Practicing His Thai Chi

From the moment Cameron was able to sit up on his own, he would pick up one toy in each hand and begin to move them from side to side directly in front of his face. And I don’t mean just little movements, he would literally extend his arms as far out as he could, move them from one side across his face over to the other side until his arms were fully extended again and then back again. This motion would be repeated far more times than I could count.

He wasn’t just moving them in front of his face, he was moving them passed his eyes. And he wouldn’t watch them go by, his eyes would stay straight ahead as his toys would pass by.

At first, people would comment and joke and we, not knowing any better, would tell people that he was practising his Thai Chi, because that’s exactly what it looked like. Over the course of a year, however, we began to realize that this was a symptom of something that wasn’t so funny.

Since then, we’ve come to learn that it was the gluten in his food which was acting like a narcotic in his brain, causing his toys to blur and leave trails as they went by. Imagine a one year old, high on drugs, getting spaced out and watching objects go by leaving trails in their wake… that’s how it was for Cameron.

A doctor suggested that even though there was no concrete proof of it, that sometimes a gluten free, casein free diet can really help when dealing with Autism. We had tried several different things and so we tried this diet as well, cutting out his pasta and no more sandwiches. Within 3 days, we saw a radical difference in Cameron, he just seemed so much more aware of his surroundings and cut down on his Thai Chi movements quite a bit.

Do I now recommend the diet to other parents dealing with Autism? Absolutely.  Do I guarantee it’ll help. No, there’s no guarantees.

But our house is mostly Thai Chi free. We still see it if he’s very stressed or overwhelmed, but it’s rare these days. And even though it’s still no joke, the progress makes us happy.