Our son was talking well for a one year old with a vocabulary of about 20 words. Mama, dada, uh oh, oh no, baba, cookie, please, hi, bye, yes, no, car, toy, boat, with his favorite game at the time to drop a toy or knock one down and go “uh oh, oooh no” all dramatically to get laughs.
When Dominic was 13 months old we went to the doctor’s office to get him vaccinated. Although he was already walking, he preferred to hold furniture and was playing at a Thomas the Train table in the office. Suddenly he stopped playing and walked all the way across the lobby unassisted to a little blonde girl. He reached up with his hands to hold her cheeks and pull her in for a kiss on the lips and said, “Hi.” The other parents, the nurses and receptionist all giggled and laughed and cheered at how cute it was. That was Dominic 100%: he played with the children at daycare, was very social, and waved at everyone. We had our visit where he aced his developmental test, got his shots – the MMR, Varicella, PCV, and Hib – and we went home.
He screamed and screamed and spiked a 105 fever. His pediatrician’s office said he will be fine – just give him Tylenol. Hours later it was no better, the fever barely budged then came right back. I called again and was told no need to come in just keep giving him Tylenol. He didn’t speak another word after that day. He wasn’t the same happy, smiling baby he was before, but having just been through a stressful couple of days I thought he would be ok and kept trying not to worry like the nurses were telling me.
When he returned to daycare after a few days, we were pulled aside and what I had been complaining to my husband about was validated. They reported he wasn’t talking, playing with the other children, laughing or giggling, or even responding to his name, and wanted to know what was going on. He wasn’t playing his game anymore or waving at anyone and wouldn’t even let us hold him. He was very affectionate before. His regression was immediate, but continued to get worse. The blowout diapers, then the eczema and ear infections. He started harming himself like biting his arms and slamming his head into the floor.
Those behaviors didn’t happen overnight, but over time, as his symptoms got worse. I would attribute the constant antibiotics due to the ear infections as partly to blame for the symptoms getting worse. It’s like a domino effect one complication leading to another starting with the HepB at birth causing mitochondrial disorder being what set it all off.
At age three, he was still not talking and we brought him in to the pediatrician with a list of symptoms that started after his vaccinations at 13 months. He gave us the autism diagnosis and began to lecture that it wasn’t the vaccines pointing out he was aware that we were not vaccinating our new baby, but we are one of the only parents he’s allowed to stay that refused. I told him not to worry because he was fired and we never went back.
We found a neurodevelopmental pediatrician who gave us the diagnosis of regressive autism ADHD combined type because he had the skills and lost them. In three months on her protocol of treating the whole body for toxicity, inflammation, and gut health, he was talking again. He had been nonverbal for years. I took him to the park the day after we completed his first round of chelation therapy to address the metal toxicity found in his testing. We got out of the car, walked to the playground, he stops and looks up at me a gives a complete sentence. “Mama, I love you.” Yes I dropped to my knees and cried like a baby.
We continued to work with nutrition and supplements and he continued to gain skills. He recovered to a case of high functioning autism. Legos are a favorite. He will be 15 in February. He graduated from speech therapy.
