As pregnant mothers, we never expect or wish for a child with special needs. “It’s not fair!, ” I’d say to myself. I did everything right…waited to meet a great husband, had a nice house in the burbs, even an extra room for in-laws. We were economically and emotionally ready. I took my vitamins, ate healthy and read books about the healthiest ways to raise a child. All of our check-ups were normal and after a full-term birth we took our healthy daughter home two days later. So what happened? How did we go from having a healthy baby girl to a neurologist diagnosing her with autism at four and a half years old?

Her chromosomes were normal! Yet she showed signs that her right brain was weaker than the left. She didn’t start crawling and speaking at the appropriate age. Jade went days without a proper bowel movement, and suffered from constant congestion and ear infections. At daycare, she sat in a corner and cried, not wanting to participate. My daughter was missing all those milestones that her cousins were making. After a lot of reading and research, I started to understand the cause of my daughter’s developmental and health issues. I know now that my poor gut health was passed on to my daughter at birth, which led to her gradual decline in health. It wasn’t until I improved her gut health that she got any better.

The first obstacle, was to recognize that Jade was sick! Most relatives, loved ones and educators made me think that, “Jade was just fine, and that she was developing at her own pace.” No one wants to be the bearer of bad news, so friends never said anything either. They didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Not even when I told them straight out that I had suspected she was autistic. Her proud father and grandparents couldn’t see beyond Jade being any less than “Perfect.”
At parent conferences, the teacher would bring up Jade’s health issues, quirkiness and her crying if you just asked her to hold a crayon! The daycare director,
with 30 years plus in education, said that, “Jade will eventually mature.” Everyone, including myself, was still doubtful that something was seriously wrong and thought that Jade would get better with time. Just stay hopeful and keep going to speech therapy and OT sessions and she’ll catch up, I thought.

Another year went by, wasted. In hindsight, all those therapy sessions, were not nearly as important as dedicating myself to
Jade’s special nutritional needs. I wasted a lot of time by not trusting my own intuition.

Doctors only made things worse with all the prescription meds. After different rounds of antibiotics, sometimes back to back for her congestion and chronic ear infections, she got worse. She got pneumonia three times in one year! Little did I know, that I was slowly destroying her healthy gut bacteria and making her constipation worse with every doctor’s prescription. They put her on a daily allergy pill for congestion, that never really helped. The doctors never even told me what she was allergic to. An audiologist wanted to put tubes in her ear, and also emphasized that her practice does not treat the cause of ear infections.
An ophthalmologist wanted to operate on her eye, to treat her exotropism (the turning out of one eye). I’d have to try something else, I thought. They also told
me to give her laxatives to improve her bowel movements. After awhile, those even stopped working. Friends with good intentions told me that Jade needed to drink more water and eat more fruits and veggies. Like I hadn’t tried that! Not to mention that all this time, my husband and I had spent thousands on speech/OT, behavior therapy and private schools desperately trying to help her.

Throwing money at the situation, as it turned out, never helped as much as the dedication to a specific diet for Jade to stabilize her gut.

I reached a turning point after reading “Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, Dyspraxia, A.D.D., Dyslexia, A.D.H.D., Depression,
Schizophrenia” by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. I finally understood that all those specialists could only treat the symptoms of what I came to realize were inflammatory responses to Jade’s “LEAKY GUT. ” I couldn't sleep at night thinking about how my poor daughter’s brain and body had been nutritionally starved from years of constipation and inflammation. The guilt and fear over took me. What was going to become of my daughter, an only child, with no brothers and sisters for support. I had to do something NOW. She is already 4 and a half! After blaming myself, and everyone in my close circle, I knew that I had to be the
driving force to bring Jade out of her misery.

After researching more about all the negative effects of constipation, I desperately yelled at my husband one day in our truck. “ Our daughter is going to DIE
if she keeps pooping out ROCKS!” “We have to do something,” I scolded. “The laxatives aren’t working anymore and this could lead to colon cancer and…."
I ranted on and broke down bawling. then and there, in the grocery store parking lot, he helped me order online some minerals and vitamins for autistic children. We gave her 5-6 teaspoons of different minerals and vitamins through out the day that helped her constipation a little. We started looking more at natural alternatives.

I detoxified my home, bought house plants to purify the air, added a reverse osmosis water system trying to reduce any more toxins from entering my daughter’s
body, knowing that she couldn’t eliminate them well. We went crazy at Williams Sonoma buying the best juicer and kitchen utensils to make our homemade probiotic-filled yogurt and sauerkraut. We bought special pots for making broth. We gave her organic juices and organic bone broth that had simmered for
72 hours. We tried lots of different remedies from books, only to have her admitted to Children’s Medical City that week for incessant vomiting. I felt so guilty for going so quickly and taking chances without the guidance of a Natural Practitioner. Luckily, she was rehydrated and released a day later.

We needed help, so we researched online and found a doctor in Grapevine who helped autistic children. Based on Jade’s symptoms and a stool analysis, he
wrote on her chart “Gut Protocol.” Then, after a 5-minute consultation, The doctor sent us to the next room where a lady could sell us all the natural detoxifiers, oils, minerals and vitamins we needed at a marked-up price. After she realized that we already had been using most of those, she was kind enough to give us the number of a mother who had successfully recovered her son, and the phone number of a Naturopath. I talked to that mother for over two hours from across the country on the phone, which gave me the hope and inspiration I needed to keep going.

That is when we really started our journey of recovery.

I got in contact with my Naturopath, who listened to and understood all my daughter’s symptoms and their causes. She taught me that changes go slow and gradual. The body doesn’t fix itself overnight. I also learned the discipline and willpower it takes to maintain a gut-nourishing diet. I wanted to give up, but my natural practitioner held my hand, slowly showing me a new lifestyle. I had to plan meals weekly, make many dishes from scratch and I eventually became the envy of my friends who couldn’t get their kids to eat veggies. I learned that my daughter had a sensitivity to gluten, dairy, eggs and yeast. Eliminating those from her diet helped tremendously in lifting her “brain fog” and it eliminated her congestion, That motivated me even more. I now had the willpower to show up at a birthday party with some homemade gluten-free muffins, instead of having my daughter eat chemically loaded store-bought cake. The more I learned about
the connection between nutrition and brain health, I was amazed at how so many of my friends were in the dark about their own children’s health.

It took about two years of hard work to prioritize our daughter’s health over careers, friends, travel plans and our own ambitions. However, people who hadn’t seen Jade in a while were amazed at her outgoingness, school progress and ability to eat right. It was worth it. She is still trying to catch up in school, but she
has been assigned minimal support for next year in a regular public school fourth grade class. She is actually ahead of some of her peers in math, but still
behind in reading.

If I knew then what I know now, I think of how I could have improved her
even more. I can’t emphasize how important it is to start as soon as possible.

Now she participates in competitive swimming year round, enjoys friendships and playing with pets and cousins. She rarely gets sick. Eating and sleeping right goes a long way. This year she was even chosen to receive a character award that is only given to four students throughout the year at a special character ceremony. Her medal was for showing “Gratefulness.” She has come a long way from that miserable child who sat in the corner crying at school. She has become a delightful child with a radiant smile. Yes, it is still difficult to prioritize a healthy diet when you see fast food places and restaurants all over. Luckily there are more people who are understanding the importance of good nutrition and the effects on children's brain function. The more support you can surround yourself with,
the easier it will be to learn to prepare and eat food that can help your child’s body heal itself.

I’m sharing this testimony with you so that you know that there is hope for your child. I also want to save you time, grief and money in order to get you going down the right path sooner. The earlier you start, the more results you can achieve. I wish I could have started sooner.

I did everything backwards, starting out with specialists and later finding the most bang for my buck in nutrition.

I paid thousands for therapies and private schools that minimally benefited my daughter, because she wasn’t ready. After she was eating right, eliminating toxins, and had no more congestion, she could then learn from teachers and therapists. I would say that 90% of my daughter’s recovery came from nutrition and other therapies were only the icing on top. I now feel confident that Jade can lead a happy and healthy life. Every child deserves good nutrition for their start in life, it is up to us as parents to provide them with the best we can.