Jilly is a happy baby

I have one child that was diagnosed with autism and one child that was diagnosed with apraxia or dyspraxia.  I’m going to share the secret to our success!

Jillian is my younger child and is currently 3 and a half years old with a diagnosis of apraxia or dyspraxia and she has been in therapy through Early Intervention since she was 18 months old.

Jillian’s was an easy, full term pregnancy, that I just knew she would be a perfect baby.  We welcomed her into the world on August 23, 2008.  The only set back during labor was that Jilly’s heart rate dropped and I was put on oxygen and her heart rate immediately pick up again and there were no problem thereafter.

Her developmental milestones occurred within normal limits, well all EXCEPT when I began to notice the same speech delays as I did with my older son  Kaden who was diagnosed with autism…..  It was different with Jilly though.  She was so outgoing and friendly and she seemed to understand everything we were saying to her, yet there were no words coming out of her beautiful little mouth, except “da da”.

Jilly has apraxia and her big brother Kaden has autism

Of course we had to wait until the 18th month dr. appointment to confirm our fears that she did in fact have a speech delay and the pediatrician referred us to early intervention.  Jilly received therapy through therapist through our states early intervention and our local college.  The early intervention agency diagnosed her with delayed speech but once she did begin to speak something about the way she spoke was different.

At the time I had become friends with a local mom whose son was diagnosed with what was called “Apraxia”.  I had never heard of it.  The more she spoke of it the more and more it sounded so much like what Jillian sounded like.  Of course I was in denial though.  I didn’t want to believe that I had another child with this horrible condition that could be lifelong!

Jilly was diagnosed with apraxia and dyspraxia by an SLP and a neurologist

Once I got over all of that I decided to get Jilly evaluated and looked at by a neurologist and the local Speech Pathologists in the area that are qualified in the field of Apraxia.  Well low and behold she was diagnosed with Apraxia but also Dyspraxia by the Pediatric Neurologist.  As I understood though the two were used interchangeably so it didn’t make much of a difference to me.

Below is a video of my daughter Jilly after she had been in speech therapy for over one and a half years with frustratingly slow limited progress in speech.

Before NV Original

Once I got that diagnosis I began to do my research.  There had to be more than just therapy out there.  Just like with Autism.  I had been researching for him trying different supplements, diets, detox’s.  There had to be something, SOMETHING for this Apraxia!!

Jillian LOVES her NV "pudding"!

Then I came upon this Yahoo group that kept mentioning these two letters “NV”.  All they could say were these riveting wonderful things that were happening with their children while on the “NV”.  I had to know what this NV was!  That is what led us here to where we are on our road to healing at least for Jilly.

Below is a video of Jilly after a few months on NV on just one scoop a day

After NV Original March 15, 2012

UPDATE April 5, 2012

Jilly surge update! 9 word phrase! It’s of course usually her father or brother that brings the most speech out of her. Her daddy ticked her off last night when he restarted the TV and satellite ( heaven forbid) and she said “what happened?”. Mike said ” restarted the TV” Jilly said ” Daddy why did you do that to the TV??!!”  She has also started tracing which she was not able to do before!

Jilly’s big brother Kaden has been diagnosed with autism.  Because of Jilly’s progress we decided to start Kaden on NV as well these past few weeks. We are gradually increasing him up to 2 scoops of Nutriiveda Original after we just weaned him off some of his meds.

Kaden eating his NV "pudding"!

Since being on NV these past few weeks…

He has finally learned to subtract within the past couple weeks on NV original when before it had taken him months to try to attain that skill.

He completed all of his recent OT goals!

Kaden’s OT Skills Before NV

Before NV Kaden's OT work

Kaden’s OT Goals Met After a Few Weeks On NV

Within weeks on NV Kaden has met all his recent OT goals

 He also just recently just scored 25 AR points in reading!

Kaden just recently just scored 25 AR points in reading!

He is also more out going.  I really could have kicked myself in the rear the other day when I did not have my phone nor camera on me.  He was outside playing SOCCER with a typical boy from our neighborhood and actually learning real soccer moves.  I was standing there crying like a big baby lol.  Of course Jilly was right in the middle driving her big brother nuts!

Kaden Before and After NV Original Videos

Kaden Age 3 and 5 Before NV Original

“Kaden’s first speech emerged as echolalia. That was when I really began to take notice of the differences in my child and that of other children. The signs of his differences where the fact that he was sooo tiny. When he was five his speech began to get better but other signs began to show up. He was the size of a 3 year old and I always had to teach him how to play with his new toys. When the doctors where not only denying him of an autism diagnosis they were also denying him of any other diagnosis one of which he has now thankfully which is growth hormone deficiency. We had Kaden tested when he was 7 and he did test positive. He is just now beginning to catch up to size 7 clothes!! He has always been 2 to 3 year behind in growth and all other areas.” ~Kelly

Kaden’s only been on NV a few weeks- here’s a video of him from 3.24.2012 where you can see his progress in spelling!

“Another success reached! Just this year his Sped teacher and aids have been working diligently with him to get him to spell certain 3 letter words. I too have been working with him as well at home. He has been successful with quite a few with practice and study. Today March 24, 2012, while practicing his spelling I thought to myself “hmmm he has been surprising me so much lately I wonder I could just try him on a few simple four letter words on the Ipad”. BAM!!! He did 4 without any practice or anything!!!I’m so proud of him!!!” ~Kelly

Background for Kaden Before NV Original

Kaden was our first son and came into this world a beautiful pink, healthy color weighing 6.3 lbs. Yes, very little and looking just like his father. We loved him to pieces.

Big brother Kaden with his little sister Jillian

We began noticing some differences in Kaden when he was around 18 months old, because he was not speaking.

I, being a young mother just thought he would eventually grow to speak and was told so by his pediatrician at the time who told me that he did not begin speaking until he himself was 3 years old. Well there you go I thought. A doctor, one the best pediatricians around didn’t begin to speak until he was 3. So I put it to the back of my mind even when the kid med office referred us to the early intervention agency. He was only approved for speech and only for 2 times a month. So there couldn’t really be anything wrong with him.

Kaden sometimes looked like any other child

Still though this sweet, gorgeous, typical looking child of mine did these strange things I began to notice. He would only play with certain toys and never ever in the correct way. Don’t get me wrong, I know not every child is perfect, but don’t children around two usually catch on to such things.

Then he began to just play with certain parts of the toys, like just the wheels on cars or just strings on pull toys. He also never wanted to interact with any other children unless they would go up to him and make a strange loud noise that he thought was funny. Those times were the only times I would feel a piece of calm wash over me and think oh of course he’s fine.

Kaden was diagnosed with autism

I brought him to doctors and they would tell me “he’s fine you’re looking for things that he’s not expected to know yet”. My parents always had the feelings that I deep down knew about him but never had that professional “TELL me”. So I just went along with what the doctors and teachers said until one day…

FINALY, when Kaden was 6 years old we met with a wonderful nurse practitioner that said Ms. Lacy; I really believe your son is on the autism spectrum. I apologize if this comes as a shock to you, but I doubt that it does. I just really needed to tell you.

I wanted to jump up and hug her… I still do for that. She saved Kaden. Of course Kaden had always had speech therapy and Occupational therapy and had the dx of learning delayed but he never had that professional come forth and say something. That was the day that put us on the path to learning how to put Kaden’s pieces together.

Kaden is extremely special. He’s a query I think so many teachers and doctors had a problem with his diagnosis because he is so outgoing and friendly. When Kaden was younger, during his toddler years he was very shy and did not want to be bothered by other children but once he turned 5 I found a great social group and that broke him of that. He loves playing with and meeting other kids. He does have a temper and times and can be a handful but at the end of the day you just want to hug and cuddle him so much its ridiculous!

I'm happy with the progress Kaden has made on NV so far!

UPDATE 3.30.2012

Kaden placed 2nd in a race!

Kelly wrote, “My big boy placed second in his race today!!  Should have seen the kids he was up against too ! He was half their height,but still placed 2nd place out of the 5 and and another one ran too that wasn’t even in that race lol.  I believe this is another surge because his teacher said  ”Kaden  even has the correct form down. He keeps his upper body strait and just runs moves his legs and arms” I asked her oh you taught him that and she reply no he just automatically does it. IM putting him in track!!  He got 6.30 seconds in the 25 meter! So so proud!”

UPDATE March 31, 2012

SURGE in confidence!

We have been places where we have asked Kaden if he would want to try a rock wall and we have always gotten a no or he would dart the other way towards a bouncy house or something and if you would try to talk him into it and melt down would occur. He asked to do the rock wall this time and this one was high! I would not have been able to do this thing lol. Sad but true. The only thing that stopped him was when he started to get to where his legs were getting shaky and he wasn’t sure where to put his foot.

Definite surge. He’s turning into a real athlete!  Also if you notice his upper body strength seems to be proportionate to his lower body. He has been struggling with that for years. He normally has very low upper body awareness to where now I have now really noticed that problem as much with him.

Mom Kelly and her children Kaden and Jillian

If you want to congratulate Kelly on the success of her children Kaden and Jillian please leave a comment below!

Original NV is in preclinical research;Learn more

Apraxia Road to Recovery, Before and After Videos

Nutritional Therapy for Autism Real Time Results

Speech Disorder Road to Recovery, Before and After Videos

Is Nutriiveda Creating a Paradigm Shift in Treatment of Speech Impairments?

Apraxia Blog Documents One Mom’s Journey

Is Nutrition Solving The Autism Puzzle?

Nutrition A Paradigm Shift In The Treatment Of Chromosomal Disorders?