Today was Minifob's evaluation with the school district, and it has been officially recommended that he be placed in the PPCD class next August (he's not eligible until he turns three, which is 2 days before school lets out for the summer.) But the evaluators did note a significant improvement from when they saw him just 2 months ago, pre-diet. Now I need to go meet the teacher and visit the classroom, to make sure it's a place I'm actually willing to put him 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.
In the meantime, I've heard a disappointing anecdote from my Early Childhood Intervention coordinator about Thoughtful House, the specialty clinic we're on the waiting list for. She says she had a family with an older autistic child who had begun experimenting with some enzymes and nutritional supplements on their own until they could finally get their appointment. They had some success, and sure enough, when they saw the doctor he confirmed that these treatments were indicated by the test results, and from now on they could purchase said supplements out in the lobby. The parents pointed out that the ones they'd been using listed identical ingredients to the ones in the lobby, and cost $30 instead of $200. The doctor told them that they could not vouch for supplements from other distributors, and
would not treat him at all unless he was on their own brand of products.
I'm going to keep my initial phone appointment and see if perhaps there was a misunderstanding, or maybe these parents were talking about a single specific drug rather than generic vitamins, but I'm extremely wary.
This is one of the things that has pissed me off from the very beginning of all this research: fucking
everyone is selling something, and it completely undermines their credibility. Oh yes, the GFCF diet works wonders--just buy our $80 instructional DVD, and order our wide variety of gluten-free products shipped right to your door... it's like, I don't know, the medical community should research this shit, so they can actually recommend legitimate treatments to their patients, and the patients won't have to weed out information on their own from shysters on the internet. For the record, the GFCF diet has been no less than a miracle for us, my kid is leagues better now than he was even three weeks ago, and you don't have to pay me a goddamn thing to tell you so. I take every opportunity that I can to say it for free, in fact, because I think helping people is a good thing.
The good news is, I talked with his pediatrician yesterday at Minifobette's 1-year checkup, and she is supportive of the diet, if not as enthusiastic about it as I am. She also said she is able and willing to perform some of the basic testing that is part of the biomedical protocol--for example, testing for yeast in the stool. If she finds yeast, she can treat it with an anti-fungal, regardless of whether she actually believes it is contributing to his autistic symptoms. I couldn't name any of the other blood tests off the top of my head, but she said to bring a list of the tests/treatments to his next appointment, and she'll happily proceed through it until she gets to a test she doesn't know how to do or a treatment she can't get on board with.