So during Culley's OT appointment this week, his therapist noticed the smathering of raised and red bumps on his forearms. We think they're ant bites since he'd been playing in the dirt a lot recently. He likes to get close-up to his trains and trucks as they go through the dirt so it's likely he was leaning on his bare arms and had a reaction to something in the dirt. I explained to her that he has very sensitive skin so mild skin rashes of unknown origin are not unusual for him. That's when she mentioned having a consult with a doctor who specializes in allergies at the local Naturopathic Clinic. She referenced the connections between food allergies/sensitivities and language development especially found with Autism and Sensory Processing. Considering that his language development is somewhat of a mystery at this point and he does have some known allergies and some other suspicious reactions, such as eczema, I decided to look into it. I'd heard good things about this doctor and a technique he uses to desensitize people to their allergies. It's called BioSET and it's a system that uses energy responses to diagnose and treat allergies and many other conditions. It's not recognized my the medical community, as of yet. Since Culley is allergic to dogs and cats, he takes allergy medicine everyday because he lives with a dog and a cat. I know, I know, it sounds awful but my husband and I labored over the decision to get rid of our beloved pets when Culley was first diagnosed with the allergy almost 2 years ago but found that we just couldn't do it. Culley's doctor, a pediatric allergist at a world-renowned hospital, assured us that it wasn't necessary to get rid of the pets as long as the medications were working for him. Drake, our Golden Retriever, is 10 years old now so we figure it won't be long and Butters was recently diagnosed with kidney disease even though he's only 5:( So we figured we'd let them live out their lives and never get another pet. Still sad considering before my kids, my life centered around animals, being a vet tech and always owning pets. So the idea of having Culley desensitized to his allergy is very intriguing. And since I'm always searching for pieces of the Culley puzzle, finding out if he does have a wheat or dairy allergy is also important. After a consult with the doctor this morning, I set up his first BioSET appointment for a couple weeks from now.
What else is going on? Well, we finally were able to arrange a child psychologist who works with deaf children to observe Culley during one of his auditory/verbal therapy sessions - recommended by his A/V therapist. She observed that while he doesn't have the characteristic signs of Autism, some of his behavior and learning patters are atypical and may not be attributed to his SPD. She recommended that we have a formal evaluation and autism screening done. I'm waiting for the contact info. to move forward. While I would have been relieved to hear her say that he's fine and we're already doing everything we can do for him, I wouldn't have really believed it. I feel good that my gut feeling, that something else is going on with him, is the same as hers.
We're off to Cincinnati tomorrow for a week, visiting family. I wasn't able to connect with an OT who does craniocacral massage there so let's hope he doesn't miss it too much!
