What is Your Child's Behavior Saying?

My two-year-old son was struggling with a lot of negative behavior, particularly having meltdowns that, at times, led to self-injury. He was diagnosed with autism, and sometimes the meltdowns seemed triggered by his frustration with not being able to communicate well, but often his extreme behaviors seemed to come out of nowhere and were triggered by everything and anything.

I had read a lot of research that talked about the brain/gut connection, specifically in regards to children with neurodevelopmental disorders. After reading enough studies to convince me that it was worth a shot, we adjusted his diet and eliminated several allergens. I used a food journal, in combination with reporting on behaviors, to help decide the possible culprits. After a month of detective work, we decided to put him on a dairy, soy, gluten, egg and dye free diet.

We had already noticed a huge increase in eye contact and awareness within weeks of beginning chiropractic care, as well as a decrease in sensory sensitivities. When we added the diet, we began to see the extreme behaviors dissipate as well, and we started to see progress with speech and other forms of communication.

It seemed we were on the right track, and slowly it seemed my little boy was returning to me. He no longer seemed agitated by his surroundings, and I was no longer receiving unending and unwanted parenting advice about how to discipline his behaviors.

I won’t pretend that I have it all together as a mother, and I know that I could be a little more authoritative and disciplinary at times; however, I have always believed that my children’s behavior is just another form of communication. When a child can not express through language that they are in pain, that there body is overwhelmed, or that they are not functioning properly, the best indicator that something is wrong is negative behavior. Sure, kids act up from time to time to get what they want or test the limits, but I just don’t believe that any child wants to be miserable all of the time. Looking back and realizing all that my son was dealing with makes me so grateful that I was always compassionate and always looking for what was behind the behavior…the cause.

After six months of us being rockstars about his diet, and sticking to it (occasional slip ups on the dye restriction, but rarely) we had him tested for several food and environmental allergies. To my surprise and delight, it came back that he had no allergies, not even an intolerance to any of the foods we had taken him off of. At this time, I slowly reintroduced them back into his diet. I was thrilled to note that he didn’t seem bothered by these foods. He didn’t seem like he had a stomach ache, no extreme behaviors, basically no reaction to speak of and, as it turned out, he loved nothing in this world more than pizza, toast and yogurt. He was living it up and loving it. It wasn’t until about a month later that I noted he seemed less connected and less verbal, but it was such a busy week that I assumed he was feeling overwhelmed, and I made it a point to slow things down. It didn’t take long for the behaviors to follow. He started having tantrums and meltdowns and became irritable over every simple transition.

Feeling completely at a loss, I took him to our chiropractor who decided to do a progress scan to see what we were dealing with. Using the subluxation station, which measures the vertebrae stress output, Dr. D. was able to locate the area that had been negatively affected since his previous scan a couple of months before. At the time, I had not told Dr. D. about our changes in diet, but as he looked over the scan results he explained that it was showing a lot of irritation in the nerves responsible for digestion and asked if we had made any dietary changes. Honestly, I felt a giant lump in my throat and thought I might start sobbing on the spot. In part, I was so relieved to have such an obvious answer, but knowing that he was likely feeling discomfort from the foods I was feeding him, and that they were clearly stressing out his body, I was disappointed that I had reintroduced them in the first place. Dr. D. explained that it can take the gut some time to repair; however, we decided to increase his chiropractic visits to three times a week to boost his body’s natural ability to heal, and give him some added relief. Dr. D. also encouraged me to put Corbin back on the diet that had given us such positive results and to be more vigilant about giving him his daily probiotic.

The Subluxation Station has been a God-send for me in helping track my son’s progress, not only through chiropractic care, but also any dietary changes or other life stressors. Being able to pinpoint problem areas and create a specific plan for my child, along with setting health and developmental goals, has not only brought me peace of mind but has helped me provide my son with the best care available. Had I searched for answers elsewhere, I may have been given a treatment plan to cover the symptoms, or treat the discomfort, but I would not have gotten to the root of the problem – the cause. When I bring my child to the doctor, I don’t want a cream, an antibiotic, a needle full of things I can’t pronounce…..I want an answer. I want to know why! I don’t believe we can treat a problem if we don’t know what has caused it.

We have continued to see progress, as my son receives individual care that promotes his body’s unique needs. I thank God every day that we found our chiropractor, and that he helped us find our son again.