We found out two years ago that my older son has SPD. He's primarily a sensory seeker, with auditory defensiveness. Over the past two years of OT, I decided that SPD wasn't explaining everything that I was seeing. We scheduled an evaluation with a developmental pediatrician, which occurred this month. We just got the results yesterday. Those of you with experience in this, please share your thoughts on the following:
The dev ped diagnosed DS1 with high functioning autism spectrum disorder because he has impairments in communication and social interactions, and has restricted or repetitive activities or interests. She says he currently functions more like a child with Asperger's. But, she didn't diagnose him with Asperger's because his early language wasn't normal. He went through a period between ages 1 and 2 when he lost a lot of words that he had been saying, and didn't speak any new words. He started learning new words again at 23 months. She said that blip in his language acquisition was the only thing that kept her from diagnosing Asperger's, but that his symptoms appear more like Asperger's.
The dev ped also said that DS1 has symptoms that could meet the criteria for ADHD, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type. But, she doesn't want to diagnose him with that yet because he has other contributing factors like sensory-seeking and anxiety which can mimic ADHD. She plans to look at that possibility in the future after we try some treatments.
The dev ped has ordered bloodwork to check into celiac disease, PANDAS, zinc, vitamin D, and maybe iron. She suggested some urine tests as well: peptide testing for casomorphin and gliadorphin, and organic acid and dysbiosis testing to look yeast and Clostridia and measure markers of detoxification abnormalities and nutritional deficiencies. Insurance won't cover the urine tests, so we haven't decided on them yet. She'd also prefer to check Vitamin A, but the lab my insurance covers doesn't do an adequate test for that, in her opinion.
She recommended that we give DS1 magnesium and GABA for now (first mag, then GABA when we're at the goal dose of mag. Then we're going to look at magnesium sulfate lotion to clear phenols. After the blood testing, she may recommend: essential fatty acids, 5-HTP, zinc and/or Vitamin D, change to a more complete multivitamin, and digestive enzymes to digest casein and gluten. She's also recommending play therapy to address his social skills, oppositional behaviors, anxiety, etc. And we may want to look into getting a speech-language eval for articulation and possible processing and word retrieval issues. We're to continue with OT and giving melatonin.
Any thoughts on any of this? It's a lot of info, but thankfully all on paper so I can reread it. I expected some sort of spectrum diagnosis, so I'm fine with that. Just curious about the supplements and blood tests and all the other stuff.
Thanks!
The dev ped diagnosed DS1 with high functioning autism spectrum disorder because he has impairments in communication and social interactions, and has restricted or repetitive activities or interests. She says he currently functions more like a child with Asperger's. But, she didn't diagnose him with Asperger's because his early language wasn't normal. He went through a period between ages 1 and 2 when he lost a lot of words that he had been saying, and didn't speak any new words. He started learning new words again at 23 months. She said that blip in his language acquisition was the only thing that kept her from diagnosing Asperger's, but that his symptoms appear more like Asperger's.
The dev ped also said that DS1 has symptoms that could meet the criteria for ADHD, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type. But, she doesn't want to diagnose him with that yet because he has other contributing factors like sensory-seeking and anxiety which can mimic ADHD. She plans to look at that possibility in the future after we try some treatments.
The dev ped has ordered bloodwork to check into celiac disease, PANDAS, zinc, vitamin D, and maybe iron. She suggested some urine tests as well: peptide testing for casomorphin and gliadorphin, and organic acid and dysbiosis testing to look yeast and Clostridia and measure markers of detoxification abnormalities and nutritional deficiencies. Insurance won't cover the urine tests, so we haven't decided on them yet. She'd also prefer to check Vitamin A, but the lab my insurance covers doesn't do an adequate test for that, in her opinion.
She recommended that we give DS1 magnesium and GABA for now (first mag, then GABA when we're at the goal dose of mag. Then we're going to look at magnesium sulfate lotion to clear phenols. After the blood testing, she may recommend: essential fatty acids, 5-HTP, zinc and/or Vitamin D, change to a more complete multivitamin, and digestive enzymes to digest casein and gluten. She's also recommending play therapy to address his social skills, oppositional behaviors, anxiety, etc. And we may want to look into getting a speech-language eval for articulation and possible processing and word retrieval issues. We're to continue with OT and giving melatonin.
Any thoughts on any of this? It's a lot of info, but thankfully all on paper so I can reread it. I expected some sort of spectrum diagnosis, so I'm fine with that. Just curious about the supplements and blood tests and all the other stuff.
Thanks!
