I helped our daughter Harper heal from severe developmental delays, and there’s help.
No Eye Contact or Speech at Two and a Half
Harper’s main symptoms were, and I would say they peaked at about two and a half years old, not making eye contact, or if I called her name, she wouldn’t answer. She didn’t have any words yet. She wasn’t waving. She wasn’t pointing. And she would kind of like spin a little bit.
What Life Was Like
Our life was, like, up in the air. I felt like it was on pause because our friends who had kids were hitting all their milestones, and she wasn’t. Anytime we’d go somewhere, they were hitting their milestones and, we couldn’t set up play dates really or it was just really difficult and not really knowing what was coming. It didn’t look like it was going to be how it is now.
Lowest Low
My lowest low was when I went on a trip to go see my dad with my daughter Harper and my newborn son, Cash, and her symptoms just really peaked, which looking back were kind of a good thing because I got really serious about figuring out what was wrong.
If there was like anyone was laughing in the room, she would like start screaming. It was clear there was something very, very wrong.
Changing Harper’s Diet
When she hit two years and nine months, because that’s when my son was born, we had completely cut out gluten and dairy, and we were pretty much just cooking all of our food at home. And within that month, she did start talking, and she had “up” and “down”. I just don’t even think about it anymore because she’s doing so well now that I forget how bad it was. So she had “up” and “down”.
We took her in when my son was three days old. My husband took her into the pediatrician’s office. And before that, anytime I mentioned anything, he would kind of say, “Well, she’s fine. She’s smiling.” And then when he saw her that appointment, he got really serious. And he was like, “Well, she’s on the spectrum, I don’t know where. And then we’ll probably put her on anxiety meds” because she was throwing a tantrum.
And, I was like, “No, we won’t.” And we switched pediatricians. We switched to a functional-medicine pediatrician who kind of specialized in kids with autism and ADHD. And they said, “Keep up with how you’re feeding her.”
Brain Harmony
When she went in at three years old to get evaluated, I think she was still like in the first percentile for speech and then second percentile for social skills. I think it was around May when I got in touch with Carol from Brain Harmony.
“When we started the Safe and Sound Protocol (as part of Brain Harmony), I could tell instantly it was doing something because while she had it on, she was very affectionate, like kissing me all over my face and kind of like hugging me. I could tell that it made a huge difference. We would just stick the headphones and the backpack on, and she would do watercolor or she would play outside. “
A Different Kid by the End of the Summer
We added that in, and she didn’t have any therapies over the summer. By the time we went back in, the therapist sat down and they said, “You brought a completely different kid in. What are you doing?” And then I told them about the integrative listening system, and they were like, ”I don’t know.” Well, they just didn’t really want to hear it, but she had like grown leaps and bounds.
Harper Today
She’s very eager to try new things, and she has great friends, and she’s very sweet. She has a really strong sense of moral justice.
Harper reads (in the video, above): “And then you need a red LED light.” She’s really smart. She’s reading things that I was not reading until middle school or high school.
Advice for Other Families
Don’t give up hope, and really trust your like intuition. If you feel like you need to be doing something with your kid, just go ahead and do it even if it looks stupid, or even if other people don’t get it, it’s okay.
Just go ahead and do it and just trial and error. See what works and keep moving in those directions.
Every Day Is a High
It feels like it’s like always on our high now because she’s doing so well that I really don’t have any of the worries that I used to have. It feels like we’re in a high, in regards to how she’s doing.
Learn the Top Five Things Harper’s Mom Did
Click the button below to learn more about what Harper’s mom did to help her reverse her developmental delays.
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