In Fear of Wishful Thinking

Our daughter has started making a new combination of sounds that may, or may not, be her first word. Most of the time, the sounds she makes involve repeating a single phoneme. Sometimes the pitch varies and sometimes it doesn't. Variants on 'eeeee' are the most common, 'though she also frequently makes this 'nguh' noise that I can only come close to duplicating if I keep my mouth closed.

Over the past couple of weeks, she has occassionally said 'aaaaaaeeeeee'. DW has remarked that it is very much like the first time Stitch says 'hi' in the original Lilo & Stitch movie. It also shares many of the same qualities as the enthusiastic, stretched out 'hi's that we're in the habit of uttering when she greets one of us with an enormous, dimpled grin -- talk about joy being contagious! -- or when we find she's already woken up from a nap. She seems to use it appropriately; however, it is like a valuable treasure that she only occassionally allows us to glimpse, so it is hard to be certain.

Nonetheless, I find myself thinking about that 'Aaaeee' a lot lately and it always brings a smile to my face. At first. In about the same amount of time that it takes me to realize that I'm smiling, a voice in my head pops up and tells me "there's not enough evidence yet" and "don't get your hopes up". There's real pain and disappointment in that voice and I know it's just trying to protect me from experiencing more of the same, but it goddamn pisses me off. When did I become such an overwhelming grump? Would it be so bad to give up being a cynic for just a little while?

The state of GF/CF foods

When I started my stint as a vegetarian 14 years ago, the options that were available were pretty slim and a lot of them were positively ghastly. The worst offenders were those that attempted to replicate the texture and flavor of meat. Here's a hint: you can't, so don't bother. Now, of course, there are a gazillion choices for meat-free alternatives and not surprisingly the best are those that have embraced the goal of making something that tastes good in its own rights.

The situation today with gluten and casein free foods is very much like it once was with vegetarian foods. There are many attempts at producing a gluten-free version of a wheat-based staple -- such as cakes, muffins, and pancakes -- but the truth of the matter is that most of them s**k. Once again the best ones don't try to be exact replicas. More companies need to focus not on how to make a gluten-free cake mix, but on gluten-free alternatives to cake. No doubt it will take a lot of experimenting, but with the rise in diagnoses of ASD, here's hoping that we start seeing more palatable options!

Adventures in Autism

I've certainly been reading a lot more about Autism Spectrum Disorders that I ever thought I would be. DD's primary delays are in the realm of "expressive and receptive language". The team diagnosed other symptoms to a mild degree, but I have yet to be convinced whether any of those are part of her ASD, or are a result of her primary challenge, or are just normal individual variation. That's one of the things that has struck me about ASD -- the large number of symptom-groups and how much individual kids vary in which ones they have and to what degree. Bobby might have severe delay in A & B and a milder difficulty with D, while Billy has a lot of trouble with C and some issues with B & E.

The other thing that's struck me is the wide range of treatments and the fact that nothing's definitely effective in all cases. While my own science background is not in biology, the studies I've read and the widely varying anectodal evidence strongly suggests that there is not just one cause of ASD. There are likely multiple causes and therefore different kids will have different results for a given treatment. For DD, a glutin-free casein-free diet has definitely made a difference. This suggests that an opiate reaction may be part of what's causing her symptoms. Again, however, I don't believe there is necessarily a single cause for ASD. So while she will be starting Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy soon, we will also be pushing for more tests to be done where appropriate.