Bentonite Clay

I know April is Autism Awareness month, but I'm busy here. Please forgive me for not posting this sooner.


Many of you know that our youngest daughter has many autistic behaviors. It has been suggested that she has autism, Asperger's, etc, but she didn't quite meet the criterias in any given diagnosis. Instead, she has been labeled as having selective mutism and sensory processing disorder.


Ok, we can work with this. It's better than having autism, right? Imagine my surprise when after reading several of these sites, I found that sometimes selective mutism IS autism. UGH!


First, I would encourage you to check out this video called Autism Yesterday (it's kind of long, but if you or someone you love is affected by autism, it is worth your time).


Generation Rescue is an organization owned by Jenny McCarthy. She contributes her son's autism to the mercury and other heavy metals in the vaccines he was given as a child. She believes that there is hope for autism, it is completely reversable.

Here's an interesting article about autism and low levels of vitamin D.


After having viewed the video and read these articles, I wondered if we had stopped to early on my daughter's road to recovery.

At the same time I was doing this, I ran across Healthy Again an article in No Greater Joy Magazine.


My daughter improved dramatically after religiously following the GF/CF diet. We also discovered that she is allergic to red dyes, corn, non-organic sugar and yeast. We avoid these, too. We've been doing this religiously for three years now.


Next, we had formal testing done through Great Plains Laboratory. (BTW, this is a great site for information on a whole bunch of maladies that medical science can not explain) She was found to have problems with candida overgrowth in her intestines and was not able to digest foods, vitamins & minerals properly. So, she was prescribed nystatin antifungal medicine and a digestive enzyme. Again, she improved more. At this point she does need to take the antifungal.


But still, she seems to have problems socializing outside of our family. She often appears rigid and unfriendly. She often shows no facial expressions at all (in public). She wants to have relationships and we have home therapy lessons as part of our homeschooling day, we also take her to almost every children's program available through our local parks and library. But in this area she has made little progress. When she does, it's extremely slow, 2 steps forward, 1 step back kind of thing.


I question myself if we should we have went one step further and had chelation done? I never felt at peace about it. I have read numerous sites that say it's safe, but just as many that talk about irreversible damage and even death occuring. So, I began looking for something more natural.


I came across bentonite clay. Since I have many of the same symptoms of my daughter (probably because of the MMR vaccine I was required to get before being discharged after having her) I thought I'd try it out on myself first.


I bought a bottle at the local health food store for under $10. I take 1 tsp a day, which is much less than the suggested 1 - 2 TBS, because I have a small build and because I have a quirky system. So far I am pleased with the results. The main thing I've noticed is that my sense of smell is much better than before taking it.

Have you learned anything new and interesting about health lately? If so, please share.