DD1 turned 7 this year, and because life this year has been so hard, we missed out on the funding we had... its so sad... I wish I thought things through and got her apps and whatever prior to loosing all the funding.

Well.... I have more good news for everyone. Matilda's birthday was a few Friday's ago and she did not have one meltdown. Generally around the birthday time we have meltdowns daily for a week or two before and a week or two after. She was so good. Not one meltdown!!! She was more flappy, but heh, flappy I can do... it gets frustrating because she is constantly knocking things over and jumping off lounges etc, but I don't mind as long as she isn't screaming!!

Diet. We did an elimination diet with M. We also had allergy and intolerance testing. She is okay with gluten, crazy... but she is seriously affected by dairy. Cows milk dairy. When she was 3 we took her off dairy and within 3 weeks her speech improved dramatically, she started speaking in sentances. When we took her off natural preservatives like salicylites and trialled different things we found that she reacts to fructose in larger quantities. She can only tolerate one serving of fruit a day. Apple juice, organic no added sugar type apple juice makes her loose her mind. We found anything over 75mls of apple juice turns her into someone else, its like a veil has been put over her and her ability to communicate is drastically reduced. BUT something like limonaide she's fine with....

We did elimination diets in order to find what exactly she reacted too as well as doing a detox for heavy metals. There were times when it felt as if she was eating nothing at all or nothing of value, but we did it with a nutritionist/naturopath who was a medical scientist in her previous life.... Once we did this (took around 6 months in total) I have so much more confidence in what foods affect her. It does change... she can tolerate more fruit in one day, but then I just know how to help her control herself or let her be "dreamy" for the rest of the day. Obviously the next day she doesn't have any... its a balance in helping her body cope.

Anywho... she is going so well. We bought a board game out last night, and she was flapping and jumping around while playing it... I was waiting for her to get upset and angry when someone else started winning, or when she got her piece locked down and missed a turn. She did sit on the ground and pout... but that was a normal response!!! She's done so awesome in learning to internally regulate.

She goes to OT weekly as well as doing a program called interactive metronome. The IM has made a huge difference. We used to do speech as well, and she has some had some huge improvements with speech. Her speech pathologist moved and she didn't connect with the new one, but we had gained so much in our understanding of how to do things that we felt able to do it ourselves. Matilda has a high level of vocabulary, its just the issue of getting the words out. Sometimes she's 4 steps ahead of herself and has a hard time stopping and beginning again in order to communicate effectively. School and I have been going so much better with having that key and working with her towards it. Neither of us have many issues with communication now that we understand that and can remind her to go back, its a slow improvement on a daily basis, but there is much less disappointment...

Anywho.... things have been hard since Lulu's memorial for me. Its been hard to get equilibrium again... we are getting there, but slowly....