Are your son and his brother close? Is it possible you could ask his brother to find out information about Deaf/Autistic group at NTID in Rochester, NY? There is a large deaf community there. Someone there must know information.
Sure. My pre-verbal son will be 3 years old in a few months. He used to get comments since his birth that he always looks serious. I had a short labor. I didn't even ask to be induced, but they gave it to me anyway. They claimed they did this because it was supposed to help me speed up. Why speed up when I was doing so well? It doesn't make any sense. My son came out purple. It turned out to be a low oxygen. He was in NICU for a few days and then came home with us.
His situation is a bit different. He started to sleep all night for the first time when he was almost 6 months old. Many babies and children with ASD have trouble getting sleep, but we never had any problem. He only woke up crying and teething in the middle of nights. That's all. He never points a finger, but he points with my hand or any adult's. He is a natural observant and loves to listen to music. He can babble, laugh, and smile. ASL is his first language. He likes to touch on any texture surface with his fingers.
He used to be on Vayarin for over half a year. No insurance covers it. It cost us over $67 a month. Vayarin contains (EPA and DHA) fish oils and phosphatidylserine, but it helped him very little. We think EPA and DHA in Vayarin are too low. I read a post on autism forum a father stopped purchasing Vayarin and bought separate photsphatidylserine and fish oils directly. He swore it helped his son. He claims Vayarin is a marketing deception. We stopped it and switched it to high quality fish oils. He currently is on Nordic Natural Omega-3 fish oil 600 mg. He used to be on Nordic Natural 3-6-9 fish oils, but it made him sleepy. I read that it works for children. I guess, everyone is different.
We started IQed Smart Nutrition powder and NN Omega-3 fish oil two weeks ago. He was on it on and off because he just recovered from bronchitis. I learned that when children with ASD become sick, they regress. But we noticed he becomes more spontaneous, his eye contact is increased, he cries less, and he starts to initiate games with us. He used to rub his head against the wall all the time, but it is decreasing now. We sent him to a private school last Fall, but it didn't go well and we had to pull him out and sent him to ABA therapy instead. At first, he hated to go to ABA center. He was literally screaming and crying. Well, not anymore. He is excited and looks forward to attending ABA therapy. Last Wednesday, while we were in the waiting room for a therapist to come and pick him up, he sat on the couch with me waiting and kept looking at the door. He got bored, and he started to play and pull velcro straps on his shoes. That is the first time. He used to pace around all the time in the waiting room. We made changes to his diet by reducing omega-6. Meat is fine as long as it is grass-fed. He is fed with goat/sheep yogurts. He avoids processed food, crackers and cow dairy except Kefir. We are working on him learning to point a finger instead of using my hand or someone's hand now.
