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Josh and Will Robinson: Autism If you are reading this you
are probably just like me, a parent looking for a piece of the puzzle, someone
or something to help your child take another step forward.
This is my testimonial of how by the grace of God mild hyperbaric oxygen
therapy helped both of my autistic sons. I have three children Sarah
who is 9 yrs. old, Will who is 7 yrs. old and Josh who is 21/2 yrs. old. Sarah is typical. She loves
dogs and horses. She is in Brownie’s. Sarah
is a very kind loving person. She
has said to me before,” Why can’t Will play with me?” Sadly
I really did not have a good answer for her.
When Josh was born she asked me several times, “Will Josh be autistic
too?” Again I didn’t have an
answer for her. I’d
like to give you a little history about my sons. Will was a typical baby, nursed
well, crawled and walked all on time. Will
was developing like any other 1 year old. Will
had about 50+ words. Then at about
18 months lost speech, wouldn’t turn or stop when you called his name (I
thought he had lost his hearing). He
began having trouble sleeping. He
started staring at the trees, the credits on TV, toe walking and hand flapping.
He lost all speech and eye contact. He
was very tactilely defensive. The
baby I once had who loved to snuggle, sit on my lap and be read to wanted
nothing to do with me. I was hurt and scared. With very little effort I found
out through the internet my son was autistic. I was devastated, hoping I was
wrong. We went for an
evaluation with a developmental pediatrician and got our diagnosis Jan. 2000.
I jumped in with both feet. We
immediately found a DAN (defeat autism now) practitioner and started a multitude
of treatments. Will was on the
gluten and casein free diet, chelation therapy, mega-vitamin therapy and
anti-yeast regimen. We started
Occupational therapy for sensory integration and fine motor delay , Physical
therapy for motor planning issues, ABA
for compliance, behavior and basic academics( 40 + hours a week of applied
behavior analysis), and Speech therapy(Will was completely non-verbal now). We
continue all these therapies, except PT, now 5 years later. Josh was born May 2002.
He was a perfect baby. Again
developing perfectly. When his first
birthday came and he was non-verbal my greatest fears for Josh were becoming a
reality. I immediately began In the fall of 2004 we began
Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. First,
I want to thank Kevin, Bill and Jerry for this blessed opportunity to help my
sons! I got into the chamber with
both boys. It was a little nerve
wracking the first few minutes. Will
played his Game boy and Josh just crawled all over me.
In about 10 minutes we all settled down.
I began to pray, “Lord let this be another piece to my boy’s complex
puzzle.” The time went by fairly
fast. We got out of the chamber
and I reached into my pocket and pulled out my keys.
Josh made a noise. I asked a
lady in the office, “Did he just say KEYS?”
She said I think so. I asked
Josh what are these and he answered “KEYS”.
Chills went all over my body. Josh
just spoke his first real word after just one hour in the chamber.
It has been a miracle how it has helped Josh.
Now he is verbal with very little delay.
He even says “Excuse me” when he burps.
He makes perfect eye contact, plays appropriately with toys and other
children, counts to 20, sings his alphabet, he just functions like any other 2
year old. We are even working on potty training.
I thank God every day for his help and guidance.
Will’s progress is not as
evident but just as miraculous. Will started out the school year in regular
Kindergarten with support. He was
way too overwhelmed and had terrible behavior, hitting teachers, students, just
being very disruptive in class. We
decided to move him into a self contained class in the fall of 2004. The Lord is
working on him through the chamber too. Since
we began the chamber treatments Will has gotten all Green Cards (green=great
behavior, yellow=ok, and red = a very bad day) at school. His attention span during If you are considering
hyperbaric therapy as a treatment for your child with autism, speech delay or
any type of disability I would urge you not to hesitate to try it.
If you would like to talk to me further you can e-mail me at mjr7@bellouth.net.
Through prayer and faith God continues to lead me to find pieces of the
puzzle for my sons. Have faith he
will do the same for you. Sarah’s, Will’s and
Josh’s Mom
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Click here to read article about Sylvester Stallone and his use of a hyperbaric chamber during the filming of ROCKY BALBOA
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Hyperbaric Therapy is intended to benefit normal structure and function and is not prescribed as a treatment for medical or psychological conditions, nor for diagnosis, care, treatment or rehabilitation of individuals, nor to apply medical, mental health or human development principles.
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