the ball NOW, this is just going to get more common.  Dominic's elementary school SPED teacher has a caseload of 30 children.  There are 300 in the school.  Thats 10%.   How many of those 10% of parents losing hope and killing (or attempting to kill) their children is it going to take to get the Powers That BE to do something?????


We have a security net very well in place and probably a dozen people who if I called and said I was at the end of my rope and it was about to break,  would drop everything and help.  But so many parents don't. Its absolutely criminal that autism is not being treated as an epidemic.

Edited after some lively facebook discussion to add:
Its hard, so hard, as a parent to ask for help, but on the other side of the coin , following someone's story and hoping you see when they need help isn't enough. Show up one night with dinner for the kids (dietarily appropriate) and a GC to send the parents out for an evening of mindless fun while you hang out with the kids. or offer to pay for respite care and go out w/the parents yourselves for adult fun, or offer to cover a week of therapy or offer to change the locks on their house to appropriate ones, or offer to help kick in for whatever their latest attempt to help their child is (hbot / gcmaf / blah blah blah are all ridiculously expensive), show up at the hospital when their kid has yet another test or yet another visit to the ER... hold their hand. Be their strength when they don't have anymore. Be involved. Be the one they CAN call when they are at that end of the rope and know what to do to take over for them if they really need a break.   Be their advocate in the community;.  Reach out because probably the reason they haven't called is they simply don't have time to take their eyes off their kids.

Edited a second time, after more lively facebook discussion...

My friend Tally has a different perspective than mine above.  And she's right.  This is about a cultural shift, not about a one time deal like the above would make us think.  She says
It's parents being able to go to the grocery store with their stimmy child and no one looking at them sideways when he starts to flap his hands. It's people smiling and offering to help hold the baby when the autistic kid is tantruming in a parking lot. And not just a one -off. EVERY DAY!! It's a mom being able to just let her kid run around outside because she knows the other kids have been taught to look out for him and will come get her if something goes wrong. It's about NOT feeling isolated. It's about NOT feeling alone. It's about a neighbor NOT getting upset when your autistic son lets her birthday girl's balloons go because he wants to see them fly. It's about NOT having to worry about your kid's future, because your entire COMMUNiTY loves and appreciates him/her. It's about ALL of us coming together and living as tribes again rather than isolated lonely singular half-souls begging for some damn contact..... These mothers are DYING. They feel like freaks because they are trying to help their kid and EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is set up against them. Their children are being exterminated. They are HOPELESS.



Its the older generation not just jumping straight to "bad parenting" when they see the meltdowns, and instead helping.  Its not having to argue with the school about sending your kids food in (seriously, there're school nurses now calling parents arguing with them because they are GFCF).  Its not having to fight to keep your child safe, because there's a net.  Its not having to deal with insurance companies that stop coverage the day your kid turned 7... its being able to get the therapy and services they need without killing yourself.

Its HUGE change that must happen.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Homage to the sisterhood

(Ed note:  I am rerunning favorite blog posts while I am at AutismOne This year. I hope you enjoy)





I have opined many times about the irony of this thing called Autism bringing me the closest friends I've ever have. I suppose this most is more of the same, and its been on my mind a lot lately.

These are the ladies who, as I post the gains Dominic is making with the various protocols we are doing, cheer us on from afar.  They cry rivers of happy tears for us.  They call me squealing in giddiness!  They have helped troubleshoot when things haven't gone so well.


They are the ladies who, when DH was in the hospital last fall, filled my fridge, babysat, moved into my house to support me, sent chocolate  from afar (bacon chocolate, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate bars.. so much chocolate), stayed online with me around the clock (in fairness, some of them are on the other side of the world) when i couldn't sleep, talked me out of panic, sat on facetime with me because I didn't want to be alone, and kept me sane.   Their support of someone who was essentially a stranger (some i've met at conference, many i have not) moved me in ways that are completely indescribable.



They are the ladies who make suggestions of things that might help (the footbaths - that came from one of them... ).

We regularly have virtual happy hours where we sit online and chat with a glass of whatever we feel like. 


 

They are the ones who "get" the inchstones.   
They are the bravest moms I know - willing to walk through fire for each other.  And fiercely fighting for their children.

And, as we recover, I know that I will never not be a part of them and I would walk through fire for them.







 
This ones for my girls. xox



Sunday, May 17, 2015

Homeopathy, here we come!

Yesterday we had the most amazing team consult for Dominic.  We had our long time Chiropractor, our Naturopath, and the owner of Pathways Natural Wellness center all together with the three of us to work on Dominic's plan.

The biggest thing to come out of that session is that our naturopath, who is also a homeopath, is working up his constitutional remedy.  I'm very excited about this because I've known about homeopathy and its been on my list for years, I just haven't had the knowledge of where to start.  She does.  And the cool thing is I went to college with her almost 20 years ago.

I love the concept of a treatment team and I'm so glad it came together.

In other news, we haven't had hardly any miller moths this year.  I think the weather has been too cool for them.  Maybe they will show up late, who knows.

Most years they've been and gone by now.  We found one in the kitchen yesterday and here's what transpired


Friday, May 15, 2015

Yesterday

When Dominic got home from speech therapy yesterday, he went to the back door turned and looked at me, and said "what to do, what to do"

I said how about you go outside and jump on the trampoline. And he did.

He clearly asked a question.  

This is huge


And here is an unrelated random
Picture of Dominic hanging out with Dexter the other day


Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Faking it

Tonight, Dominic doesn't seem to  to go to sleep. I put him in bed a little after his normal time and he delayed wanting to read a book. Okay we read the book. An hour and a half later he still in his bed and giggling and playing, and daddy just reminded him to go to sleep again. Daddy didn't have his glasses on as he was getting ready for bed (Our bathroom opens into Dominic's room). Daddy told Dominic to go to sleep and Dominic lay down, close his eyes, and let out a giant fake snore. This is the first time that we believe he has tried to fake being asleep. This is a weird thing to count as a gain, but we will take it.  

Random unrelated picture.  

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Poetry

Dominic has been working REALLY hard to write poetry at school.  From the way the SPED teacher described it, this is ALL him with the words, then the para writes them in faint pencil and he traces over them.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

End of Footbath Study results.

Personally we dropped from a 29 ATEC to an 8
We made TONS of improvements not reflected in the ATEC.

The overall study will be presented Saturday May 23 at 4pm at Autism One in Chicago. I will be give a quick little blurb at the end talking about what WE saw.   Here's a teaser of the data.  Its AMAZING stuff, I tell you.



I have to say, having just spent the weekend with the president and national sales manager for A Major Difference at TACA in Philadelphia - these guys are the real deal. They are in it to help families and if their device doesnt help, they give you a full refund.  The customer service is astonishing and while we know nothing works for every family, they are being completely transparent about it in their presentation which is also unheard of.

So proud to have been a part of this study and we are never stopping the footbaths. We love them.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Getting spiffed up for the Sock Hop

White tshirt, Actually tucked in (a minor miracle), jeans, cuffed.  Belt, check
Beaver toy, yep







Gelled hair.  Check.










Adorable!
 


Little Attitude is always a good thing.



And...
Thats enough pictures now Mom...




Edited to Add:
He had a great time.  When we dropped him off, he waved and basically bounced into the gym with his friends.  When we arrived to pick him up, he was sitting waiting for us and we got a huge smile and double thumbs up from the principal, who said he had a blast. 

*NOT* a Fad Diagnosis

Thank you to the awesome Ginger for finding this gem.


You know how the media and lots of doctors say that Autistic kids have always been there, we just classified them as "retarded" and actually an Autism diagnosis is a fad?  We autism parents have all said thats not true, we remember our high schools having almost no special needs kids - and they ones they did have were CP, Downs, and Spina Bifida.  Turns out there was a study released in April that showes we are right.


The abstract:



This study examined the prevalence and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy (CP), hearing loss (HL), intellectual disability (ID), and vision impairment (VI) over a 15-20 year time period, with specific focus on concurrent changes in ASD and ID prevalence. We used data from a population-based developmental disabilities surveillance program for 8-year-olds in metropolitan Atlanta. From 1991-2010, prevalence estimates of ID and HL were stable with slight increases in VI prevalence. CP prevalence was constant from 1993-2010. The average annual increase in ASD prevalence was 9.3% per year from 1996-2010, with a 269% increase from 4.2 per 1,000 in 1996 to 15.5 per 1,000 in 2010. From 2000-2010, the prevalence of ID without ASD was stable; during the same time, the prevalence of ASD with and without co-occurring ID increased by an average of 6.6% and 9.6% per year, respectively. ASD prevalence increases were found among both males and females, and among nearly all racial/ethnic subgroups and levels of intellectual ability. Average annual prevalence estimates from 1991-2010 underscore the significant community resources needed to provide early intervention and ongoing supports for children with ID (13.0 per 1,000), CP, (3.5 per 1,000), HL (1.4 per 1,000) and VI (1.3 in 1,000), with a growing urgency for children with ASD.



And because we're visual....



Next route of Denial, please....

Thursday, May 7, 2015

End of year school meeting

I alluded to it yesterday and in fact this blog was going to run before yesterdays, I was just too excited  to not share yesterday's news.  We met with our SPED teacher Monday to touch base on the end of the year.


Some highlights...


The maturity growth she has seen at school blows her mind.  He is SO independent and wanting to be doing things with his peers.  This is both positive and negative because he completely doesn't want to be pulled out of the classroom to work IEP goals, but is not even close to classroom level of academics.   Social interaction has SOARED this semester, but academics have suffered because he doesn't want to be apart from his peers.


She is beyond impressed at the gains from the IonCleanse by AMD footbath protocol we've been doing the last 4 months.  She said she has never seen another child with his level of disability make the kinds of improvements that Dominic has this semester. 


We told her we are next going to work on the Gemiini program over the summer - the plan is to start that in the next few weeks and be diligent with it this summer.  We would like to teach him days, our address, currency, work on speech turn taking and sentence formation.  We have heard such good stuff about the program from other folks that its falling into the category of we cannot not try it. She was intrigued, particularly because Gemiini was started both for Downs and Autism and she's got 2 kiddos with DS coming in next year.  I actually think she's going to look at the program and try to get the school to pay for a school membership. I know we are very blessed by our support system in our school district.

She agrees that we're *almost* there with his brain pathways, and that he's retaining a lot more than we give him credit for.  We both think he's reading.  He is absolutely retaining information much more than we think.  We're going to make a concerted effort across both environments to not respond to his requests unless he uses all his words.


We will probably do a re-evaluation IEP earlier in the school year than we need to next fall to address his desire to not be pulled out of class, if he can focus AND if we can make some good progress over the summer.



Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Daring to Hope

A few years ago, a friend of mine said to me - "Can you imagine his first dance at school?" and I couldn't.   I have been so focused on the Right Now of getting Dominic the tools he needs to function now, that I haven't allowed myself the luxury of daydreaming about his future.   That's not my world.  The future doesn't exist - we have only today.


Last Friday, a note came home from school that because Dominic had zero disciplinary referrals this year he had a golden ticket to the annual Sock hop, which is being held tomorrow night.   Dad and I kind of looked at each other and weren't sure.  The rules say that parents don't get to stay.


We discussed with our SPED teacher Monday.  Apparently this is a Big Deal and all the kids - including Dominic - have been practicing dance moves for the last 2 weeks.  And he's terribly excited about it.  (It certainly explains why I keep hearing "Mommy, Dance!)   There will be tons of teacher volunteers there and she swears he'll be safe.  They will be having hot dogs, so I made her promise to ensure that he doesn't have the bun and we're going to do it.  We're going to drop him off at 6pm for a dance!  and he's going to stay until 8. 


My baby is going to his first school dance.  The one that I couldn't even bear to hope for not that long ago.  Someone pinch me.


Now.  he's supposed to dress up in 1950's theme.  I'm thinking jeans and a white tshirt.  We don't have black shoes, so his sneakers will have to do, and i'll slick his hair back with some gel, if he'll let me.


I'm hoping they take some pictures for me and email them to me.  If nothing else, I'll get a pic of how he looks before we drop him off.


Thank you IonCleanse by AMD, and Pathways for helping us get him to a point maturity wise that we're even willing to consider this.   And thank you to my TeamTMR sisters for being the steel in my spine to keep me from never stopping looking for our answers.  The progress we've made with him since January is nothing short of astounding.

We had hit a point where we were completely thinking in one day at a time and not doing any hoping for the future.  Now I feel like I can hope.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Monday, May 4, 2015

Negotiation skills??? Wow!!!

So while I was away working at the TACA conference this past weekend, Dominic had a cool experience at school.  The plan was for the fourth graders to have a "rendezvous" where they traded toys to help them understand the concept of barter.   So Dad sent Dominic to school with a handful of things to trade.

He forwarded me the following email dialogue with our special ed teacher on Friday night and I about fell out of my chair.  She had promised to keep an eye on what Dominic ate and make sure it stayed on the diet (this way he could participate in the picnic with his peers after the rendezvous)

Dad:
"Thank you so much for keeping an eye on Dominic's food intake."

Our SPED Teacher
"We will…he is soooo excited. It will be a great learning experience for him and time to bond with his peers. He hates coming out of class these days. "

Dad:
"hates coming out of class", in what way?  Do you mean he is having difficulties transitioning? 

SPED Teacher:
"Not at all, he just loves being with his friends and doesn’t like to come out to do IEP goals with me. He is definitely making tremendous social progress. That’s a good thing. Sorry if I alarmed you. I just watched him trade for a bottle of bubbles and it was so positive. He just said ‘trade” and offered his toy and then said ‘bubbles please’ and waited and handed over his toy. WOW….."

~~~~~~~~~~~~


Totally cannot be measured by an ATEC.  I am so blown away at how much progress he's made since we started the IonCleanse by AMD footbaths.


Sunday, May 3, 2015

Mom goes to TACA



This past weekend was my first trip to Philadelphia. It was also my first trip to the TACA conference. I flew out to help the folks at A Major Difference with their booth at this conference and as such have gotten to meet a whole bunch of really cool people. I've also got to see a number of longtime friends who live on the East Coast and who come to TACA events.  The energy here is very different than the energy at A1. It doesn't feel frenetic / dramatic at all.  It is a bunch of really nice people who really like each other.  Its cool.

This is my friend Heidi.  She is Mrs Midwest International (or something like that) and an ambassador for the Autism Hope Alliance.  We did the whole squeal jump hug thing when she got in late on Thursday.






I made a book of our experience with the IonCleanse by AMD.  Its basically a shiny version of the IonCleanse by AMD Tab of this blog.   Its made a tremendous impression on folks.  I hope we are making a difference for these people who are searching for something to try to help their children.







And these are my girls.  When I said I was coming to TACA, they decided to drive over from Long Island to hang out and do the conference.  I am beyond blessed. 


 





Overall, its a very different experience doing a conference as a vendor than as a parent.  I talked to a TON of moms and dads this weekend and met some really cool people.


What was hilarious to me was that during the times most of the attendees were in presentations, we had other vendors lining up to do cleanses.   We probably administered 100 footbaths this weekend, if not a few more.  It was very cool to be a part of getting this awesome product out to the autism community because of the difference its made for us.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

First responder


One of my dear friends referred to me as one of her autism first responders a week or so ago. That has stuck with me because no one ever described it that way before but it is exactly what I do. When parents reach out and ask where to start I roll my sleeves up and help them.
When Dominic regressed at age 3, he was a late regression. And he was late because we delayed his vaccines - we didn't give him a single shot until he turned two. We did that because our niece nearly died from one of her vaccines.  When Dominic regressed, he and I were regular active members in a local moms group that met at a park once a week. I distinctly remember how well he interacted with the other children and talk to and in general was a perfectly typical little boy.

Everyone of those moms in the playgroup watched his regression right along with me. And everyone of them took note of what happened.   Most of that group of women has moved on. Which is typical for lots of reasons: it's very hard to watch a child regress who is a friend of your child's and to know that you managed to dodge a bullet. And frankly it's really hard to have a non-typical child in with typical kids - it just doesn't work well.

Recently, I got this message from one of those moms from those play date days.  we still keep in touch - I don't think I laid eyes on her in 3 years but that's what Facebook is for.



This is why I do what I do. Because I know that there are children out there who are safer when their parents know the truth. Their Parents watched what happened to Dominic. They know I am not hysterical or crazy because they watched it too.
 

Friday, May 1, 2015

So. April is over.

I know that my blog posts last month were not my normal fare.  I know that many of them were hard to read, hard to conceptualize.  My goal in posting them all was not to spread awareness.  Awareness and acceptance are not what is needed.

What is needed is ACTION.  Get off your butt and make a difference

What, you say?

Well, here are some ideas:

1.  Make a difference in the life of an autism family you know personally
- offer to babysit so Mom and Dad can have time alone together
- Cook dinner (ask about dietary restrictions first) and have the entire family over
- Gift them with something on their wish list.  For Example,  2 years ago we were gifted with a Sonic toothbrush because Dominic's teeth kept staining from the CD and i just couldn't justify the $60 for a toothbrush because funds were just not there.  One arrived in the mail anonymously.

2.  Make a difference in the life of an autism family you don't know
- Make a donation to TeamTMR's grant program.  100% of funds go to our program and we offer grants for a wide range of needs, including things too alternative for most grant programs to cover.
- Contact one of the places that offers reduced cost services to families and make a donation to them to help cover those services.  An example is Pathways Natural Wellness Center in Denver.
- The next time you see a mom with a child melting down in the grocery store - stop and offer to help.


3.  Make a difference in a family who you have concerns about, but they don't have a diagnosis
- Buy them this book. Or this one.  Or, frankly, ANY of these.

4.  Become political.  Get to know your legislator and let them know you are against legislation that takes any aspect of parental decision making regarding children's health away.