Ashley and Digestive Enzymes

Years ago when we first started noticing concerns with Ashley, we immediately started looking for any treatment we could find. I was constantly researching autism and the many different treatments out there. I have heard of hundreds of different treatments over the years. They include dietary, medical, homeopathic, and educational interventions. There is always something that has helped some child with autism somewhere. We desperately tried over forty different treatments with Ashley in a three year period. Some seemed to help slightly and some made things worse. They were all expensive and most required huge sacrifice on our part or for Ashley. It always seemed worth any cost if it had a chance of helping us to get our baby back. I have read books and talked to other parents who have seen amazing success with some of these treatments. For us and Ashley that miracle never came. But a different miracle came we learned to accept Ashley and our life as it was. We have been content and happy with our life and our family, even though it includes a child with severe autism. We stopped almost all the treatments that were experimental and focused on her education. But every few months I get a call, letter, or email from someone talking about a new treatment. We always listen to it and possibly research it, but now we have a criteria we use before we jump on it. The criteria: first we pray, then we consider the source, we research it further and discuss it with professionals. Then after all of that, if it is not going to involve a huge lifestyle change and if it is affordable in our budget without any debt; we will try it. In the last five years nothing has met our criteria; so we have not tried any different or experimental treatments. However a couple of months ago we received information on digestive enzymes that fit our criteria, so we decided to give it a try. I didn't have a lot of hope that it would be effective because we have been down this road before, many times, and have been badly burned. But we started the enzymes a month ago and to our amazement, they seem to be greatly helping. We started out giving her an enzymes a couple of times a day before she ate. Now we are giving her enzymes before she eats anything. She is so much happier than she has been in years. She is calmer and more focused. She is having very few meltdowns and her self-injury has significantly decreased. Everybody, who spends any time with her, has noticed a remarkable difference. She is more affectionate, her eye contact is better, she is more verbal, and using her talker more. The only thing that has not improved is her sleep. We are so excited and praise God for such wonderful changes!