At a 3 year old well visit, Ben’s pediatrician diagnosed him with Pervasive Development Disorder, an autism spectrum disorder. His mother was told, “You have to find a way to wrap your head around this. A kid like him, if we are lucky, he might one day be a janitor.” Within 5 years, Ben healed his underlying medical conditions, caught up developmentally and began to thrive. Ben is a now diagnosis-free, and killing it in middle school.
The Diagnoses
In addition to the diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder, he also had severe speech delay, and obvious but undiagnosed Sensory Processing Disorder and Auditory Processing Disorder. His integrative doctor identified a compromised liver, low functioning kidneys, gut dysbiosis, neurotransmitter issues, compromised immune system, yeast overgrowth, mineral deficiencies, detoxification impairments, and more.
Ben’s family worked hard to treat these underlying physiological problems and but their pediatrician fought them every step of the way, believing the medical symptoms to be “just part of autism.” Ben’s parents knew better and understood that if they treated Ben’s medical symptoms, his speech, sensory processing and cognitive development would all catch up.
In addition to treating the underlying conditions, Ben’s parents used nourishing food as a tool for healing and also removed all toxic exposures in Ben’s life.
Today
Today, Ben is almost a straight A student (1 B+ blew it!). He is also one of 4 students out of 550 to receive a top science award in middle school. His teacher said, “I have a lot of A students, but Ben is the one I can count on to help with struggling students in the class. He is an amazing leader with peers.”
In addition to his academic achievement, he is a respected and well-liked peer leader. He is the co-concert master of the middle school orchestra and goes into school early to help other students improve their technique on violin. He is currently training for his adult black belt (in a combination karate, taekwondo and hapkido) and should have it by his 15th birthday.
Ben is often called on by his Sensei to assist with the younger students (ages 3-6). If this isn’t enough achievement, Ben also plays Taiko drums and does tap dance, hip hop and basketball. Not bad for a kid whose pediatrician wrote him off at three years old.