Okay…so I watched Autism Every Day on Friday. You can watch it by going here: http://www.autismspeaks.org/sponsoredevents/autism_every_day.php

Here are my thoughts…although I’m glad people are finally giving autism the attention it deserves and it’s my understanding that the point of this film is to raise research money… great. I also think it’s beneficial for the world to understand autism so they can stop staring at us like we’re bad parents. But I also think this film is one of the biggest downers I’ve ever seen. Had I seen this film 3 years ago, I would have curled up on the floor and wanted to die.

Fortunately, my Friday AM started with my son’s behaviorist spending a good 15 minutes talking about how he’s a different child from when she started as his school shadow in September. How he now shows a full range of emotions, a sense of humor, seeks out other kids socially..etc, etc. It was a good day in the land of autism.

Thank God, because if I had watched this film on a bad day…it would’ve floored me. It has the potential to take the wind out from beneath your wings.

Autism Every Day never mentions anything about hope…nothing about the things you can do to turn the tables on autism. Yes, having a child on the spectrum is really, really tough and yes…Jake used to bang his head and twist his hands like the one little boy in the film and yes…he used to run away full speed and scare the crap out of me until I was afraid to go anywhere, and yes my marriage fell apart and I’ve spent all my $ on treatments, but guess what…he’s getting better. A lot better. And I know he’s going to go to college and have a career and get married. I wasn’t sure 3 years ago and I really don’t want to relive those feelings. It broke my heart into a thousand peices and I’m still scared, but not anywhere near hopeless. Quite the contrary actually. I have a child I interact with every single day. He has a crush on a girl. He speaks in full, interesting, amusing sentences and paragraphs.

Sure, he still punches his own head when he gets really mad and sure he likes to give things a good spin every once in a while, but I’d be happy to show a documentary filmmaker some of the old footage of Jake at his worst and then have him interview us now. Now that’s a movie we parents need to see.

So instead of wallowing in hopelessness, I’ll be attending the Autism One conference in Chicago this weekend. Where, I’ll be filming a lot of the footage for the Reverse Autism Starter Kit and learning as much as I can about the latest cutting edge treatments.

Autism Every Day is important, it’s critical that the world at large understands what we go through every day, but what’s more important is understanding there are things you can do to reverse the symptoms. It’s not hopeless…take as much time as you need to feel sorry for yourself (hey, I do it too!), then shake it off and press on. Don’t settle…fight it!

:)

Elynn

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found a correlation between an ingredient found in shampoos and nervous system damage. The experiments were conducted with the brain cells of rats and they show that contact with this ingredient called methylisothiazoline, or MIT, causes neurological damage.

Which products contain this chemical compound MIT? Head and Shoulders, Suave, Clairol and Pantene Hair Conditioner all contain this ingredient. Researchers are concerned that exposure to this chemical by pregnant women could put their fetus at risk for abnormal brain development. In other people, exposure could also be a factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and other nervous system disorders.

The chemical causes these effects by preventing communication between neurons. Essentially, it slows the networking of neurons, and since the nervous system and brain function on a system of neural networks, the slowing of this network will suppress and impair the normal function of the brain and nervous system.

FULL STORY HERE: http://health.benabraham.com/html/your_shampoo_has_bad_toxins.html

Antibacterial soaps Unsafe?

University of California, Davis. In three separate studies, the researchers showed that the chemicals — triclosan and triclocarban — have potential to affect sex hormones and interfere with the nervous system.

an Chang, PhD, a professor of environmental engineering at U.C. Davis and one of the researchers involved, says he doesn’t want to cause a panic, but “the public should be aware of some of the concerns.”
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=89871

Toxic Products/Nontoxic Alternatives

Here is an interesting link to a site that lists the most common products we use in our homes everyday, the unhealthy toxins in those products and a long list of healthy alternatives.
http://chemicalxxx.tripod.com/id3.html

Non-Stick Coatings Contain PFOA

Bottom line…the safest bet is to go back to cast iron pans. I think I’ve seen some cool pots and pans in Whole Foods.
http://www.seventhgeneration.com/learn/blog/chemical-keeps-keepin

Meet Your Meat…See What You Are Eating… Ew!

I’ve been eating organic meats ever since I saw this video. I think you’ll see why!!!
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=mym2002

My Favorite Non-Toxic Housecleaning Products
Tips from Terri

Our kids on the autistic spectrum are extremely sensitive to environmental toxins of all kinds, so it’s very important for them (and the rest of us, too!) to try to make our household environment as non-toxic as possible. I wanted to share the products I’ve found that I like best to use in my own house for cleaning and personal care. I’ve tried to give a link where you can at least see a picture of each product, but I don’t know the sources very well, as I buy all of these things at my local health food or grocery stores.

PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS

Hand and Body Soap
Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap – Pay no attention to the ‘wacko’ sounding stuff on the label, this liquid handsoap is just great to use, washes off easily and sudses up nicely. I get the best deal by buying it by the gallon, and pouring it into small bottles in each bathroom (sink and shower), and in the kitchen. It’s a liquid castille soap, made with organic oils. Comes in other scents, including lavender and tea tree. We tried the tea tree, for the extra antibacterial qualities, but didn’t like the way it smelled.
http://www.drbronner.com/

Toothpaste
Xyliwhite, by Now Products – This is a great tasting toothpaste (minty but not very sweet or strong) that I just found last month. Haven’t gotten my son to use it yet, but working on it (he likes his awful green watermelon-flavored sparkly stuff too much!). What I love about Xyliwhite is that it is fluoride-free, and contains no lauryl sulfate. The ingredients, including Xylitol and Tea Tree, are pretty non-toxic and supposed to be very effective at helping with oral health.
http://www.iherb.com/xyliwhite.html

Shampoo
Trader Joes “Spa” shampoo

Deodorant

Tom’s various deodorants – Each of us seems to like a different one, but there are quite a few to choose from. These are free of aluminum, and less nasty than mainstream deodorants, but still contain propylene glycol (antifreeze). I’d love to find something even less toxic, but it’s gotta work, and so far, this is the best I’ve found.

Skin Cream and Lotion

Nature’s Body Beautiful is a company that sells Bentonite clay, which is used for detoxification through the skin. All of their products contain the clay. The way I found the company is through the clay, but the products of theirs that I’ve kept using are their skin creams, which are very ‘clean’, and come without any fragrance. I use their Miracle Rejuvenation Face Cream and their Nature’s Body Souffle on my face, and their Nature’s Body Lotion as a more general hand cream type thing.
http://www.naturesbodybeautiful.com/nbb_products.htm

Lice
I hate lice!! We haven’t had them for a long time, but I sure did hate when we did. Here’s my lice cure: get some tea tree oil shampoo and tea tree oil – most healthfood stores sell these – and start using the shampoo on everyone in the house. Soak brushes/combs in hot water with teatree oil in it. Change and wash everyone’s pillowcase daily, other sheets at least a couple times a week in hot water. Put all blankets through the wash once when you find out you’ve got lice, and weekly after that until they’re gone.

Get a Licemeister comb (yeah, I’m not kidding, this is *THE* comb – worth every penny!!!) and comb everyone, twice a day. http://www.headlice.org/licemeister/
That’s it. I think this works better than Rid or that other chemical poison ever did. It may take a week or two for them to be gone, but it always did anyway, for us.

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Cleanser

Bon Ami – Mom was right, this Comet-alternative is much less toxic and works great. Available at grocery stores.

Laundry Soap

Seventh Generation free & clear – Free of all perfumes and dyes, no petrochemicals or bleach, and seems to work great. Ingredients: coconut-based surfactants, glycerin, non-animal derived enzymes, borax, socium gluconate, salt, less than .05% preservative, water. I get it at my healthfood store, or at some supermarkets.
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop2.cfm/dp/208/ts/1052730

Hand Dishwashing Soap

Seventh Generation Free and Clear Natural Dish Liquid – Free of perfumes and dyes, vegetable-based rather than petroleum based, so it’s nice to the environment. I like it just great for hand dishwashing. I get this at my healthfood store.
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop2.cfm/dp/203/ts/1052761

Machine Dishwashing Soap

Ecover dishwashing tablets — I just found these and I really like them! They’re these big pill things, each in it’s little package. You just unwrap one and put it in the silverware tray, and voila, that’s it. They’re phosphate and chlorine free, and seem to do a great job on my dishes. I’m not a bigtime dish rinser who washes that dishes before putting them in, and it gets my Fiestaware and even plastic cups nice and clean. They do say to make sure to use Rinse Aid, but I haven’t and no problem so far.
http://www.ediblenature.com/ecover.html

Getting Sticky stuff off things

Citrasolv – This is a concentrated citrus stuff, that works great when used straight, for removing gummy/sticky stuff.
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop2.cfm/dp/208/ts/1054141

Mopping
I often use some Dr. Bronner’s soap, plus a little citrasolv, in my mop water. Still experimenting.

Carpet cleaning

Stanley Steemer – This is a carpet-cleaning service, that comes to your house and cleans your carpets, using a hot-water extraction method. They use a soap very similar to laundry detergent, and extract dirt with hot water, and strong suction equipment, so the carpet is fairly dry when they’re done. I actually bought a carpet cleaning machine, but use Stanley Steemer instead because they get the floor cleaner and dryer than I can, and because their equipment is so much better, they end up using a smaller amount of soap to clean it than my home machine does. I think that the fact that the carpet is pretty dry quickly helps to keep mold from growing in it, which I also like. It does cost some money, but hey, it’s also way easier than doing it myself!

Spray Cleaner

Ecover Glass and Surface Cleaner – works great, vegetable-based, very non-toxic and nice to use.

Ants
Boric Acid – This is a very inexpensive powder you can buy at the drugstore. Don’t put it on food-prep surfaces, but sprinkle on window sills, and where you think Ants are coming in and it will help. Ants eat it and it dries out their lungs (ick), but it’s not poisonous to humans.

Orange-guard – This is a citrus-based insect killer. Kills ants when you spray it on them but not all that effective if they come by later.
http://www.orangeguard.com/
Cinnamon – I don’t use, but a childcare center I know swears by spreading liberal amounts of cinnamon where ants like to come into the building, to make them stay away – I guess they don’t like the smell of it. You can buy big cheap containers of cinnamon at Costco.
(I still use a single spray of Raid into the spot where ants are coming in, and ant stakes outside sometimes, strategically, as little as absolutely needed, as a last resort)

A note about Bleach and Chlorine:
Just FYI, chlorine is a HUGE blocker to sulfation and detoxification function in the body. Sulfation (along with methylation) is critical for the production of glutathione and for the body to be able to detoxify itself. These are the things that are messed up so often in our kids. So it would benefit us greatly to keep our children as far from chlorine as possible. Do what you can to avoid using much bleach around your house for cleaning. There may not be good alternatives for cleaning the toilets or bleaching white clothes or truly awful germridden tasks, but for almost everything else, see what you can do to make other products work for you if possible.

Oh, and definitely stick the kids in an epsom salts bath and/or rinse them in the shower then put on epsom salts cream (Kirkman sells one) when they get back from the swimming pool!

Bye for now!
Terri