Two Brothers – U.S.A
There was a time when going back through some of these memories was traumatic for me, but thankfully now I might even say I treasure them because they are a part of our story and how we got here. A turning point for me was when a friend was listening to me describe some of the really hard times in the past and she said “well you know the boys aren’t hurting anymore” and it really struck me all of a sudden that in fact they were not. Somehow in my mind the memories were so vivid and they just continued playing on in my mind for years after the fact so it still felt very present and real. I feel really lucky that finally now it feels like it’s actually over and in the past, and that today we are ok. 🙂
Our son Henry was an extremely irritable baby and we spent many months attempting to console and comfort him. He was terribly constipated and would typically go 10-12 days between bowel movements, but our pediatrician at the time told us this was normal for breastfed babies. It was incredibly difficult to get him to fall asleep and he would awaken crying again, typically within minutes, and we would have to start the whole routine all over again.
Around 10 months of age I started to notice that I was usually seeing Henry only from the back. He was always crawling or cruising away from me, very rarely turning toward me or attempting to share a moment with me. When I tried to make eye contact and talk with him or engage him in play he would usually turn away, uninterested. He had developed an intense fixation with spoons and would grip them tightly, one in each hand. In fact, he was unable to put them down if he needed to use his hands to pick up a toy or other item, and without the spoons he was absolutely inconsolable. Everywhere we went people would comment on how “serious” he looked. His expression was typically a somber stare although he would frequently fall into intense bouts of inconsolable crying.
About a week before his first birthday I finally googled “toddler object fixation” and suddenly came face to face with the list of early symptoms of autism. Henry had them all. He was not pointing and used no gestures, he seemed to have lost the two words he had gained around 10 months of age, he did not respond to his name and in fact we could not get him to respond to us at all. His attention was entirely focused on objects and he had developed an intense aversion to electronic sounds. We had him evaluated through a local developmental clinic and he scored in the very high risk range on their autism assessment so we began some therapies and I started doing a lot of research to understand what treatments were available.
After reading, The Autism Book, by Dr. Bob Sears we became very interested in the biomedical approach. We asked local parents which doctor they would recommend in the area and everyone had great things to say about Dr. Green so we scheduled our first appointment with him when Henry was about 15 months old.
Our first dramatic improvements came through diet. After removing dairy, Henry regained some eye contact and began using words again. He was noticeably more present and we saw smiles again, and his constipation improved somewhat. His daily bouts of inconsolable crying stopped within days after we removed wheat. Based on some specific symptoms we had mentioned, Dr. Green also recommended we try the Feingold Diet. Implementing the diet brought huge gains in Henry’s physical coordination and behavior.
We continued to work closely with Dr. Green over the next few years — running labs and exploring various nutritional therapies. Some treatments that we tried brought no noticeable improvements, but others were dramatic with immediate gains. We kept detailed notes and over time we had developed an extremely effective treatment plan. We saw huge, permanent gains from adding Methyl B12 and folinic acid injections. Nutritional supports for the sulfation system and mitochondrial function were also crucial.
By the time Henry was four years old he had no noticeable symptoms of autism remaining though he still struggled with some anxiety and learning difficulties. By age five those remaining symptoms had vanished after starting on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and increasing his dosage of folinic acid. He had a wonderful year in his Kindergarten classroom with no aide and was off to a great start in school.
Henry is now 8 years old and his sunny disposition and zest for life are absolutely striking. He has no difficulties or symptoms remaining and in fact no one at his school is aware of the learning and behavioral difficulties that he experienced in the past. Henry has a variety of interests and he’s thoughtful, caring and responsible. He loves school, has many friends and he’s excelling academically. His teacher loves him and comments regularly about how much fun it is to have him in her class because he has such a great attitude and he always takes care to include everyone in the activities. He loves to learn about the world and explore the outdoors.
Our second son Emmett also experienced GI (gastrointestinal) problems and was extremely irritable as an infant. He developed early symptoms of autism around 6 months of age when he suddenly lost eye contact and stopped responding to people coming and going around him. Dr. Green was able to provide the right supports for him early on in order to get him back on track and today Emmett has no remaining GI symptoms or autism-associated symptoms — he is a cheerful, precocious and energetic five year old.
In order to stay symptom free, both of our boys must follow a special diet and keep up with their nutritional supplements. In fact, if we stray off of their diets too far or miss any key supplements we will see their symptoms return. Sometimes this can be frustrating but it’s also an ever-present reminder of how blessed we are that our boys are so healthy and happy now. In the beginning, we were told that Henry’s developmental delays and difficulties were permanent and that his brain was just wired differently, but in fact this was never the case. The brain is downstream from the body, and when things are not quite right in the body it affects the way the brain functions. Providing the right supports for our boys allowed them to recover and now they feel fantastic and they can truly live their life to the fullest.
These days we feel like a normal, happy family except that we often feel that we treasure what we have so much more for having gone through this uniquely challenging experience.
I love working with John because he listens and truly believes in my observations. We work together as a team and he always lets me know that as their parent I have the ultimate say in what we will do for our boys. He hears my concerns and uses the information I provide during our discussions to guide his choices in labs and the identification of treatment strategies that are most likely to work for our boys. It’s been seven years now that we have been working closely together and he has earned my trust completely. We have observed so many hugely impactful and lasting gains for our boys through his detailed and thoughtful individualized treatment. My husband and I will be forever grateful for this miracle that Dr. Green has provided for our family.
Anonymous – U.S.A.
Before we worked with Dr. Green, our life was very difficult. Our child suffered from autism with symptoms including screeching, groaning, head pain, flapping, spinning, repetitive behaviors, gastrointestinal pain, rashes, lack of eye contact, lack of awareness, aversion to touch and difficulty sleeping, among other things. In addition, our child suffered from a severe eosinophilic (delayed) allergy to all foods which left him tolerating only a liquid elemental formula diet.
After working with Dr. Green and using only medical interventions such as chelation, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, far infrared sauna, Methyl B12 and antimicrobial treatments our child has completely recovered to the point that he is not only indistinguishable from “typical” children, he is at the top of his class academically and exceeds his peers socially and emotionally. We did not use any of the behavioral therapies (ABA).
He now has normal levels of energy and is demonstrably affectionate. He sleeps well and has no physical pain. He is creative, outgoing and exceptionally empathetic. In addition, he has no eosinophilic allergies to any food.
Working with Dr. Green has been one of the most profound experiences in our lives. We are forever grateful for his brilliance, expertise, compassion, willingness to listen and ability to conceive of solutions outside of conventional limitations. He is caring, thoughtful, open to parental ideas and input, optimistic about the potential of our children and has confidence in parents’ observations. He draws upon a wide background of knowledge, research and experience, and couples that with keen intuition and insight. We cannot say enough about how much our family is indebted to him and his wonderful staff.
Michał – Poland
Before we started working with Dr. Green, Michał had great problems with hyperactivity and concentration. It was hard for him to focus on doing anything. He communicated in simple, short sentences. He imposed his rules on all situations, for example during play, he could not adjust to the other kids’ needs and rules. Events such as holidays caused tremendous emotions in him and recovery from them would take a few days.
After he started receiving injections of Methyl B12, taking other specially chosen supplements and after the doctor’s suggestion to change diet and environment (organic food, natural cosmetics and cleaning products, clothes from natural fabrics, natural bed), we now see that Michał has better concentration and is no longer so active on the move. This makes it easier to practice various skills and to interact with him. His speech developed, he began to use more elaborate sentences, and can talk about his feelings. He thinks and lies like his neurotypical peers. He is curious, asks a lot of questions and learns quickly.
Michał still likes to impose his rules in the play, but he can adjust. He makes compromises and agrees that his partner has a different vision of play than he does.
The last Easter was was quiet for Michał. He was excited, but it was not excessive emotions that he had not been able to cope with before.
We are grateful and happy to be able to collaborate with Dr. Green. With every problem of our child we can count on him. He gives us specific recommendations. If we contact by email we always receive a quick response from him.
Kamila Skupin
Michal’s mother
Anonymous – Poland
Autism is not a life sentence
We are parents of an 8 year old son, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 years and 3 months. Our son was born on time, scored 10 points on the Apgar scale and until the age of 8 months did not show any abnormalities. At the age of 6 months he stopped breastfeeding. During his development, he missed out the crawling stage and his standing and walking were late.
He showed over sensitivity to touch: he did not tolerate cuddling, hand touch, hair cutting was done only while he was sleeping. At the same time, he appeared not to be sensitive to pain. He did not speak nor express his needs otherwise. He was a pleasant boy, quiet, calm, closed in his own world, playing alone for hours. His favorite activity was moving toy cars observing them very closely. His other activities were schematic and repetitive. He appeared to be indifferent to the appearance of parents and did not react to his own name. His big appetite for all dairy products was significant as well as his lack of typical baby illnesses. He liked his belly to be pressed. Despite the introduction of solid foods he had permanent diarrhea. He was not aware of surrounding dangers e.g. when walking he was not aware of cars passing.
Our son was diagnosed by 2 independent entities and both recommended behavioral treatment (ABA) as a basis. We were given hope neither of recovery nor of an unassisted life for our son. He was sentenced to be handicapped. We did not come to terms with his diagnosis but fulfilling the recommendations we started ABA. This therapy consisting in tenacious repetition of exercises appeared to us inappropriate to the needs of our boy and even detrimental, leading to further confinement of the child within his world and discouragement against intrusive, aggressive world of so called “neurotypical” people.
At this time we learned about the gluten free, casein free, soya free and sugar free (GFCFSF) diet. Despite the fact that we were full of doubts that such a diet can be maintained, we commenced such an effort and it was hitting the bull’s eye. It is important to mention that our diet is ZERO casein, gluten and soy, while sugars are served in their natural form as fruit and vegetable ingredients. Our diet is very restrictive including precautions against incidental contamination through dishes and cutlery used by other family members. The effects of the diet came quickly. After few days we noticed our son to be more present and trying to speak, soon he spoke his first words.
The diet implementation was extremely favorable and what is more, it is a solid basis to further biomedical therapy, which is required by any honest and responsible DAN! doctor to start the therapy. DAN! doctors consider biomedical therapy neither efficient nor effective when GFCFSF diet is not implemented. Additional results of the diet were that we got hope, optimism and belief in our actions. Continuing our biomedical therapy we shortly became patients of John Green MD, who is living in the USA, but thanks to the activity of “Nowa Nadzieja” foundation in Kalisz, Poland he is visiting Poland and conducts efficient biomedical therapy. The effects exceeded our high hopes. During the next 2-3 months our son reached the level of using simple sentences using 500 words. Doctor John Green is an exceptionally warm person, presenting absolutely top medical professionalism in order to support our child, honestly describing and enabling us taking decisions about our child.
Since ABA did not promise any hope to cure our boy we continued to search for alternative solutions. At first we found the book by Judith Bluestone “Fabric of Autism”. Judith had many challenges throughout her life, including autism traits, epilepsy, brain injury and others. She combined her own personal experiences and her studies of neuro-science to create the efficient therapy named HANDLE. While reading her book we were impressed how the description matches our son’s behavior. Looking for therapists of this method we found Jana and Paul Baptie, HANDLE practitioners, who live in vicinity of Cieszyn, Czech Republic. Thanks to exercises prescribed by them our son quickly went out of major sensory challenges. Just one month after commencement of the exercises our son visited the barber. For us it was a miraculous progress from inability to ease. We applied the method eagerly and easily because it is friendly to a child, stressless to a child and parents, being effective at the same time, as it is child tailored. HANDLE practitioners can be found worldwide.
Jana and Paul are great “Son-rise” supporters and they turned our attention to this method. Thanks to them we contacted other parents who applied this therapy running “Son-rise” programs for their children in Poland. Basic knowledge acquired through “Son-rise “workshop organized by “Byc blizej siebie” foundation in Warsaw, enabled us to go through toilet training quickly releasing oppressive diapers. We gained further knowledge at source at ATCA in USA during 3 training courses. Running medium intensive program with volunteers participation during few months we are passing further development steps of our child. We realized that our initial, natural, accepting approach to our son was in line with Son-rise program, which we came to know through lectures on the internet and books by B.N. Kaufman “Miracle to Believe In” and “Son rise”.
Today autism diagnosis of our son is a past. We can summarize our all therapy period as follows:
Fact, that we did not come to terms with our child’s outcomes was not a will-o’-the-wisp of distraught parents. We became convinced that excellent and efficient autism therapies have been worked out by professionals, who were directly affected by autism.
The Kaufmans family from USA worked out the “Son-rise” program, which efficiently cured autism of their son Raun and then many other people worldwide. Their books, especially “Son-rise” inspired us a lot. Judith Bluestone, authoress of HANDLE therapy described it in accessible and communicable way in book “Fabric of autism”. Very useful handbook of biomedical therapies is book “Children with Starving Brains” by Jaquelin McCandless MD, but this was Doctor John Green, who guided us among biomedical treatment options.
As of today our son does not show any developmental abnormalities. Speaks with full sentences, using all forms of speech (sometimes even too much as typical 8 year old boy), his IQ is measured to be above an average, formulates complex statements and questions, easily interacts with peers and other persons, recognizes and shows emotions, presence of parents and other relatives is important to him. He hugs and lets other hug eagerly. He is self-contained: undresses and dresses up, eats by himself, helps in household duties. He shows great imagination during play, sense of humor, he is spontaneous. Maintains 100% contact with environment, when he is tired or overwhelmed with the world around him – he speaks about it. He is aware of environment and possible dangers. Despite huge limitations (GFCFSF plus food intolerances) he eats varied foods, likes to try new foods. He poops regularly and normally.
He attends main stream school with no extra support. He is extraordinary brilliant young boy, has friends, enjoys spending time with them.
Success has many fathers and all of our son’s team members participated in overall success of the therapy. There are the inevitable suggestions that our diagnosis was mistaken. We have 2 independent diagnosis leaving no doubt. Not going into rhetorical details, we consider autism as curable. Thanks to complex approach and application of 3 complementary methods and relatively early commencement today we may be happy with health recovery of our son.
Thanks to continuous efforts of people around the world and in Poland autism is being discovered better and better quite quickly. Medicine doctors and specialists nominally assigned for autism treatment in public health care system are not accepting this knowledge or their previous knowledge do not let them change their beliefs. Poland is not exceptional. This is why many parents are discouraged to make efforts to cure their children and the therapies described above are under appreciated and/or ignored.
We hope that our letter will cause other parents with diagnosis will get initial hints as well and will change or will consolidate their belief that autism is curable. With respect to individuality and specialty of every child one can manage child’s development to go normally, her/his social relationship to be healthy and correct. To undertake such intensive therapy is a significant effort in time and financial resources. We ensure everybody that it is worth doing, while health and wellness of Your child is on the scale.
Especially we recommend biomedical therapy led by Dr. John Green, who guided us well and effectively among many possibilities, providing professional support, honesty, wisdom and warmth, being available for us almost every time despite being physically far away.
Note: this family lives in Poland and is open to communicating with you about their journey. Please contact info@childrenandautism.com if you would like to contact them.
Finn – United States
Dr. Green walked into our lives two months after Finn was diagnosed with ASD and he will be a part of our lives forever. Dr. Green has sat side by side with me hour after hour comparing labs, behaviors, history, diets, supplements, sleep schedules, brainstorming new possibilities and avenues to search. Fin has blown past every limitation that was ever placed on him and Dr. Green has played a huge role in that. Grateful is not a big enough word to express the love and gratitude I have for Dr. Green. You are truly a hero.