Mother's Guide Through Autism

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In this week's episode, Brigitte interviews Dr. Jeni Weis about her experience of growing up with her mother and brother both on the autism spectrum.

Dr. Jeni holds her doctorate degree in Traditional Naturopathy, and she is board certified through the American Alternative Medical Association.  Her practice focuses on Autoimmune Disease, Thyroid Disorders, and finding the Root Cause of her patient's symptoms. She operates a virtual telehealth practice, seeing patients from all over the world.

Dr. Jeni recalls her childhood where she thought her mother was very different and strange compared to her friends' moms until she was about 11.

Dr. Jeni tells us how she and her mom traded roles of teacher and student and at times, it was a source of incredible frustration for Dr. Jeni. But as an adult, she is so grateful for her experiences, patience she developed, cooking skills, and for the loving, supportive mother she had, and realizes she had a wonderful and blessed childhood.

She also talks about overcoming serious health challenges through diet and lifestyle changes, which made her decide to become a doctor in Traditional Naturopathy.

She is currently in the process of creating a virtual holistic wellness center called "Eat, Move, Think" where top experts in the field of natural medicine are able to offer their knowledge and expertise in the areas of nutrition, movement, and mindset.

Finally, she reminds us of the importance of diet for our kids with autism and tells us to keep a food journal so as to avoid foods that are inflammatory for them.

Enjoy this episode!

Resources/Links:

Dr. Jeni Website
https://www.drjeniweis.com/

Holistic Health Circle Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/drjeniweis

Brigitte Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

Mother's Guide Through Autism Private Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism

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Send us Fan Mail

***Please note there is some background noise in parts of the recording.***

In this week's insightful and informative episode, Brigitte interviews Mary Coyle, an autism mom and homeopath who has been working with individuals with ASD, ADHD, and SPD for over 25 years to help them stimulate the self-healing mechanism.

Mary began her journey into health when her 2-year-old son was constipated and fretful and started having recurring ear infections and was put on an antibiotic repeatedly.

Shortly after that, he started losing eye contact, stopped waving and looking, and was diagnosed with ASD. He also had terrible rashes, temper tantrums, and throwups.

After making some progress with some protocols but not satisfied with the results, Mary started to wonder about the connection between toxicity and autism.

Mary was at the time working in the chemical industry and was exposed to a lot of heavy metals and chemicals and was also at a lot of construction sites. She then started reading a book on toxicology on what happens when people are exposed to too much pesticides or heavy metals. 

She realized that her son had the same exact symptoms as people who were exposed to too much toxins--IQ decrement, behavioral issues, sleep problems, mood issues, cognitive decline, picky eating, pale skin, circles under the eyes. She decided to take the word autism out and replace it with the word toxicity.

She then started to put her son on a homeopathic detoxifying program and saw incredible results and she ended up becoming a homeopath because a lot of parents called her up to find out what she was doing.

Mary explains that the homeopathic detoxifying program helps mitochondria function better so that the body can repair itself. She also talks about the connection between under-functioning mitochondria and microbial overgrowth that can be prevalent in our kids.

She goes on to explain the philosophy of Homotoxicology which uses "like cures like" to move toxins out from the body while supporting the functioning of the body.

She shares some success stories of her clients who started developing expressive language after being on her protocol, and reminds parents to never give up. She says to keep finding methods to destress them and keep encouraging rehab and allowing them to be the best that they can be.

"I'm looking forward to the day when we can celebrate these sentient beings and honor them with the gifts that they have. And they should be leading us, not us leading them with how the future of the world should go," Mary tells us wisely.

Enjoy this episode!

Resources/Links:

Mary's Website
http://realchildcenter.com/

Soma & RPM
https://www.halo-soma.org/

Brigitte Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

Mother's Guide Through Autism Private Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism

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Send us Fan Mail

In this week's highly informative and eye-opening episode, Brigitte interviews Maria Rickert Hong, Certified Holistic Health Counselor and author of Almost Autism and Brain Under Attack, who has recovered her son from Sensory Processing Disorder along with a host of other health conditions.

Maria Rickert Hong is a former Wall Street equity research analyst who is now a Certified Holistic Health Counselor. She helps parents recover their children from neurodevelopmental disorders including autism, almost autism, ADHD, ADD, PDD-NOS through diet and lifestyle changes.

Her journey into health began when her first son started developing symptoms of diseases at 3 months old. As time went on he had numerous health conditions including asthma, sensory issues, constipation, and more, and was on about 10 different medications by the time he was 18 months old.

By the time he was 3 and Maria had her second son, Maria developed severe adrenal fatigue, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, bronchitis, and shingles when she wasn’t getting enough sleep from her son waking up 6 times a night. Maria ended up taking Zoloft and Ambien for insomnia but they didn’t help.

Frustrated with not getting help for her son nor herself from her conventional, western doctors, she started doing research and found nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman and her books which led her to try out magnesium for her insomnia, which solved her sleep problem immediately.

After working with a naturopath for herself and her son and seeing significant improvement in their health, Maria decided to pay it forward and become a Holistic Health Coach.

Maria is also the Education and Media Director for Epidemic Answers, a 501(c)3 non-profit that lets parents know that recovery is possible and is the sponsoring non-profit of The Documenting Hope Project.

She lays out the roadmap for the recovery process for many disorders which includes proper nutrition and lifestyle, finding the right practitioner, and finding therapies that incorporate reflex integration.  She emphasizes the importance of getting to the root causes of the issues.

"No one thing caused your child’s autism. It’s a multitude of factors. It’s a perfect storm. And because of that, there’s no one thing that will undo it. And it’s always a journey," Maria says.

She tells us it's never too late and that some adults with autism have turned things around. She also reminds moms to take good care of themselves because if they don't they can't take care of their child either.

Enjoy this episode!

Resources/Links:

Maria Website
https://www.mariarickerthong.com/

Epidemic Answers
https://epidemicanswers.org/

Documenting Hope (Chirp Study)
https://documentinghope.com/

Ann Louise Gittleman
https://annlouise.com/

The Magnesium Miracles
https://amzn.to/3pYd9Kt

Sonia Story
https://www.moveplaythrive.com/

Brain Balance
https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/

College of Optometrists in Vision Development
covd.org

Brigitte Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

Mother's Guide Through Autism Private Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism

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In this week's information-packed episode, Brigitte interviews Teresa Badillo who is a mom of an adult son with autism and a writer for The Autism Exchange and Epidemic Answers about getting to the root of the issues in autism at the biomedical level.  

Teresa embarked on a mission to find alternative non-invasive biomedical, therapeutic, sensory, and educational solutions for autism after the diagnosis of her son in the early 90s. She has served on several Boards of Director: Foundation for Children with Developmental Disabilities (FCDD); The Autoimmunity Project (TAAP), Developmental Delay Resources (DDR) and currently Epidemic Answers (EA).

She has been researching and writing articles for The Autism Exchange and Epidemic Answers’ websites and consult and advise parents on biomedical protocols to autism spectrum disorders.

She shares her journey of struggling to find the answers and right therapies for her son in the '90s when there wasn't much awareness, information, or resources for autism. She recalls the story of being told that her son was going to be institutionalized and how not many doctors wanted to work with kids with autism back then.

She took whatever therapy that was available at the time, including oxygen therapy among other things, and saw improvement gradually over time. She says that autism is like peeling the layers of an onion and many layers have to be addressed at the biomedical level as well as behavioral and sensory levels.

She talks about how comorbidity is common in autism and how her son started having seizures when he entered puberty. Seizure can develop in 1 in 4 kids with autism at puberty because of the hormones that kick in around that time, she says. 

She shares some of the therapeutic protocols that parents can look into to reduce the symptoms of autism.

She advises autism moms to look into the gut-brain connection and find the right help and support they need to make this journey a little easier.

She tells autism moms to never give up no matter where they are on this journey. "Body is the great healer, we just have to figure out what it needs," Teresa says.

She also tells autism moms to not dismiss their intuition even if their doctor doesn’t see what they see. "You know your child best. Find the right doctor who will work with you. Follow your gut!"

Enjoy this Episode!

Resources and Links:

Teresa email
[email protected]

Epidemic Answers
https://epidemicanswers.org/

The Autism Exchange
https://www.theautismexchange.com/

Great Plains Laboratory
https://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/

Genova
https://www.gdx.net/

Julie Matthews
https://nourishinghope.com/

Dr. Nemechek
https://www.nemechekconsultativemedicine.com/

Dr. Bernard Rimland (Autism Research Institute)
https://www.autism.org/

BMV Life Coach Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

BMV Life Coach Facebook Live Coaching & Q&A (2pm Central Wednesday)
https://www.facebook.com/BMVlifecoach/

Private Mother's Guide Through Autism Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this week's informative and insightful episode, Brigitte interviews Joye Newman, author of Growing an In-Sync Child, about the importance of movement for children to become more confident and competent in everything they do.

Joye Newman is the co-author (with Carol Kranowitz) of the best-selling book, Growing an In-Sync Child: Simple, Fun Activities to Help Every Child Develop, Learn, and Grow and an expert in Perceptual Motor Development. She earned her M.A. in Education and Human Development from The George Washington University.

She integrates behavioral optometry, occupational therapy, movement, and psychology to help kids feel more comfortable in their own bodies so that they’re in control of their bodies and their bodies work for them.

She explains that children on the spectrum tend to be clumsy and not comfortable in their bodies because they are often not comfortable in their sensory or visual systems, which causes them to receive information haphazardly and react accordingly. 

She talks about the importance of understanding the underlying causes of a child's inability to do certain activities and address those things first before he or she can learn to do the actual activities. She tells us that behaviors are not things we have to act against or change but what we have to learn is to understand what the behavior is saying.

She says that children are too often taught to do things when they’re not ready to learn them and if you try to get your child to do what he’s not developmentally ready to do, it becomes a splinter skill. She urges parents to meet their kids where they are and stay with them until they're comfortable and ready to move on to a new skill or activity.

Instead of thinking about how we can get these autistic children to function in the “normal” world, Joye asks us to change our perspective and concentrate on getting our kids comfortable in their own bodies. Joye says that when they're comfortable in their bodies, they’ll be able to navigate through the world just fine. But if they're not comfortable in their bodies, they can’t be expected to navigate. "Try to forget what someone else told you and let your child guide you," Joye says.

She also offers simple activities like "Hold Up the Wall" and "Paperballs" you can do with your kids at home from her In-Sync Activity Cards that incorporate "push, pull, lift, or carry" that are so important for your kid's development.

And finally, Joye leaves us with these wise words: There is no norm. Your child is not wrong. There is nothing wrong with your child. There is something different with your child. Find a way to embrace it.

Enjoy this episode!

Resources and Links:

Growing an In-Sync Child Website
https://in-sync-child.com/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/insyncchild/

BMV Life Coach Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

BMV Life Coach Facebook Live Coaching & Q&A (2pm Central Wednesday)
https://www.facebook.com/BMVlifecoach/

Private Mother's Guide Through Autism Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this week's highly informative and powerfully enlightening episode, Brigitte speaks to Patricia Lemer, author of Outsmarting Autism, about the power of vision, which might be the missing link for the structural issues many children and adults with autism have. 

Patricia Lemer is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and practiced as an educational diagnostician in the Washington, DC area for over 40 years. She was a co-founder and served as Executive Director of Developmental Delay Resources (DDR), an international, non-profit organization for 20 years.

Ms. Lemer has served as a bridge between optometry and the public for over 30 years. She is the author of many articles and podcasts on Vision Issues in Autism and ADHD.

She explains what vision is and how it's different from eyesight, which is about the clarity of seeing.  She tells us that vision is about what we do with what we see and the interaction between the eyes and the brain—conceptual, organizational, imagination—that helps us to move through space without having trouble with coordination and other essential functions, which many people with autism lack.

People with autism are often having a binocular problem, she explains, where the two eyes may not be sending the brain the same message simultaneously which leads to information not being processed by the brain properly.

Lack of eye contact, which is traditionally considered psychological, may actually be the result of having double vision or inefficient vision, and cross eyes might be due to a brain-eye coordination problem although it’s often considered to be a muscle problem, Ms. Lemer says.

She also says that kids with autism are often limited in visual flexibility and inflexible behavior is a sign or symptom of inflexible vision and as we loosen up the vision, we loosen up the behavior as well.

She recommends every child with autism have a developmental vision exam with a qualified optometrist so that the underlying issues with visual processing can be addressed with vision therapy.

In addition, she goes over the 5 important steps you can take to help your child with autism function better and be the best version of himself.

And finally, she offers 3 crucial things to remember when your child gets diagnosed with autism.

Enjoy this episode!

Resources and links:

Patricia Lemer Website
https://www.patricialemer.com/

Patricia Lemer Email
[email protected]

Outsmarting Autism
https://www.outsmartingautism.com/

Autism Detective Podcast
http://www.healthylife.net/

College of Optometrists in Vision Development
https://www.covd.org/

The CHIRP Study
https://documentinghope.com/chirp-study/

Jean Ayres
https://amzn.to/3m2WB2c

Optometric Extension Program Foundation
https://www.oepf.org

“See It. Say It. Do It.” - Lynn Hellerstein
https://amzn.to/3fz65A4

“Thinking Goes to School” - Harry Wachs
https://amzn.to/375z22x

BMV Life Coach Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

BMV Life Coach Facebook Live Coaching & Q&A (2pm Central Wednesday)
https://www.facebook.com/BMVlifecoach/

Private Mother's Guide Through Autism Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this week's information-packed episode, Brigitte interviews Dr. Will Cole about the functional medicine approach to autism.

Dr. Will Cole, IFMCP, DNM, DC, is a leading functional medicine expert who consults people around the world via webcam and locally in Pittsburgh. Named one of the top 50 functional medicine and integrative doctors in the nation, Dr. Cole specializes in clinically investigating underlying factors of chronic disease and customizing a functional medicine approach for thyroid issues, autoimmune conditions, hormonal imbalances, digestive disorders, and brain problems.

He is the bestselling author of Ketotarian and The Inflammation Spectrum. Dr. Cole has also cohosted the popular podcasts goodfellas and Keto Talk and will be hosting the new podcast, The Art of Being Well, which launches in early 2021.

Dr. Cole grew up in a household where health and wellness and adaptogenic tonics were the norms of the family and he soon went into the field of integrative medicine to further pursue his passion in health and wellness.

He explains how functional medicine is different from mainstream medicine in that it combines the best of conventional and alternative medicine where it's strongly evidence-based and at the same time getting to the root cause of the problem.

He discusses the alarmingly increasing rate of autism along with conditions like Hashimoto's, autoimmune conditions, digestive disorders, and many more,  and believes that there's "genetic epigenetic mismatch" where our genes have not adapted to the fast-changing environment around us, resulting in many dysfunctions we see today.

He believes that each patient is unique and requires a highly individualized approach to achieving their optimized health but he also believes that inflammation is the commonality in most cases.

He talks about the connection between gut inflammation and the dysfunction of the brain and reveals the 4 foods that are most likely to disrupt your child's microbiome and raise inflammation in their brain.

He also talks about the importance of intuition and says to not let your intuition be delegitimized even by your doctors when it comes to your health and your child's health.

Furthermore, he gently reminds moms to take good care of themselves because they simply cannot afford not to and they can only give what they have.

Enjoy this episode!

Resources and Links:

Dr. Will Cole Website:
https://drwillcole.com/

Functional Medicine Website:
https://www.ifm.org/

Dr. Cole's Books:
https://drwillcole.com/ketotarian
https://drwillcole.com/the-inflammation-spectrum
https://drwillcole.com/intuitive-fasting

Dr. Cole Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/doctorwillcole/

Dr. Cole Twitter:
https://twitter.com/drwillcole

Dr. Cole Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/drwillcole/

BMV Life Coach Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

BMV Life Coach Facebook Live Coaching & Q&A (2pm Central Wednesday)
https://www.facebook.com/BMVlifecoach/

Private Mother's Guide Through Autism Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this week's highly informative episode, Brigitte interviews Carol Stock Kranowitz who is an author of a groundbreaking book The Out-of-Sync Child about Sensory Processing Disorder.

They discuss what Sensory Processing Disorder is, how it affects children in different ways, and which therapies can help them manage their sensory issues.

Carol, a former teacher, introduced Sensory Processing Disorder to parents and educators around the world through her “Sync” series books. Carol speaks internationally about SPD's effect on learning and behavior and how families, teachers, and professionals can offer “In-Sync” experiences to support children and adolescents — at home, at school, and out and about.

She shares her unexpected journey of becoming an expert on SPD while she was working as a movement teacher at her sons’ preschool and observing kids who seemed to be "out of sync."

She worked closely with the occupational therapist who came to give a workshop at the school and started organizing the information she received to help herself and her colleagues about sensory issues, which she later turned into her first book The Out-of-Sync Child.

Carol breaks down the 8 sensory systems and tells us how sensory processing issues can affect children in many different ways. She shares with us some examples of over-responsivity, under-responsivity, sensory craving, and the combination of all. She says that there are more than 29 million ways people can exhibit sensory processing disorder.

She talks about the therapies parents should look into to help their kids manage their sensory issues as well as activities they can do at home.

Finally, Carol offers parents the most important thing to remember about SPD.

Enjoy this episode!

Resources and Links:

Out-of Sync Child Website
https://out-of-sync-child.com/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/CarolStockKranowitz

Twitter
https://twitter.com/OutOfSyncChild

Star Institute
https://www.spdstar.org/

Irlen lenses
https://irlen.com/

In-Sync-Child Website
https://in-sync-child.com/

BMV Life Coach Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

BMV Life Coach Facebook Live Coaching & Q&A (2pm Central Wednesday)
https://www.facebook.com/BMVlifecoach/

Private Mother's Guide Through Autism Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this week's episode, Brigitte Shipman interviews Dr. Michelle Trias to talk about the importance of self-care for all mothers but especially for autism moms.

Dr. Michelle Trias is a graduate from the University of Central Florida and completed her Doctorate in traditional naturopathy from the New Eden School of Natural Health and Herbal studies. She is passionate about helping people find their way back to health through natural foods and herbs.

Dr. Michelle defines self-care as taking steps each day to help your mind, body, and spirit so that you feel regenerated and rejuvenated and ready to take on the next part of the day.

She tells how easy it is for autism moms to end up in a place of upset and resentment because they keep giving to other people without getting their own cup refilled--they keep giving from a depleted place.

She says that your ability to be present in the moment is hampered unless you spent time loving yourself doing self-care on a regular basis.

She shares her own experience with her children when she lacked patience and understanding because her self-care tank was empty. She makes sure to fill her own cup daily so that she is able to have more patience and understanding in difficult situations. "More I love myself, the more patience, the more understanding I have," Dr. Michelle says.

She urges autism moms to nurture themselves the way they nurture their children because when there is no love in the tank, there is no love to give and the person who is ultimately responsible for the love that is in their cup is them.

She offers tips on how to implement self-care even when you think you don't have time and what foods to eat to relieve stress and anxiety.

She reminds moms that they are the heartbeat of their house and what happens to them will affect everyone else in every way, emotionally and physically.

Enjoy this episode!

Resources and Links:

Dr. Michelle Website
https://mynaturowellness.com/

Dr. Michelle Email
[email protected]

Dr. Michelle Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/mynaturowellness/

Dr. Michelle Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mynaturowellness/

BMV Life Coach Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

BMV Life Coach Facebook Live Coaching & Q&A (2pm Central Wednesday)
https://www.facebook.com/BMVlifecoach/

Private Mother's Guide Through Autism Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Brigitte Shipman and her son Joseph continue the conversation on Joseph's postsecondary life and share their lessons and insight they gained from the experience.

Joseph is a 28-year old who is an adult on the autism spectrum and offers his perspective on what the transition into adulthood was like.

He talks about "Indecision Paralysis" that he often found himself in, faced with a myriad of choices about what to do with his life.

Tune in to this candid conversation between mother and son to peak into their life of living with autism.

Enjoy!

BMV Life Coach Website
https://bmvlifecoach.com/

BMV Life Coach Facebook Live Coaching & Q&A (2pm Central Wednesday)
https://www.facebook.com/BMVlifecoach/

Private Mother's Guide Through Autism Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersguidethroughautism/

Support the show