Our Journey of Hope for Healing
Has your child’s diagnosis left you wondering if autism treatment exists or what’s possible? I understand. When it happened to me I felt totally lost and
I’m here to offer you my story of finding hope for healing to encourage you on your journey with autism. Treatment DOES exist, and I know this through my experience with my son.
Finding Out the Diagnosis
It was three days before Mother’s Day, and the Early Intervention team was coming to my house to tell me the results of my son’s evaluation for autism.
I knew as soon as I opened the door that it was not going to be good news. My heart sank. They were quiet and polite, but their body language was screaming. The meeting began, and they started talking about what they noticed during the autism evaluation.
I finally stopped them and said, “look, I need you to tell me if he has autism or not, then you can tell me the rest.” Talking around it like they were afraid to tell me was driving me nuts.
One of the therapists sighed and said, “his cognitive abilities are normal, but he has moderate severity autism.”
The rest of the time I listened, but I was freaking out inside. They told us what autism was and what it might mean for our son’s future. They talked about all of his testing results and probably more. I don’t remember it all because I was just trying to hold it together. After what seemed like a long time, they all left. My husband and I talked about the meeting and both of us tried to mentally and emotionally process the news.
Diagnosis Aftermath
All I remember was that over the following days I went back and forth between numbness and absolute devastation and I couldn’t stop crying. I cried for three days. The next day, Mother’s Day, I came across a quote, “Dum Spiro Spero.” It’s Latin for “While I breathe, I hope.” I decided to get it tattooed that day on the inside of my left wrist as a gift to myself. That may seem drastic, but for me, it was a ritual, a catharsis, and an affirmation of my firm decision to stop being afraid and angry and sad. It was a daily reminder to put my energy into healing and not give up on my son’s health. Many times when I have struggled with some aspect of autism, I have glanced at my wrist and it has refocused and renewed me. Without hope, we are lost.Hitting Dead Ends with Providers
After a few days, I reached out to our pediatrician about our recent diagnosis to talk about autism treatment. He said to give it more time and to get him in speech therapy—that he wasn’t sure it was the right diagnosis. I wanted to feel relief. I wanted to believe that the diagnosis was wrong, but I knew in my heart I shouldn’t wait. Something was wrong. I pushed him a little saying, “okay but what else can we do?” He shrugged and gave me a referral for a neurologist. It felt like he did it to placate me and to give the problem to someone else.I wanted to believe that the diagnosis was wrong, but I knew in my heart I shouldn’t wait. Something was wrong.
The neurologist was worthless. He said if we didn’t agree with the diagnosis, to get him re-evaluated. Unless our son started having seizures, he couldn’t help. I remember sitting there thinking “this can’t be it…there has to be more than this.”
I refused to believe that there was NOTHING I could do to improve my son’s health.
My Search for Autism Treatment Begins
So I went to Google and started researching my ass off about autism treatment. I read forum posts, thousands of research studies, and watched videos on YouTube of doctors speaking about autism treatment. Next, I ordered a ton of books off Amazon…trying to cram as much information into my brain as quickly as possible.
Over and over, I read that the golden window for the best autism treatment results was between 2-5 years old. During that time they have the most neuroplasticity. I felt like I was racing against the clock trying to find a way to help him get better.
Several blogs by other moms introduced me to the biomedical treatment approach and it resonated so strongly.
The explanation that autism symptoms were caused by complex medical issues and not just a mental disorder made so much sense.
I really started to feel like we could handle this, and so I intensified my research.
And Then it Started Working
We started with homeopathy because I read a book by Amy Lansky called Impossible Cure. Although I was extremely skeptical, we saw such beautiful growth with his social development. I was so skeptical that I didn’t tell anyone my son had started Classical Homeopathy, curious to see if anyone noticed. Everyone noticed, but my husband was still not 100% on board.
Our next treatment was B12 because of all of the research showing it can help with speech. The results from the B12 were so dramatic that my skeptical husband was finally a believer in
I started to be active in a bunch of Facebook groups. Trying to search for information in groups was so difficult and time-consuming. Facebook is definitely not made for searching for that type of information. However, I deeply appreciated the knowledge and support shared by other parents. I wished there was a way to have that support and searchable information without having to be on Facebook.
Discovering a Huge Need for Treatment Information
As I was posting different results from what we were doing, other moms started to message me, sometimes about specific supplements or specific symptoms they were struggling with. Since I have a coaching certification and did life coaching for several years, I found myself coaching the moms contacting me.
Soon, people I knew started approaching me for guidance. They were feeling lost after diagnosis and saw the successes I had with my son. I wanted so much to be able to give them everything. But there was no way that I could put all the information I learned over the course of three years and over 3000 hours of research in a single email.
That was so frustrating because I felt like I had so much to share. If I gave them as much as I could all at once, people felt so overwhelmed that they quit before they began. I felt like I let them down.
When you know something has the potential to help many others’ children, you want them to know that information too. The way I gave other moms my knowledge about autism started to evolve…
How can I put everything together so that it’s all in one place?
What would I want if I were starting over from a new diagnosis?
What would have been most helpful to me?
What are the needs of parents struggling with a new diagnosis and difficult symptoms?
It’s not just the information, they need support, both financial and emotional.
An Idea Was Born
One day over lunch I got up the courage to tell a friend who was also on the
It was a lot to take on alone and I knew it. She instantly wanted to be involved. We decided to create a membership community with the resources we wish we had when we first started this journey. Our hope was to create something that changed the standard of care for autism treatment.
Over the course of 4 years of biomedical treatment for my own son, I think about how far he has come, changed, grown and how much happier and healthier he is. I think about where he would be if we didn’t support his body with
Over the course of 4 years of biomedical treatment for my own son, I think about how far he has come, changed, grown and how much happier and healthier he is. I think about where he would be if we didn’t support his body withbiomed .
Would he still be screaming because he couldn’t communicate?
Would he still have sleep issues?
Whenever your kid hits a milestone or has developmental gains when you start a new treatment you get so excited. Progress keeps you going.
You want to shout it from the rooftops.
Things that helped the most along the way were the strength, knowledge, compassion, and intelligence of all of these parents helping each other, sharing experiences and research. The more brains we can put together, the better the chances of helping our kids, and other people’s kids.
Government spending on research about helping improve the health of children with autism is dismal. We’re the ones in the trenches, and we can’t wait for them to catch up.
Creating a Community that Offers Hope for Healing
Our courses share what we’ve learned in an easy-to-understand format that makes learning enjoyable rather than tedious. We have created a roadmap of what has worked for us and the other parents we have coached that you can use as a guide for your own research. Our goal is to give you the knowledge and tools to approach to the choices you make for your own children with calm and confidence.
We aren’t giving anyone medical advice, just sharing what we have learned and the data we’ve gathered so you can become the best advocate and help you understand what things might help your child. Connecting you with a network of doctors who specialize in this autism treatment approach is a top priority too. We are developing a joint non-profit that will offer programs to help families afford their services so that your family will have access to professional guidance and care.
It is our hope that empowering, educating, and sharing our experiences with other parents in a safe, supportive community will help them and their children thrive in ways that might have felt impossible in the darkness after diagnosis.
You are welcome to join us on this journey. We have done everything we can to create a community and tons of both free and premium resources that relieve the feelings of overwhelm and help you move forward with hope. To get started, check out our free First Things First Guide and companion 9-Day email series. In this series, we give you some tools you can use right away and you can get to know us better along the way.
Want to know more? Check out our podcast just for parents like you!
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Need assistance my son is having autism
Hello and thank you for commenting! We understand how difficult it can be finding resources when your child is diagnosed with autism. That’s why we are creating Healing Hope Tribe 🙂 We are working hard to get everything in place to launch in the next few months. In the meantime, please subscribe to receive our guide for some help. We can’t wait to help you with everything we are creating. Hang in there!
What sort of b12 did you use? B12 shots or just organic over the counter b12
We started with an oral b12 and then followed Dr. Neubrander’s protocol for injections.
Sources of B12
You can supplement B12 either orally or by prescription injection. There are several types of B12, but for most (not all) kids methylcobalamin is best. This is something we will cover in depth on our site after we launch 🙂
Both my Daughter (now 24 years old) and son (now 21) were diagnosed as high functioning autistic around 3 years old (my son was Aspergers). At there age are there any recommendations we (there parents) can use from this group? There has been so little from the medical community. ACJ
Hello there,
Did you do the Gluten free casein free diet? If so could you offer some tips?
Thank you!
My 5 year old son has been on GAPS diet for 7 months. His autism has improved by 50%. He has eye contact now, he has conversation, he’s learning to read, he sleeps at night now, no more loose stools 8 times a day, etc. Hope that helps!
Yes! So glad to hear this! Diet truly is foundational to healing. So happy for your family 🙂
Please send me a free guide am having trouble to access it. I really need it
Hi Kelesia! Sorry you were having trouble! I have set you up to receive the guide and the free email series 🙂 Check your inbox!
Thanks for helping Mum, I must write, you have given me new hope.
Aww! We are so very happy to help and share hope! Thank you so much for commenting 🙂 We are excited to share our resources and experiences and hope to welcome you into our blooming community very soon! Hang in there, momma xx
I’m lost I just need some help
We understand that feeling and have definitely been there 🙁 That’s why were are creating Healing Hope Tribe for moms like you <3. I don't show that you've subscribed for the free guide yet. Please start there and know that more help is on the way very soon. We are working very hard to open our community this Fall and there will be a ton of support, step-by-step guidance, and courses to help you and your child. Please subscribe so you know as soon as we launch <3
I am from Philippines…I am hoping that you could help my son with autism..
I hope we can help you and your son too! When we launch, we will provide courses that will help you understand the potential causes of difficult symptoms and get a better understanding of the treatments available. It’s our hope that you will be able to use that knowledge to more confidently advocate for his care with your medical providers and make the choices that maximize his health and wellbeing. Hang in there!
Please help my four year old daughter has not yet been diagnosed with autism however she is displaying almost all signs of autism.
We are struggling to deal with her behaviour she constantly screams and cries.I want to find out more about this B12 treatment you mentioned on your article.
I’m sorry things are hard right now for you and your daughter. It sounds like she may be in pain. Is her poop normal? Bowel trouble is common and can cause a lot of pain for some kids. Do you have an appointment for her to be evaluated for autism? A diagnosis can help you qualify for more support and treatments and is an important first step so you know what she needs. MethylB12 is typically to help with speech and language. We have a youtube video on speech that will give you more information too http://youtube.com/c/healinghopetribe
Biomedical treatment is a gateway to heal our child it is true
Absolutely! 🙂 Thank you for commenting!
Hi pallavi, my name is Jayasri.
My son has autism. I would like yo talk some and help from your exexperience. Can u please mail me
We are working very hard to do the website design and create all of the content for our members area while still working to provide our free content as well and aren’t able to provide one-on-one support. We designed our free email series to walk you through the first steps and have a lot of helpful stuff in our podcast too. If you are already a subscriber you will have the opportunity soon if you wish to join us in our community when it opens 🙂
Lily
I m from Chandigarh-India. My daughter is 11 and has border line autism and speech disorder. We are having regular speech therapy. She has little improvement. She is hyper active and jumping and noise sensitivity ( putting fingers in years) is very common. Any suggestions for betterment of speech and reduction in hyper activity please
My son did speech therapy for a year before we started biomedical treatments. We didn’t see any progress with traditional speech therapy until we started making diet changes and supplementing with methyl-B12. I would start with research into diet and the b12!
My son 3 been diagnosed 2weeks ago and we starting speech therapy next month, when did your son started talking at what age? And how do I get biomedical sport? Please
Hi Kuljit,
My son started talking between age 3 and 4. We recommend looking for a functional medicine doctor who specializes in autism in your area and starting with diet changes as great first steps 🙂
Lily
Hi balraj. My daughter is showing the same symptoms. Cpuld you please contact me on my email.
my son is 4.5 years old… is there still hope …??
We feel that there is hope for almost all people from kids to adults to improve symptoms of autism by learning about the medical causes of symptoms and supporting the body to heal! My own son will be 6 this Spring and much of his improvement and development happened at the age your son is now 🙂 The sooner you start the better 🙂
Hello, Thank you for giving someone like me hope about my boys. My 2 boys( Twins) age 5 are Autistic. I am doing and continue to do everything to help them beat Autism
Thank you for commenting and supporting us! Best wishes to you and your lovely boys! We hope we can help you along in that journey.
My daughter will be 2 in February and has been approved for speech therapy. They’re worried she could be autistic. Please help!
Hi Ashley,
There is so much you can do and the earlier you start any interventions the more likely they are to help! It’s great that you already have her in speech therapy! Are you subscribed to our free 8 week email series? There are some solid first steps in there and we also share tips on our podcast. Our premium community is launching in the next few weeks and there will be a ton of information there as well. In the meantime, start researching removing dairy and gluten from her diet <3
Info please have a non verbal five year old son
Hi Johnathan,
We have a lot of free information in our 8-week email series, our podcast, our blog, and for our email subscribers. Hopefully you have already joined us there! We will continue to add free content and we are also very close to launching our premium content in our membership site which will include courses, member perks, a lending library, and a community to help you learn about all of the options and things that have helped other parents improve speech for their kiddos. My son was pretty much non-verbal when we started our journey into biomedical treatments. I truly understand.
My three year son diagnosed 2weeks ago starting his speech therapy next month, how do I get biomed help please?
Hi I am looking for some support for my 5 years old girl.
Hi Muna,
It looks like you are already getting our 8-week email series which will get you started <3 We are launching our premium features very soon and will also continue to provide free content for you via our blog and podcast 🙂
Lily
It’s interesting to me that you don’t mention heavy metals, I have recovered my child from vaccine induced Autism but only by chelating the aluminium & mercury from the brain
Hi Christie,
We actually did about two years of ACC and are huge advocates of it. Congratulations on your son’s recovery! We will have a course and ton of resources in the members area going into more detail about various biomedical treatment options. I didn’t list all of the ones we have tried because that would have been an unbearably long post lol Also, not everything that works for one child works for another. People have a tendency to grab on to one treatment out of what I wrote and want to try it without any research. Our goal is to help educate parents about all the options so they can make the right choice based on the unique needs of their child 😉 This post is meant to be an overview and for folks to get to know us better and understand our journey, not to recommend specific treatments. Thank you so much for commenting <3
Lily
WHAT IS BIOMEDICAL TREATMENT?
IS IT JUST VITAMIN B12 OR SOMETHING ELSE AS WELL?
Hi Dace 🙂 Check out our podcast on this https://healingthespectrum.com/what-is-the-biomedical-approach-to-autism/ 🙂
Hi – how can I get the receive the guide? Recent austim diagnosis
Hi Nakisha,
Just enter your information into the blue box above and we will send you the guide and the 8-week email series right away.
Hi there,
Thanks for sharing your valuable information. I am not sure if this is for us but my son hasn’t been diagnosed with anything as yet but I see these quirky little qualities in him that are different to other kids. He’s extremely good in academics almost a genius but awkward socially when it comes to body language and eye contact, he’s gotten better over years figuring out how to interact. He’s 10 now and I have been through all sorts of therapies over the years, like OT, physio, stuttering and social behaviour therapy and finally in the last two years I let go of everything as he was excelling in school and everything looked great which I think still is. Lately my husband noticed that he’s got this weird accent which we can’t figure out where he’s acquired from, he is still awkward in social cues and being around his peers but can be ok one on one. I looked up online and came across Aspergers Syndrome and it’s symptoms and so many of those were what I see in him so basically he’s a high functioning autistic maybe but that’s just my gut feeling. We had actually assessed him by a specialist three years ago and reached to no conclusion as he said you should be thankful he’s functioning normally and he maybe borderline but do we really want to go down that path. That was the end of it, sorry about all this blabbering but I guess I am just confused as to what I need to do and if there’s anything else I can do to help my son esp with his communication skills and accent. Will be grateful if you can tell me if being on this website will help me in our scenario. Thanks heaps
Hi my son is 5. He was diagnosed with ASD when he was 3 years old and he repeats things he watches on Tv and sings and recites rhymes but doesn’t request for things or answers question. His word are really clear no bubbling,sleeps well, eats well but doesn’t play with peers and over the span of 2 years he hasn’t improved much with ABA, am yet to try Biomed with a neuropathic dr. But am lost as to where to start from any suggestions.
Thank you.
Hi Christina, we didn’t see any improvements with traditional therapies either until we started our biomedical journey. Our free 8-week email series and our podcast may help you get your bearings a bit if you haven’t already dove into those.
We created our private community for people who want to go further and it has a very clear roadmap and courses to follow step by step. If you feel ready for that level of support please consider doing the 3 day trial to check it out. If you aren’t ready yet we respect that and will keep providing free content as well. We are trying to meet everyone where they are at.
The book by Kelly Dorfman called Cure Your CHild With Food has some really great suggestions that might help your little dude. Hope that helps!
Hello my son was just diagnosed. I really need some help. He is 2.5 we have started ABA therapy but now I’m thinking HBOT and B12 and camel milk but really would love to schedule a phone appointment with you for your help and guidance since you have already been on this road. I have been doing lots of research and my husband also he is a physician but the info is really contradicting. Could you please reach out to us.
Liz, I sent you an email.
Sorry yes one on one support would be great we can definitely pay you for your time
So is this going to be expensive? When I started reading I became excited as a parent of a 4year old recently diagnosed, it read like parents who have and are there who want to help other over whelmed parents. Then as I’m reading it sounds less about helping and more about paying for premium services. I’m not trying to beat anyone up for trying to make a buck, but i would like to know how much we have to pay for your knowledge? I had to quit my job of 20 years to care for my daughter so expendable cash is short so if this is some ridiculously priced program that is really just taking advantage of overwhelmed devastated parents who want to try everything to help their child and their sanity can you just give me a disclaimer, I’m working on years of minimal sleep and really just don’t have the wherewithal to be scammed.
Hi Wendy,
I definitely understand your concerns. We have a lot of free content we provide and will continue to provide and the premium option is just that, an option. I had to quit my job to care for my two youngest (who both have special needs) and so I empathize there too. My background is as a certified coach. My typical one-on-one coaching package was around $400 per month and part of why we built this was to give families a more affordable option, save them time, and connect them with each other. If you click on the Learn More button about our premium features below, you can get more details, but depending on which option you choose it works out to between 70 and 88 cents a day. It’s about as much as most of us spend on one bottle of supplements a month. We also have a referral program in an effort to give parents a way to further offset costs. We designed it so that if you refer just 5 people your membership should be pretty much reimbursed for as long as those people remain members. If you have additional questions about how it works, feel free to shoot us an email at lilyandalexis@healinghopetribe.com. Both of us were overwhelmed, emotionally devastated parents and sometimes still are on some days. We have devoted about a year of full time, unpaid work and a risked a pretty large amount of financial resources to create the thing we wish we’d had access to when we were first beginning our journeys. We are doing this because we are passionate about helping other parents. We are charging a small amount for our time and expertise to cover our costs and are currently in the process of setting up a sister non-profit that will function in tandem with the main site. Its primary function will be to raise funds and distribute them as scholarships to families to help cover care costs not covered by their insurance. We intend to donate a large portion of profits (which are a long way off for us by the way) into the non-profit. We aren’t even taking salaries at this point and probably won’t for the first year. So no, we aren’t trying to scam anyone. We are working full time and sacrificing a lot to create a resource and give hope because there isn’t enough for parents like us. I hope that helps address your concerns and we are happy to discuss further if you’d like to send an email with any additional concerns. Wishing you all the best – Lily
Can you help me? I have a son with mild signs of autism, he hasn’t been officially diginosed but I know he has autism. I’ve been going round in circles and I just don’t know where to start.. could u please advise me?
Sadia, if you sign up for the free 9-day email series it will definitely give you a lot of information about where to start <3 Diet changes are one of the first steps for a lot of parents. Don't try to do too many things at once <3
What a journey. I have been looking at a book by Dr Campbell Mcbride, and GAPS. Check it out. It’s great.
GAPS has helped many families and Dr. Campbell McBride’s book is a fantastic resource! Thank you for sharing!