Okay fans and family of Tony…a portrait of what Autism and a 2-year old sounds like at two in the morning.

“AIIIIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”

Maybe I need to start recording Tony’s outburst’s so that it’s a little more real?

We’re going on the 3rd week of Tony’s lack of sleep (and ours, of course), increasingly frequent hysterical outbursts at all times of the day and night, and his obsession with crayons, markers, a toy bathtub, Bear in the Big Blue House and of course…Nightmare Before Christmas. In between the madness, he displays some imaginative play and other NueroTyp behavior. But most of the time he is a complete and utter behavioral disaster area.

He has in the last few weeks started refusing to drink anything except his Glaceau “pink water” and his body is not getting any of the vitamins and nutrients we used to be able to disguise in his juice and rice milk. I looked into the ingredients of Tony’s new favorite water just now, and the key sweetener is Fructose.

Hm…he didn’t previously eat or drink too many items that were sweetened, and so I did a little research about Fructose.

Sure enough, since we already have Tony on a restricted diet:

As a result, biomedical intervention usually starts with a restrictive diet, such as the gluten-free, casein-free diet. Typically, foods will be restricted in a particular sequence, for example by eliminating:

Dairy products – both casein and lactose are considered problematic
Gluten, including grains such as wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt, etc.
Eggs, nuts, and berries that often provoke allergic reactions in children
Fruits and vegetables that contain salicylates, phenols, and other substances that may cause a reaction
All artificially colored food, i.e., the Feingold Diet
All bi- and poly-saccharides, such as lactose, fructose, starch, etc. (the Specific Carbohydrate Diet)

Whenever we have had these sort of extreme behavioral issues, we have found that Tony has had an infraction of some sort, usually related to Glutens. The last time his behavior was this “off the charts” was a month ago when he was having a terrible reaction to mosquito bites and we used benedyrl to counteract his inflamed bites. After a week of screaming and no sleep and erratic behavior (he actually started flapping his hands and walking on his toes again) I had an epiphany about what had changed in his diet, and the only thing were those pink little tablets of diphenhydramine.

Hm…pink…and coated…

Did a little research into how those pills are made, and BAM…found out some of the ingredients include artificial dyes, and GLUTEN.

We quit giving Tony the medicine and his behaviors started clearing up by the second day.

Looks like we have another round of detox to go through…but this time will be difficult since Tony is now refusing to drink anything but his precious pink water. Here’s a nice link that further explains the whole Fructose issue.

Ah…the joys of Autism.

Since we’re still in transition between therapists and only have Danielle now, it seems like I will be adding more of my voice to the record of Being Tony. This is probably a good thing for me on the one hand, since I have a very different perspective of what life with Tony is like “after school.” In going back and reading a lot of the entries of the blog, I realize that it paints a much more rosy picture of life with Tony than is actually taking place. I guess you can call this “fair and balanced blogging.” (Gads, I really hate Fox News for coming up with that.)

So, it has now been an hour and a half since Tony first woke up screaming hysterically, and he’s still going strong. Nothing will soothe him. Like an addict, the one thing that might soothe his soul is the very thing now torturing him.

Autism and addiction go so very well, hand in hand…

We have our all-important IFSP in the morning, and unfortunately we don’t have anyone who knows Tony ABA program to speak for it in front of our state-appointed Early Interventionist and her boss. That’s life in South Carolina for you. We have to stick up for ourselves, since no one else seems to care.

Was that harsh? Yeah, I hope it was. This state and country are facing an Autism epidemic that most refuse to even acknowledge, and funding for therapy, treatments and care for these disabled kiddos is a farce. We have federally funded companies out there “providing services” for us who make more money as administrators than do our actual care-givers. How does this even make sense?

Well…there’s my rant for the evening. I’m sure as time goes by and I continue to be the main figure updating Tony’s blog, you’ll be reading a little more about all of these issues.

Thank you for reading, and do drop back by soon…
Anton the bleary eyed

PS: I feel badly for Morgan, who is forced by circumstance to be a brave 11-year old and put up with this madness. No one here has slept much in the last few weeks, including her.