Life with Ryan

Ryan is a spitfire and rambuncious

He is as cute as can be and I just love him and want to kiss on his chubby cheeks all the time BUT he can be difficult and yes sometimes the difficult times leave me no option but to laugh

Here are some videos as examples

A beautiful life

Ryan has discovered he loves the outdoors - also he loves eating grass!

As ever Brody LOVES the dirt - whether it is buring a train or McQueen in it or putting it on his head

Brody is so funny lately with the camera - he almost acts like he is posing but then I take the picture and this is the facial expression!

My boys playing in the bath!

I was half way through a post about life stresses and difficult realities of children and never having any money. I was laying out my pity party for all to read when I thought, screw it - I have two beautiful and adorable children and a husband who I love and works hard to provide. Though it also sounds dramatic but I have a roof over my head. As some can tell my ever growing chubbiness I have also never gone without a meal or wanted for clothing.

People are dying in Haiti and I read today about Stephanie Nielson's new pains - really not much is wrong in my life at all.

11 months old!

Totally spaced it and forgot to post on January 13 about Ryan turning 11 months. I like to keep record and every month post pictures and share a little bit about him - at least the first year.

My little baby is not so little and not that much of a baby

Ryan is a spitfire of a child who is sweet and cuddly one minute but thrashing in your arms the next trying to get to something or somewhere. When someone vacuums you think he was a lion after his prey. Ryan cracks me up. He has the most adorable smile and his little babbling is just so precious. Ryan is anxious to be bigger and play with his big brother but since he doesn't have the patience he gets really frustrated. Ryan is a people person mostly and he'd rather mess with some one's shoe (while still being worn) than play with any toy. He doesn't like to nap as well as he did before, perhaps it is due to the constant ear infections and teething but I also get the impression that he doesn't want to miss anything!

Soon I won't have a baby but a toddler (I know people say it is 18 months but I think it is whenever they start to walk and/or are more than 1 year old)

You keep me on my feet and keep me busy - I love you Ryan

Why the past few weeks have really sucked!

Okay so except for enjoying the fun holidays with happy times with family and yummy food, these past few weeks and even a month or so have really been tough.

I hate the cold and flu season

I hate that Brody missed school for weeks in November. With the autism it is bad to break the routine especially when the routine includes essential therapies and special ed preschool!

A baby with 4 ear infections in 2 1/2 months (9 in his short 11 months of life) just shouldn't happen

With every violent cough I hear and looking into their red, tired eyes my heart hurts.

Most recently this week Jake had a double ear infection and a sinus infection and that shouldn't happen either!
(by the way while dealing with a sick husband he shared this video with me to understand the complaining and needing to be waited on - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbmbMSrsZVQ - watch, it is just dead on and hilarious!)

To go along with our sick filled holidays Brody started his new treatment mid-December. Based on the results of blood, urine and stool samples we are starting with the fungal build up in Brody.

As someone takes antibiotics all antibodies are killed in your system. If someone takes them very often then it leaves no chances for the good antibodies to build up. Brody has had 13 times in 3 years of taking antibiotics some of those doses were very close to each other. Due to this circumstance some people, including Brody, because there are no antibodies fungal or yeast will develop . Sometimes you can tell this happened because it affects your digestive system. For some children with autism this also means symptoms ranging from aggressive behavior, OCD tendencies and sensory issues.

So Brody started on an anti-fungal medicine to get the fungal or more commonly known "yeast" out his system. Our DAN Doctor Dr. Morgan calls it what is happening to Brody's body Dysbiosis.

To build of the good antibodies Brody is also taking probiotics.

For us it has added to our chaos of the days. As the medicines is clearing out the yeast it has meant horrible amount of poop with yeast actually in the stool. A yeast rash under each armpit (there are lymphoid there so it is probably trying to get out of his body anyway it can). Then because of what is in his stool and how often he has a bowel movement Brody developed and has had for a quite a while, a yeast rash on his bum which, thankfully, can be cleared up with anti-fungal cream. The worst part of it is that as the yeast leaves his body it affects his brain and some symptoms of autism come out even stronger. Which for Brody has meant times of zoning out and staring off. As some sensory things in his body are affected he has been obsessed with wanting to rub dirt on his body, especially his head. Brody's focus and attention span (which has gotten so much better from therapies, school and the gluten/casein free diet) has decreased a lot.

All of this is meant to be temporary and a means to an end. Once this crap gets out of his body there is a good chance of his behavior getting lots better and language increasing.

We are thankful to have a wonderful doctor shed light on what has been going on with our little boy and look outside the normal medical 'box'. But currently it has been challenging to watch Brody, who has improved so much, seem to regress. We just keep reminding ourselves that it gets worse before it gets better!!