Baby Times

Three years later...

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 09:17:00 +0000

Well, today is the first of many milestone birthdays for the kids.

Emily turns 13 today, so is no longer a "kid", she's a fully fledged teenager.

Truth be told, she's been moody and "teenish" for the last few months, so it was only a matter of time for her age to catch up.

Holly, who will jump on any occasion with both hands, has been harassing Sue and I about Emily's birthday for weeks - can we have a party?, what decorations are we going to have?, need to get presents, etc.

It got to the point that Mother's Day yesterday was more of a Mother's Morning, where Sue had pressies and breakfast in bed, then it was - we need to blow up balloons, have we got the bunting?, we need to go and buy party food.

I'm glad the kids are growing up, but really lamenting, like most parents, that small kid phase where you're the centre of their world. I realise I wasn't the best teenager, and I'm hoping that our kids won't take after me, but time will tell.

13 today for Emily. Still can't believe it.

Four years on

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:53:00 +0000

So the last post was February 2014, and it's now February 2018 as I type this.

A lot has happened in the space of four years. Shortly after we discovered the joys of ABA, we started a home program - at great cost. Sue left her job around April 2014 (due to her role being relocated to Birmingham) and she was able to become Emily's full time ABA tutor. We still needed a consultant to create a program and let us know if we were doing it correctly. That's the costly bit.

After a year or so of doing an ABA program, we were able to collect enough data to demonstrate that Emily was making progress and, in her case, ABA worked. We then went to local authority to get them to change Emily's school from a general Austism school, to an ABA-specific one. We found a great school called Rainbow in Wandsworth and they had a place they could offer her.

Unfortunately, the local authority said no (assuming due to cost) so we took them to tribunal. We plead our case, with a raft of experts pleading our case, and the local authority and Emily's existing school plead their case. You can't argue with science (which is what ABA is backed by).

Emily eventually started at Rainbow and it was all good. She's still there and getting on very well. I believe ABA has really helped her. She's still a quiet, reserved child and you can tell she is "different", but I believe the change in both school and teaching methods have been very beneficial to her.

We've accepted, quite begrudgingly, over the last 9 years that Emily is who and what she is. There's no magic cure. You deal with the cards you are dealt and find the silver lining in the cloud. Emily is a lovely, loving child who loves her hobbies -books, puzzles, etc. She can ask for motivators like rice cakes and she can alert you to problems (like needing the toilet, or the fact that she has a bloody nose).

I do wish I could snap my fingers and have an actual conversation with her, but I need to focus on the good things, not the "wish I could haves".

Emily turns 10 next month and it's been quite the decade of ups and downs.

As I write this, Sue if trying to finalise Emily's EHCP (Educational and Health Care Plan). As usual the local authority are trying to downplay the effect that ABA has had on Emily in the last couple of years. Something we have fought so hard for. It's a shame that we still have to fight.

Oh well, nothing worth doing ever happened easily did it.

Over and out!

Updates

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 11:43:00 +0000

It's been a while since a post has happened, so here you go.

Over the last couple of months, we've celebrated Christmas in Australia, I've spent a week in hospital in Australia recovering from a minor stroke (fully recovered thanks, and on meds for the foreseeable), the girls have gone back to school and Sue's come down with bronchitis (on meds and getting over it slowly).

Late last year, I went on 3 parts of a 4 part ABA course to try and understand what it is and whether it would be of benefit to Emily.

While there I got the name of a consultant from one of the guys running the workshop. I'm happy to say we've made contact and agreements have been made to do ABA for Emily. The consultant is coming next Tuesday for an initial assessment and we can see where things progress from there.

While Em's not the most severely disabled autistic person there is, she is still not as high functioning as we'd like her to be, and we're hoping the ABA treatment will "bring her out of her shell" if that's possible. A bit more focus and more attention to tasks at hand (which don't involve Wiggles or PlaySchool DVDs) would be a good start.

With Holly, we have been provided a new SMALLER walking frame for her to get around. She's still amazing every professional she sees. When we got back from Australia her therapists, and nursery we all amazed at how well she was doing and progressed. It's great that some things can go so well. We just need her standing and doing independent steps and we'll be well on our way.

Walking...ish.

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:10:00 +0000

What some people would call taking a couple of steps, stumbling and falling over, we're considering a triumph.

Holly has begun to take independent steps, which can only mean proper "walking" is on it's way. By proper steps, I mean she puts one foot in front of the other without being aided to stand and then (if we're lucky) we get the second foot moving in a walking motion followed (if we're REALLY lucky) by a third footstep. Then, there's the invariable wobble and drop.

When I picked her up from nursery today they were so excited to tell me of this. Apparently Holly was quite self congratulatory as well (in that hiccup laugh that she does so well).

The downside of this (if there is one) is that she's getting quite impatient with people carrying her. She's squirms out of your arms (if you're not lucky) and wants to walk with you holding her arms.

She is hands down the most determined small child I have ever come across (and a number of her key workers have said the same thing).

Rather curious how the flight to Australia is going to pan out later this month.

Second ABA workshop

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:29:00 +0000

On Saturday I went to the second of three workshops on ABA. This day covered "10 tactics and procedures for effective behaviour change".

The main one covered was DTT - Discrete Trial Training. A lot of people, when they hear ABA actually assume it's only DTT. However, as I discovered on Saturday DTT is only one of hundreds of tactics and procedures you can use with ABA. In fact, you need data and feedback from other tactics in order to do DTT correctly, which was interesting.

There were various glimmers of hope during the day as a few suggestions and tactics were actually things we did with Emily already. A couple of new ideas - including trying to get WH questions (who, what, where, when, why and how) into her repertoire - may prove a bit out of reach at this point.

It was a tiring day, compounded by a late night Friday evening, but well worth it. Just need to organise some ABA tutoring for Emily now.

ABA show on BBC Four gets me thinking of where we're at with Emily

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 17:36:00 +0000

Having started the slow road to researching ABA and VB, it was happenstance that there was a show on BBC Four the other night about ABA.

It seemed to really dig into the more unsavory aspects of the treatment and there was actually an American woman from a Uni in Sheffield that said ABA can strip away all the behaviours that make an autistic person unique.

This person CANNOT have lived with an autistic person. While there's a lot about Emily I love, there are some of her behaviours that are just downright annoying. The hands on the ears, the spinning, singing, jumping around - these are fine. It's the incessant random noise generation and constant lack of attention that are annoying regardless of condition.

Sometimes, I do feel we are living in the dark ages, and watching this show really brought it home. Are we living through an epidemic that needs to fought tooth and nail, or are Autistic people the natural evolution of our species - one that we're ignorantly trying to repress and stay normal, according to our pre-evolved standards of what normality means.

I'm constantly reminded of the scene in Star Trek IV where modern doctors are about the hack Chekov's head open to try and save him and Bones simply tells them to put away their butcher knifes and let him save them. I can't help but think that in years to come historians could potentially point to this point in the past as the tipping point where we tried to suppress something we don't understand.

I'm still of the belief that we need to at least curtail the most outrageous behaviours in an attempt to bring a certain level of normalcy (or at least suppress Emily's lack of attention and focus) because whether we like it or not - we live in a society that has a certain level of normalcy that we need to adhere to - we can't just poop in the street or knife whoever we want. Likewise, a food fight in a fancy restaurant really isn't tolerated.

Disease, affliction or evolution?

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 14:59:00 +0000

I was watching the trailer for the forthcoming X-Men film Days of Future Past and a strange notion hit me - as mutants in the Marvel universe are the evolutionary future of humanity, could autism be the evolutionary future of real life humanity?

It's of course a rather crack pot assumption on the surface. However, I started doing some research on Google and there's quite a few posts, articles and blogs about the subject. The usual suspects are trotted out as evidence that humanity has benefited from autism - whether it's evolutionary or a life long affliction. Names like Einstein, Newton, Gates, etc. - the ones who pushed human knowledge further than their counterparts and aided our evolution to where we are now.

Personally, I think the concept is a crock, but it does make for a good research session on the internet. There's a lot of stuff out there to at least make you consider it.

Have a look at this video before you go:

"We're the future, Charles, not them" - Magneto to Professor X in the original X-Men film.

Growing realisation of issues with Emily

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 21:37:00 +0000

Sue picked Em up from Helen's tonight utterly dismayed. Apparently Helen had to dry Emily's clothes in the dryer as they were wet from her weeing herself. The obvious question - how often did you take her to the toilet? - was met with a response akin to "I was too busy" (apparently she's got a full house with it being half term).

This incident just really hit home that Em isn't getting the right "experience" (if that's the right term) going to Helen's. She doesn't need an obviously over-stretched childminder neglecting her bladder needs resulting in a heavy nappy and wet clothes.

Sue and I are seriously having to rethink our strategy with regards to Emily. I don't really know if a childminder who specialises in special needs kids is available in our area. Given the issues with someone like Em, I can imagine if there was they'd have a very low child to childminder ratio, thus increasing the cost exponentially.

Emily is special needs - there's no getting around that - and we need to address this with increased special needs-related services for her. A one childminder fits all approach obviously isn't working and I really don't know what the solution is - logistically, personally, financially.

Even taking a full time position to look after Em wouldn't be the best solution as we aren't trained or equipped to facilitate her needs fully.

The mind continues to boggle.

Verbal Behaviour course for Em.

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 19:39:00 +0000

I went along to the verbal behaviour seminar yesterday and while a lot of it was quite out of my grasp, it was a very interesting day.Although parents and grandparents and other relatives were free to take part, it REALLY was geared towards professionals.

The two things I really took away from this session were a) we really need to try VB and ABA with Emily and it's data and results driven (as opposed to whatEVER they're doing at school. The second thing I took away was I really HATE autism. I hate what it's done to Emily, I hate that we HAVE to have seminars like this to even start the journey to understand our kids, I hate what it's potentially going to limit her life to be like.

It makes me feel even worse with all the people posting on Facebook about how they love their child as they are and wouldn't change them. I have to say, if Em was neuro-normal, I can't imagine she'd be as energetic as she was. I'd take a slower child any day, if it meant she was neuro-normal.

I digress.

I didn't know anything about VB or ABA until I went to this class - and that was probably not a good thing, as a lot of stuff went over my head - not being a professional and all. What I did learn was the entire field is based on research by B.F. Skinner and, while his tome is quite difficult to read, the last 50 years or so have produced some good literature and some good protocols to combat autism.

I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, but I did come away from the day thinking that we might be able to reach Em a little more than we currently do. I guess that's what keeps you going in the end - hope.

Doctor's notes about Holly

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:32:00 +0000

Sue went to see Holly's paediatrician earlier this month, and we received the notes from that meeting in the post today. It still floors me that the letter was sent out to 11 different people/departments - all for one little girl!

As Holly is progressing and showing noticeable signs of improvement, we still think she's doing well. Reading through the notes, I realise that I may be deluding myself. There's a lot of development delay which isn't all that apparent to me, because the only yardstick I have to compare to is Autism. Also, seeing the phrase "Diagnosis: Cerebral Palsy" really makes it a lot more real.

Apparently various things that Holly is doing are at 15 month levels or 18 month levels. She's behind, but only by a few months (as she's only 22 months old tomorrow). This is really why this early intervention is key. I can only imagine how far she'd be behind if we DIDN'T have 11 departments/people working on our team.

The notes did point out that she's a happy little girl, which is very true (apart from when she's tired cranky or teething) and that good progress is being made.

Regardless of where she is on the months development scale, I'm still proud of my little girl and happy to have her here at all.

As I type this, she's happily sitting next to me playing peekaboo by herself and saying "oh dear" while I make dinner. I guess it's time I sign off and ask (to noone in particular) "Where's Holly?"

Until next time.

VB with ABA for Emily!

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 15:51:00 +0000

I'm off to an all day workshop tomorrow to find out more about VB (Verbal Behaviour) and ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis). It's theories for therapy to aid with Autism run by ABA Tutor Finder.

There's three workshops and the first one is tomorrow from 10-4.30 in Holborn. I can imagine it's going to be pretty full on, but I hope I can get some practical takeaways to apply to Emily.

According to the website, "The course is suitable for both families and therapists wishing to further their understanding of ABA as an intervention for children on the autism spectrum and is an excellent opportunity to meet and network with fellow families and/or therapists."

Sue and I are both wracked with guilt that while Holly is the more pressing need ("the first two years are the more important") we're doing things for her at the expense of Emily. This is part of our effort to balance those scales.

Fingers crossed.

Charity for Holly

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 15:24:00 +0000

Sue brought Holly home from Busy Bees on Wednesday and let me know that they've nominated Holly as the recipient for their autumn fate fund raising event at the end of November.

I'm quite chuffed and also slightly embarrassed at having Holly singled out like this, but at the end of the day if the money raised can help her even a little, it's something I can get over.

The next step, from what Sue told me, is we need to piggyback on a proper charity who will receive the money and then allocate it in some way to Holly - either for hardware for her or further 1on1 support or even to pay some of the way for us to go to the Bobarth Centre in North London.

Really nice gesture at the end of the day.

Emily continues to prove me wrong

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 17:02:00 +0000

A few weeks back, Sue was adamant we get a trail gator contraption, to hook her bike up to Emily's. While I was hopeful this wouldn't end on the scrapheap of aids for Emily like so much other good intentioned purchases did, I wasn't so sure.

Emily had shown no interest in her bike (as it's not a book) and the few times we had her on it were short lived to say the least. The outcome, as I could tell would be one of three scenarios - she'd stay on her bike and love it; she'd get bored and try to get off and end up grazing/bruising/hurting herself; she'd end up not enjoying it and let everybody know. I, personally, was expecting the second result as she's quite akin to leaving tasks she bores of without much thought for anything - let alone her well being.

Well, I'm glad to say she's proved me wrong. She stayed attached to Sue for the entire duration of our ride to the nearby park and back. She was happy to hop on the bike and be pulled around. I think most of the time was spent in her little world taking everything in, apart from the actual ride, but this is a really great stepping stone to doing more rides and getting her more accepting of it.

Music Therapy for Em

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 16:34:00 +0000

We took Emily to music therapy today at Nordoff Robbins. The venue is a building next to the BRIT school in Croydon, which is kinda cool.

It was a half hour session with an Irish guy called Jimmy and he said afterwards that he could tell she was quite musical (nursery rhymes aside). When he changed key, she changed with him for instance. Apparently she also plinked away on the piano a little as well.

Afterwards, we were in Toys R Us and I felt like putting this to the test. I went over to the keyboards with Em and turned one on, playing a few notes. Em managed to plunk out a random tune as well. Not the Mozart I was hoping for, but she didn't shy away like she does when I approach her with my guitar in hand.

All in all, it seemed like a very positive experience and I'm looking forward to Em exploring music more and more over the coming sessions.

Weekend with Emily (and attempts at dressing)

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 11:09:00 +0000

A slight snafu with a passport meant that Sue and Holly headed off on holiday to the Netherlands without Emily and I on Friday.

Emily enjoying a babyccino at Costa.

This actually worked out quite well, as I think Emily was feeling a little neglected and in Holly's shadow. Being away from her might be good (even if only for a few days) as she would have my attention 100%.

I've not been so hugged or interacted with by her in such a long time. We did a few errands together over the weekend, went to a couple of parks and even had Sunday morning "coffee" together at Costa.

One thing I'd been trying to get Emily to do over the weekend was to put her own nappy and trousers on. She can do shoes and (to some extent) tops over the head. She managed her trousers by herself on a couple of occasions. These successes were met with smiles, thumbs up and high fives. On at least one successful attempt, I actually got a smile and eye contact from an elated Emily.

It wasn't all fun though. There were a number of attempts where she started but go distracted by ... anything. If it wasn't so tragic, it would be comic watching someone try to clothe themselves with absolutely no interest in it, to the point of staring aimlessly out the window.

Not only do I have to pick my battles, I have to pick where I play them out.

New School Year!

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 16:10:00 +0000

It's hard to believe that Emily is entering her third year of structured school activity.

Emily on day one of school.

She was in Dragonflies from 2011-2012, Red Squirrels at Rainbows from 2012-2013 and now she's an Orange Tiger at Rainbows for the 2013-2014 school year.

She arrived home today and gave me a massive hug and cuddle, before running off to her trampoline.

Not really sure what this year will have in store for her, or what advances / breakthroughs there will be (if any).

Her class has the addition of another girl (of the three girls in the school, two are Orange Tigers) so it will be interesting to see if there's any female bonding at all.

Watch this space.

Camping in Dorset

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 12:54:00 +0000

We got back today from camping in Dorset with two other families.

I really had no qualms about taking Emily as she's always going on about "tent" and wanting us to cover her with an afghan, duvet, etc. and Holly is at that easy going age where she's not all that arsed where she goes as long as there's food and a clean nappy.

Sue managed to cram everything we needed to into the car - including tent, sleeping bags, clothing, pushchair AND Holly's monstrous walker. We managed to push her around the campsite a few times, much to her (short lived) delight.

The biggest pain was Emily unfortunately. While she was happy to dance around and explore, she really had no about dancing and exploring in the middle of the road, or running off to another part of the camp ground and doing her thing there. While she was awake, Sue and I had to keep one eye on her and one eye on what we were doing - which never really resulting in us relaxing, until after she was asleep.

Emily having a sensory time on the beach.

Holly was the star of the show with her vast appetite. No one could believe that a child that size could eat FOUR breakfasts (banana, cereal, toast, custard/yoghurt) and still be up for whatever ANYONE else was eating. I'm thinking/hoping she's just going through a growth spurt and that we're not going to have a Clifford the Big Red Dog on our hands ("he eats and drinks A LOT").

We capped the holiday off by spending the day on the beach near Sandbanks (near Poole). Apart from getting sand EVERYWHERE, it was a nice relaxing way to spend the day. Emily decided that the feel of the sand was really nice and proceeded to bury her face in it, as well as run her feet and arms in it. The shower that evening was FILLED with sand.

We also got her to eventually accept the water and have a bit of a dip. Small steps, even though she likes swimming (in a pool).

Glad we could get away and it was a good relaxing time (apart from chasing Emily) for everyone involved.

NAS campaign

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:11:00 +0000

I've just signed an NAS campaign, and so should you.

If you go over to Put autism on the NHS agenda you can fill in a campaign aimed at the NHS. As the campaign page states:

"A brand new health body called a Health and Wellbeing board is being set up in your area. It will have a crucial role in deciding what areas of health and social care should be prioritised, and checking if your council and the NHS are being transparent about the support they’re providing adults with autism.

To effectively do their job, they need to understand autism and the current challenges in your area. Otherwise, their role in helping adults with autism will be wasted.

You can help by sending them our message using this online form. That way we can put autism at the top of their agenda from the start."

It does worry me about how Emily will be treated, live, etc. as she enters older stages of her life. Hopefully getting the NHS to think about it and sort things out now will make sure she's well cared for in 10, 15, 20 years' time.

Intense therapy for Holly

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:01:00 +0000

At this week's physio session for Sue, it was decided that due to Holly's progress no further intense sessions were required.

Holly in her special high chair.

This was wonderful news, as not only does it mean Holly's progress is going well, we also get to reclaim some holiday time and have a break together! Whether this means we try and steal some of the fading embers of the summer and go away or book a couple of weeks at Christmas, we've now been given a get out of jail free card.

The only caveat we were given was to take Holly's walker contraption wherever we go, so we can keep up with her walking therapy. This thing is a massive thing and could potentially limit any holidays to staycations, but that's not really a problem.

This also means we don't have to wait and see about the Bobarth Centre therapy sessions in North London.

In case you were wondering, Holly IS making wonderful progress. She hates lying down and if you pick her up to sit up, she will throw a strop if you don't pick her up to let her walk around. She's still really weak in her trunk but the dedication and strong-mindedness is there to want to do it. More home therapy around trunk strengthening is really needed and hopefully she will eventually walk unaided.

We've been told she may never be able to do a trek, but instead may either need a cane or walking stick or only be able to walk small distances before needing to sit down again. I'm hoping small distances equates to around 4-5 miles, because I'm there with her on that. Somehow, I assume it's much shorter than that.

It's not the pox

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 10:36:00 +0000

Having had to take Holly out of nursery early yesterday due to suspected chickenpox, Sue has clarified - via a doctor's appointment this morning - that it is not actually the pox. The doctor confirmed what Sue and I THOUGHT it was - heat rash. The bumps apparently don't conform to what the pox would resemble and they weren't all over her body.

This is good news for all involved - but does emphasise how this heat wave is taking it's toll on poor Holly. Even though she's not "poxy", she's still listless, grumpy, has a upset stomach and seems to break out grizzling for no reason. All, apparently, symptoms of being stinking hot.

At the behest of my mum, it really does sound like a good time to invest in an A/C unit for the house.

Chickenpox for Holly

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:04:00 +0000

Got a call today from Busy Bees that Holly potentially has chickenpox.

She's been quite moody and crabby the last couple of days, and this would explain her foul mood. I had to race home to pick her up before my call today at 2pm.

I still swear she's had chickenpox before, but I was told that depending on how mild she had it the previous time, she could get it again.

Wonderful.

She's currently quite placid and sleeping, so a little better off than she was the last couple of days.

New report shows US 18 times ahead of UK in Autism research

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 14:24:00 +0000

If you're keeping score of UK autism research investment vs US autism research investment, you might as well quit now. The US wins. And wins again.

A new report, undertaken on behalf of Research Autism, found that the US spends an average of 18 times the amount the UK does on autism research in accordance with population size. The US spent the equivalent of £75.79 per person with autism in 2010, while the UK spent just £4.26.

Ouch.

Still, I feel as this is a global epidemic and not constrained to national borders, ANY research being done is of benefit.

I would assume though, that with the budgets what they are, each region needs to be quite selective in what their aim their research at. I feel (without any basis apart from hunches) that the deeper work into the gut / autism relationship is being spearheaded quite deeply in the US. A lot of the specialists we've seen in the UK refuse to acknowledge any relationship and believe a change in diet to be purely a matter of choice.

Just the other day there was a hyperbolic report from the US of a change in diet "curing" a child's autism. It's a little extreme, but I believe the principles to be sound and this seem to be coming from the US.

The difference in research spending is fine; I'm just concerned with the sharing and being able to apply the best results to the afflicted. If the research becomes an "us" vs. "them", we will lose every time.

Further proof regarding the gut - brain connection with autism

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 13:25:00 +0000

Read an article today about a boy in the US who seems to have been "cured" of autism by going on a gluten/dairy free diet. I read this with massive scepticism, but feel positive about the overall message.

Here's a clip from YouTube, but I have to warn you, the interviewer is really really REALLY annoying.

Sue and I have been in two minds whether any of the "hokey science" stuff we're doing with Emily is actually of any benefit. This includes cutting out gluten and dairy and also the homeopathic remedies she's been on. They say that dairy effects will be noticeable in 3 days but gluten effects can take 3 months to see.

We haven't really seen any dairy-related changes yet, but are hopeful that all the research does point to a gluten-free gut paving the way to a healthier gut and a lessening of the autistic behaviours we've come to tolerate.

Autism Show

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:20:00 +0000

This past weekend we traipsed out to Excel in the middle of East London to attend the Autism Show, put on by the NAS.

We weren't really sure what to expect, but knew that discussion around diet would not be on the table. When we go there, Sue sussed out the seminars (really just 20 minute powerpoint presentations) that she wanted to attend. My role was really to ensure that Emily didn't wander too far off or make too much of a nuisance of herself.
The stands were quite a mixed bag - there were sensory toy vendors, furniture vendors and a LOT of schools. I mean A LOT! Most of them were private and looking to score around £50,000 / year to educate our young. Nice if you have the money I guess.

The main area of the event was the stage area where a number of events were taking place, including Autism’s Got Talent - showcasing the talents of those in the spectrum. Apart from it being crazy loud, it was enjoyable hearing the event from ANYWHERE in the show.

It was a long day, and the seminars I attended didn't tell me anything new, but it was nice to be around like minded people and in a place where we didn't have to explain or apologise for Emily.

Emily's Detox Fever

noreply@blogger.com (asdasdas) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 15:06:00 +0000

The last 24 hours has seen Emily flush, quite lethargic and very feverish (and not for the flavour of a Pringle!) - to the point where she's asleep again right now ... at 4pm.

We've had her on her second round of homeopathic cleansing (part of the CEASE therapy that is recommended for Autistic people - depending on who you talk to) to rid her of the effects of vaccinations.

The first round of the CEASE therapy, to repair the effects of any antibiotics Sue might have taken while preggers with Ems didn't really garner any results (apart from loose poops from too much vitamin C) and we were really not convinced this latest round would produce any either.

Personally, I'm taking the fever as a good sign that this therapy is working. I just hope for Em's sake it subsides soon as you really don't wanna be burning up any longer than you need to. We have Calpol at the ready and are administering that and water as needed.

Em's also well into her gluten-free diet now, so I don't know if any of this is a result from that. I'd hate to think so as it's really not a terrific advertisement for going gluten-free: a raging fever.