Good week!

Hello, everyone. Just a quick note about a few things today. I'm so proud of Ben...gotta brag on him a bit!

He's been talking more and more! He is saying/attempting words now without being prompted or taught! It seems almost every day now that they are telling me at school that he's said 3 or 4 new words. (We are noticing the same at home too!) So exciting! He is also occasionally putting 2-3 words together. :o) The speech dyspraxia is still apparent, and many of his words are difficult for others to understand, but this attempts are consistent and constant now.

His teacher yesterday also said that he seemed more engaged. Usually during gross motor, he just wants to run and run. She said yesterday that he stayed engaged and played the whole time, during both 10-15min. sessions. :o)

[Sidenote: have I mentioned how much I LOVE his school lately??] :o)

He has also been trying lots of new foods! In just the last week or so, he's added oranges, grapes, rice crackers, and popcorn (already a sometimes food) to his repertoire. He also tried my toast and some pizza, but the gluten didn't agree with him unfortunately. So, we'll try to find Ben-friendly versions of those because he liked them a lot!

One more thing...he is starting to really love to sit down and play games or read with mommy and daddy! I'm loving that!

I forgot to mention that I made a change in his supplements a week or so ago. I thought some other moms may be interested in this:

I took him off the BioticBoost probiotic because it has a strain of strep in it. I've gotten conflicting advice about whether that strep strain can aggravate PANDAS, but I decided to take it out just to see if it made a difference. I put him back on his old yeast fighting regimen (s boulardii and acidophilus). Not sure if that has anything to do with the recent burst of progression, but we've noticed he looks healthier (no more rashes, no circles under his eyes) and his tummy is flat again. (It's usually always bloated.) So, I'll keep him on the simpler probiotics for now.

I also had to stop the epsom salt baths because they were drying out his skin. So, I give him a little oral magnesium as needed instead. (He'll get irritable and more sensitive to phenols when he needs it.)

Finally, I started him on Mitochondrial Restore today. This is a supplement that Dr. Stewart recommended at our last visit. I hadn't started it sooner because Neurobiologix was out of stock. Then, we had the issues with the new lotion, and then we had to stop the antivirals. I don't like to do too much at once, and I try to wait until he stabilizes from one change before starting the next. So, we finally started the MR today at a very small dose. It has some turmeric in it which we've tried before with great results, but after a while the high oxalate level got to him. This is a much smaller dose than we tried before, so I'm hoping he'll tolerate it better. But, we are taking it extra slow just in case.

That's about all for now. This turned out to be a longer post than I anticipated...oops! Looks like I have lots of rice to clean up off the floor...(the rice bucket's been keeping him busy while I type!)

Hope all is well with everyone!

Love,
Julie