Friday, April 06, 2012

Treatments for Autism.....Pt.3

Treatment Approaches

Clinical Therapies
 
Complementary Therapies
 

Biomedical Treatments
 
Family Support
 
Service Delivery Models
 
 I know I have talked about some of these already, this is just a more comprehensive list as there are sooooo many treatments these days for autism. Here is a list of what we have tried since Nick was diagnosed.

*GF/CF diet. This was back in the very beginning. We did not see any significant changes in him, at least not enough to warrant spending the money on special foods.
* Cod Liver Oil. This was taken to help with speech. I thought I noticed a very slight increase, but not enough to be able to tell whether or not it was the supplement or just maturing.
* DHA vitamins
* Magnesium with calcium and D3-I did notice that he was less anxious with this. It reminds me that I need to get another bottle.
*Melatonin-this was a godsend to help him fall asleep. We still use this every once in a while.
*ABA therapy-This has been the biggest help for Nick.
*Occupational Therapy-this has helped him with fine motor skills like holding pencils, and writing.(although we still have a hard time with this!)
*Risperidone (Risperdal)-This has helped him to become more manageable, less mood swings, and able to function daily.
*Hippotherapy-It was wonderful while we got it! I would do this again in a heartbeat as Nick LOVED it. However, insurance does not pay for this, and it is expensive!
*Chiropractor-He offered Nick treatment for FREE. He seemed to like it, but after about a year it was difficult to tell whether or not it was really helping. Our schedules were also getting busier, and it was getting tougher to make the weekly appointments.
*Clay baths, Epsom Salt Baths-supposedly to help 'draw' out toxins
*Pro-biotics-once again, these did help with his stool issues, I just need to get more of them.
*Mainstream Educational setting-Did not work for Nick. Even in the autism class he was failing. We have since enrolled him an a special school for disabled kids. He is thriving there, and we are happy.  I now have a rule for every therapy/supplement we decide on. It has to have a WOW factor. If we notice a drastic change in him, we keep doing it. Some therapies, like the Hippotherapy, are just kept because Nick has fun. If he can have fun, even though changes may be negligible, I will keep a therapy. We go through periods where we are packing his schedule with all this stuff in order to help him, but then it interferes with actual family life and we scale things back. As of right now, we are happy with our status-quo.

I got the info above from this link:  https://www.firstsigns.org/treatment/treatments.htm

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