12.01.2003

Leelo Today

It is official. I am Leelo's "lovey." He's in a phase where he won't go to sleep unless he's in my bed, and I am there with him. Last night I spent an hour slingshotting him back into his own bed, finally gave up, let him dash into my bed, and then was forcibly extracted from the office by a little boy sobbing and tugging on my hand while wailing "Mommy in the bed! Get in the bed!" I was so tired that I fell asleep with him, with my bra still on. Those of you who favor underwire know how unpleasant it can be to wake up with those twin C's of agony boring into your rib cage.

He had also started a new stereotypic behavior that is driving us nuts: grinding his teeth. There is not much to do about this, according to Seymour's dad the ex-dentist. The only aid is a mouth guard, and Leelo sure as bejesus isn't going to tolerate one of those. If we catch him at it, we grab his jaw firmly and say "No grind!" but who knows if it's registering. He seems to grind more after I let him grab and squeeze my elbow (his primary stereotypic behavior), so I'm trying to only let him do the elbow thing when he's falling asleep, and remove my arm instantly if he grinds his teeth (also, he has to say "I want Mommy's elbow" very clearly to get the elbow in the first place).

We added Selenium to his supplement regimen on Saturday night. He seems okay with it, no reactions so far. We are now officially a month past when we were to begin heavy metals chelation, and so are going to start adding supplements every five instead of every seven days. The remaining additions: Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Cod Liver Oil (yum), Glutathione Cream, DMG, and Nutribiotic (anti-yeast).

Speaking of yeast, I recently read the Autism Research Institute's pamphlet on Candida/Yeast-derived autism. As with everything one reads about autism (I find), it immediately struck me that this may be what's primarily wrong with our boy. It is a much-documented scenario: constant ear infections necessitating multiple and continuous barrages of antibiotics that decimate the natural biota of the intestine, leaving it open to colonization by yeasties. The yeast then converts any and all sugars to fermented byproducts, resulting in a little boy who acts like he's drunk all of the time. And just how much do you think you would learn if you were constantly inebriated? Not bloody much.

We are doing most of the things recommended in an anti-yeast diet, but the hard-core, listed-as-truly-effective regimen eliminates almost all sugar and carbohydrates and that would mean disaster for us. We wouldn't be able to give him any of his supplements as they are either in sweetened suspensions or need to be mixed with rice milk, and Leelo would never eat only the recommended meat and non-starchy vegetables--we tried giving him some roasted turkey breast meat at Thanksgiving and he didn't just not eat it, he picked it off his tray and threw it across the room. (Iz says he must have been reincarnated from a vegetarian.)

I need to do more research and talk to more experts, like most things re: Leelo. Sigh sigh sigh and sigh again.

He had a major fuss this morning when I left on my aborted mission to take Iz to school, but after a session in the Magic Swing of Calmness, Therapist L was able to get him to put in a good three hours. Then after his session he did some great imitative play: Iz took two open packing boxes, sat in one, and put the other on top of herself and declared that she was a package that needed to be opened. Leelo then took the one box, put it on top of his head, and sat in the other box patiently. When we "opened" his package and said "There's Leelo!", he was delighted. He initiated this completely on his own, after watching his sister. That is some heartening behavior.

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