Christmas gifts

Since we were in Orlando for Christmas Day, I didn't see my presents until we returned on the 30th. Since I am very good recognizing my name, I opened all the presents that had a tag with a big Diego on them.
I received many fun things including a Smart Brite, books, Baby Bop and BJ dolls, videos and DVD's.

We have company!

While we were in Orlando, abuela, abuelo and Titi Lourdes came to visit us. They stayed in a hotel close to ours and we saw each other every day. We went shopping in different Outlets and we also visited Mary Queen of the Universe shrine.

Here I am with Abuela and Titi and with Abuela and Abuelo:

Then on Friday we all came to Tampa together and everybody stayed home.

Christmas Vacations

For Christmas this year, my family went to Orlando where we stayed in a very nice hotel and visited fun places.

First, we went to Sea World and I loved riding the Atlantis roller coaster. I love getting wet in this ride and the thrill of the fall! We saw pinguins, sea lions and otters. It was a lot of fun and thanks to my red wagon, I was able to travel around the park without getting too tired. In Sea World we met with Titi Annie, Tio Boris, Ana Cristina, Titi Luly and Tio Bebi. They were also vacationing in Orlando and we spent some time together feeding the dolphins.

This is me on the Penguin Encounter exhibition:

That night we went to Celebration to a party in the street and they had snow! I enjoyed the snow falling in the floor and all over me!

The next day, it was Christmas day and we went to Universal Studios. This day was AMAZING because not only I rode in E.T. the ride, Men in Black and Jaws, most important I went to see BARNEY on stage!!!. This is not the first time I go, but each visit I understand more and more and have more fun every time. On this ocassion, my brother got first row seats for me and I saw everything upclose. I didn't miss a detail and my mom recorded the show to watch it at home. When the show was over I saw Barney in person and gave him my biggest smile and hug. I also enjoy visiting the Barney Store and I can be there for hours if you let me, looking at all the cool things I enjoy like books, videos and toys of my favorite characters.

This is me on the Barney Fountain:

The next day, we visited Islands of Adventure and I loved riding the Storm ride, Spider Man, the Brutus rafts (where I got soaked!!), the Unicorn roller coaster and all the Dr. Seuss rides.

Winter Break is here

Today was the last day of school before the winter break and my teachers had a fun day of activities prepared.
We painted, cut, glued, mixed and had a very nice time!
I am ready to start my winter break and enjoy Christmas.

My diet is changed yet again

In my latest visit to my health care provider, my diet was changed to eliminate two of my favorites: corn tortilla chips and rice. My diet needs to consist of proteins and some fruits and vegetables. My mom is doing this gradually, first eliminating the chips and rice but still letting me have some rice cereal and millet bread. It has been hard for me and the carb cravings are coming strong. Magnesium and Zinc supplements along with some Chamomile seem to help me be in a better mood when things get rough.

Walk Now!

This past Saturday, I participated with my family in the Walk Now event sponsored by CAN - Cure Autism Now, in Orlando.
This "walkathon" has the purpose of raising Autism awareness and also to raise funds for Autism research.
Mama and Papa made t-shirts with my picture and we all wore them for the event. Many people commented how nice our shirts looked!
After walking we stayed in the activity since there were many games of throwing the ball, bubble machines and hoola-hoop. My brother Jay won a prize dancing to the hoola-hoop!
We had so much fun, we plan to make this a yearly event and walk every year until a cure for autism is found.
WE WANT A CURE FOR AUTISM NOW!

I drink from a straw!!

Finally!! After years and years of drinking from a sippy cup - and not wanting to drink from anything else, no matter what, I finally started drinking from a regular cup and straw today!!

It all happened during a field trip that my class had to McDonald's. My teacher Ms. Lauren offered me a plastic cup with a straw with water, and after showing me how to do it, I drank from it like an expert!

Ms. Lauren was so happy she called my mom right away and they were both screaming of happinness over the phone.

I have continued doing it all day long and my parents say there is no turning back. From now on there will be no more sippy cups for this big boy.

As my body gets treated with the clearings plus the detoxing baths plus the AIT sessions that I recently had (and which I would address in a separate blog), my mind awakens to new experiences and understandings. Today my mind clicked to the activity of sucking from a straw and having my drinks without the sippy cup.

For everybody that knows me, this milestone is a huge success. For one thing, leaving the obsession with the sippy cups is great news, but also, drinking from a straw is a very good oral motor exercise that helps the muscles in my mouth to get in shape so that I can articulate sounds better.

We are all very happy! Today is a happy day!

Look at my room!

Papa was on a mission: to redecorate my room to make it nicer for me. He started by removing the carpet and putting a brand new floor. Then, he painted the walls with blue and green. Then he bought a toy cabinet where I can put all my toys and materials for therapy. I was very happy when I saw my new room!

Trick or Treat! Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everybody! This year we went trick or treating around the neighborhood and it was really fun. I got to be Batman and my brother Jay was Darth Vader. I carried my pumpkin basket like a big boy even though I don't eat candies at all. It was a fun night that ended in our neighbor's house, which I love.

Scary Story with a Happy Ending

A while ago, I used to have an obsession with water, very common among children with autism. Our family has a house with a private backyard, no pool, no conservation lot and NO POND. Mama and Papa knew any of these could be dangerous for me.

On the Spring Break of 2003 (I was 3 yrs old), I was playing with my mom and my brother in our backyard. Houses around us were still under construction with the exception of a couple of houses across the street. While playing, Mom went inside the house for a couple of minutes and told my brother to keep an eye on me. My brother got distracted and didn't notice that I took off to cross the street, onto the neighbor's backyard and into the pond.

My mom and my brother were running hysterical trying to find me. By that time I have already went to a screened porch where a neighbor was cleaning his pool and immediately walked to the pond and inside it, thinking I could float. I was so used to wear life saving floaties that I didn't realize I couldn't swim without them.

The neighbor, realizing what I just did went running to my rescue. I was completely under water and mud and leaves got inside my mouth and ears. The day before there had been an alligator in that samespot. My rescuer called on his neighbor to help him since he thought I would need resucitation from drowning. Fortunately, I was fine. Either from drowing, or from getting hurt by an alligator, I was saved!!!!

My mom and dad bought a basket with wine and cheeses for our neighborand his wife. This is smaller than a grain of sand in comparison withthe wonderful, corageous and life-saving act he did, but it was the only way they knew how to say thanks.

Thinking back about this experience, I believe there is an angel watching over me. I could have gone straight to the pond and nobody would have noticed. For some reason, I went to touch the screened porch where my neighbor was and got his attention. Without him, I wouldn't be alive.

Now I know how to swim and I have a tremendous respect for water. I took swimming lessons and don't use floaties anymore. I can be around water, ponds and pools and I never go in without permission and when I go in I am very careful.

Three years had gone by.... God has great plans for me. I need to stay in this earth to teach and learn many things. And that is precisely what I am just doing....

IEP Time!

In school, I have a set of goals that my teachers and therapists follow to work with me and that help them to have a plan of the things that we are going to be working on. These set of goals is what is called an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan).

The IEP contains, besides the goals, a description of the things that I am doing presently. It is called the Present Level of Performance. It was written by my teacher, Ms. Lauren with the inputs of my Speech therapist at school, Ms. Patty and my Occupational therapist at school, Ms. Sabia. This section was read in the IEP meeting and received the approval from my Mom and Dad. I will transcribe a little part of it, so that everybody who knows me and is interested can see where I am right now:

Diego adapted to the new school year very easily... Diego enters the classroom with excitement.... Diego does very well learning new activities... Morning circle and circle time are two of his favorite activities. He follows along with every song and movement visually by looking at his morning cirlce flip book... Diego also enjoys "Specials" especially P.E. and Art time... He loves the interaction with classmates during physical activities... Diego shows awareness and interest in daily classroom activities... He has made excellent progress with following daily routines and transitions well.

The IEP also has other interesting sections. It contains the services that I receive in school like Speech and Occupational Therapy. It even specifies services like the School Bus picking me up every day and that besides being in the classroom with other children with Autism, I also need to spend part of my day with other kids that do not attend Special Education.

My IEP says that I can receive 2 hrs of Speech Therapy and 40 minutes of Occupational Therapy in one week. This amount of time is really low and is not even close to what I need to progress, but this is what is offered in the state of Florida.

My teacher, Ms. Lauren and my teacher aid, Ms. Angie, know a lot about what we do in therapy and they practice things with me every day. Also, my teacher sends homework home and my Mom and my therapist at home, Devoni, can continue practicing skills with me.

Some of the goals in my IEP this year are:
* identify lower and upper case letters in the ABC
* identify colors, shapes and numbers
* learn new words and use picture symbols to communicate

This year is very exciting in school because I am receiving Specials. These are classes that are not offered everyday but that complete the curriculum of our class. They are offered my different teachers and they are P.E., Art and Music and even Science. I LOVE SPECIALS and have a lot of FUN with them.

Yummy Yummy - about food, vaccines, etc.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, I got love in my tummy!!!

I love to eat my food!. My favorite things to eat right now are: hamburgers without the bun, white rice, white rice and beans (red, pink, white and black), chicken - especially the Rotisserie chicken and Honey Rice Cereal. I also enjoy eating millet bread and hot rice cereal. Of course I absolutely love to eat chips (tortilla chips and potato chips) and french fries but they are not allowed foods in the list of things that I can eat. I vary my favorites often and I get tired of some things after a while.

As many kids with Autism, I follow a Special Diet.

Researchers believe that children with Autism have problems digesting some foods because they can't break down certain proteins which can lead to the creation of toxins in their bodies. These can evolve into bacteria overgrowth (the bad one, the good bacteria is as a matter of fact, less than what it needs to be due to the bad bacteria overtaking its place) and yeast overgrowth. Notice the word "overgrowth" - the presence is significantly higher than what we all have.

Excess yeast and bad bacteria can produce damage to the gut and then the toxins have a way in to go into the bloodstream and eventually to all your body (including the brain).

Yeast is VERY hard to get rid off and it keeps on producing toxins on its own, permeatting them through the gut to the body constantly. Some researchers have identified these toxins as similar to opioids. That makes a lot of sense when you see the behavior of some kids with Autism as being in another world, with their own hallucinations and the mood swings (laughing and then crying). Sounds similar to drug effects, doesn't it?

Why does this happen is believed to be as the result of a weak digestive immune system. The digestive immune system is the most important immune system we have, but for an unknown reason, it can be weak in some kids and unable to perform its function appropiately. This is also why it is believed that kids with a weak digestive system are unable to get rid of chemicals like those found in the vaccines.

Not all the kids who get vaccinated develop Autism, but if they are prone to it by having a weak immune system, then, they will be unable to get rid of the tremendous load of heavy metals, toxins and chemicals that enter their body and it will be like poison for them.

Excess antibiotics can also be very dangerous to kids with weak digestive immune systems. If many antibiotics are prescribed to a small child due to for example, recurrent ear infections (which are believed to be yeast overgrowth and not necesarily need to be treated with an antibiotic), the antibiotics will kill the bad bacteria but also the good bacteria in the gut and it will only contribute to more bad bacteria and yeast overtaking the place of the good bacteria, thus creating more problems in an already compromised gut who doesn't know how to break down certain proteins.

There is no way right now to diagnose or identify a weak digestive immune system to distinguish what kids can be harmed by vaccines and what kids will be ok, or really, less harmed.

That is why it is such a personal decision to decide if a child should be vaccinated in the typical way or if a different approach should be taken. One approach could be skip the vaccines completely. Another can be to have a more relaxed schedule for vaccinations over a longer period of time and to have them one by one. Even to decide if they are all really necessary or if only a few would be enough. If we had to do it all over again, we would definetely go with a different approach than the typical.

The sad part is that most pediatricians dismiss this so easily that parents are left to their own to find the information they need to make a responsible decision.

I am 6 years old

Today is my 6th birthday. I started the day very happy and my mom brushed my hair like a big boy. Mama and Papa are very excited because FINALLY, I'm smiling at the camera when they want to take my picture. In school, I gave goody bags to my friends and they sang Happy Birthday to me. After school, we went to Chuck E. Cheese, which is one of my favorite places and then we went to Target where I selected a DVD as my gift. I was so tired when we got home that I went straight to bed! What a great day!

The Many Faces of Autism

Autism is really a mysterious and overwhelming disease. It can try to take over your life and show the world many different faces. If you see a child with the face of an angel, laughing the sweetest and most contagious laugh while having "far-away-eyes", is hard to imagine that the same child can be screaming and crying for "no apparent reason" two minutes later.
That is what Autism can do. It can disturb your body so much that the sensations and interpretation of what goes in the body plus what goes out in the environment can cause a great gamma of feelings.
In the "Autism World" you can find the term "stims" coming from "stimulating behaviors" that an individual with autism can engage into an that can really make evident that person has autism (let's stop using the term autistic, please - not politically correct).
Stimming can include:
- flapping hands/fingers
- closing eyes
- spinning in circles
- covering ears
- loud vocalizations
and many other behaviors that can be extremely dangerous when they involve self-injurious aggressions.
What can you do?
If you ever are in the presence of a child engaging in behaviors that can be misunderstood as "tantrums" or "spoiled", please be sympathetic. Don't stare, don't judge and don't try to give simple solutions. The parents of a child with autism having a bad episode, probably feel bad as it is. Share a positive thought, a silent prayer, a heartfelt smile: good energies can really help!

All that Jazz!!

Today, I am starting Music Therapy. This is a new and exciting therapy that has the purpose of regulating frequencies in the ear and the brain that need to be balanced to understand sounds better.

We hope this therapy will help me to improve my verbal communication. We have done AIT in the past, which is another form of Audio Therapy but at this moment my doctor thinks it will be good to do this therapy and expect better results.

In Music Therapy, I listen to different CD's with special music using special earphones, for 30 mins, two times a day. I enjoy listening to the music and find some parts of it, very funny.

I want to say THANK YOU to Ms. Jennifer, Adam's mom who sent me the CD's and also GRACIAS to Abuita who gave me the earphones for my birthday!!!

I listen while I am in the car, and also in my house, preferably while using my swing.

This therapy is supposed to last several months so I am trying to enjoy every minute of it!!

Clear aaaalllllll blockages!!!

Since Autism is still a mystery for the doctors and they don't yet know the cause or the cure, since June 2004 (4.9 yrs old), we are following a biomedical treatment based on Oriental Medicine. It consists of rebalancing and fixing the frequencies in my body to replenish minerals and get rid of all the toxicity that my body can't fight by himself.

In this treatment I really live the life of a king: I get really nice massages two times a day with the purpose of clearing all blockages that are in my body.

Also, once a week, Papá gives me a very warm bath with detoxifying clays. What you see in the bathtub is the residue of the clay after I get my weekly baths.

I also take minerals and yeast fighters that support my body through all this process.


So far, this treatment has helped me to understand things a lot better and I have gotten very good at following instructions. Hopefully, it will continue helping me with not only my receptive but also my expressive language, and this way I fight the Autism that affects me.

My doctor, Theresa, is in this picture with me. She is very sweet and I have fun every time I visit her.

Home Therapy

Since a little before I turned 2 years old (August 2001), I have been receiving Verbal Behavior Therapy.

First, it was with Children Psychology Assoc. Mamá took me there every day for 2 hours and we practiced repeating sounds and playing while Mamá watched me through TV monitors in another room. I had two or three different therapists there and I remember Maggie with lots of love.

Then, Mamá thought it was better to have the therapists coming to our house and we started doing that. I really liked that better because we got to play with all the fun toys I had in my room. Marta was my therapist at that time and I loved her very much.

When we moved to our new house I continued with the therapies at home, everyday after school, for two hours. It is a lot of work but they really help me to learn new things like make puzzles, sort objects and pictures, follow different instructions and lately I have been learning how to write, even my name!. Trisha, Tamika, Sarah and Devoni have been my favorite therapists and they all have one thing in common: they were very nice and they love me very much.

Mamá is very happy that all these people have come into our lifes and we are all very thankful for how nice they have always been to us.

This is Dash

This is Dash, our puppy. He is a black labrador retriever and is only 6 months old. Papa is training him to be my service dog when he grows up. He needs to have an intensive training to learn how to help me in situations of danger like crossing the streets or stopping me if I decide to start running away. He will also help me with my socialization skills since he is a very friendly dog.
He already has an instict to protect me and he comes running to see me everytime he hears me crying. He also loves to be around me and we play together a lot.

Classes start tomorrow!!

Classes start tomorrow and I am going to a new school. It is closer to where I live, so I was assigned to go there. It is a very nice school and I think I am going to love it. I am going to Kindergarten and the room is very beautiful. The 3 of Hearts Foundation http://3ofhearts.org/ even donated $1,000 for materials and supplies. I will post pictures of it later.

BOWLING

Today I went for the first time to play Bowling. I had so much fun!!! I went with Mamita, JJ, Abuita and Abuito. Papito was at work, but he was very happy to know that I was bowling!!.

Here is a picture of me in action.

MINI GOLF and RACE CARS

Today we went to play mini golf and race cars. Since I was too small I was not able to drive the gokart by myself, but I was able to do it with Papito. Take a Look!!

The Abuitos are Here!

Since my abuitos are visiting us, I've been having lots of fun. This is a picture of me and Jay with my abuitos.
We have been to many places including the beach. We stayed at Siesta Key, Florida and I enjoyed every minute of it. Here I am playing in the sand with my brother and Abuita. I LOVE WATER!!!!

We have more visitors!

One day after my abus left, titi Doris came to stay with us for a week. She took care of me and my brother while mama was working. I love having company! Titi Doris took this picture of me and look how happy I am....

Summer is starting!

This summer is having a very exciting start. My grandparents and my madrina came to visit us and I love having people over our house. We spent one week in an apartment close to the beach and we had a lot of fun. We even went to visit the #1 Beach in the U.S. which is the North Beach in the beautiful Fort De Soto, Florida. In this picture I am with my Abus that I love ssoooo much!!! ¡Te quiero mucho, Abu!

HELLO!

Hi! My name is Diego and I am 5 years old. I have Autism and, as you can appreciate by looking at these pictures, I am a happy kid. I live with Mama, Papa, my brother Jay, my dog Dash, 2 birds and 2 fishes.

Autism is a very difficult condition because it doesn't let me speak. I try to say some words but it's really hard. I can understand many things and I am learning more each day. I work very hard for this going to school since I was 2 yrs old and having therapy at home every day.

Since there is no definite explanation as of what causes autism, it is very hard to treat. I have tried many different biomedical treatments and we are still trying to eliminate the toxins that we believe are in my body and are messing me up. The treatment that we are doing right now is a lot of fun because it involves accupressure and frequencies modulations and I really enjoy the massages.

This blog is to record everything that I am doing so my family and friends can keep track of all my activities. It is also a way to keep a connection with all of those who constantly pray for me, and this way we can all be together for a moment while you learn about the new things that are happening in my life.

For now, I understand mostly english, that is why Papa decided to make this blog in english, but soon, we'll have a version is spanish.

Keep on praying for me and I know only good things will come our way.

Love,

Diego