Clean cleaning...with vinegar!

I try to minimize my kids exposure to chemicals, so I use 100% natural cleaners in our home.  There are so many environmental toxins that we come in contact with  that we cannot control.  So, I feel that if I can minimize my children's exposure in any way that I can it will help their developing bodies.  For me there is no mystery to the prevalence of diseases in our society.  From birth many children are pumped full of chemicals, their skin is exposed to chemicals, and then they are fed foods that have been showered in even more chemicals.  What are we to expect?  The CDC, the food and drug administration, along with many companies that have been attacked for having toxic substances in their products, all claim that the small amounts of these toxic/questionable ingredients are so minute that they wouldn't cause any harm to humans.  How is this acceptable on any level?  I don't want to feed my children traces of toxins!  While these small amounts might not produce immediate harm, what are the long term effects and what about continual exposure and build up of chemicals from the vaccines, shampoos, body wash, toothpastes, house hold cleaners, and food?  What about children, such as mine, whose bodies have the inability to process, filter, and get rid of these chemicals?  They just build up in their little bodies and cause so many diseases and developmental disorders.  So, as I mentioned before, my first line of defense is to keep the chemicals out of my home by making my own household cleaners.  These are simple recipes that I use for all my cleaning needs.

Laundry Detergent
I have been using this recipe for well over a year and I absolutely loved it!  Our clothes are clean and fresh.  I've never had problems getting stains out, even with my messy toddler.  I usually make this in the evenings after my kids go to bed and it only takes me about 30 minutes AND it lasts me 2-3 weeks!  Not only is this healthier for my family, but it saves us so much money!!

Ingredients:
1 bar of Dr. Bronners soap (I like lavander or almond)
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda

First start by grating the bar of soap.  

Then, fill a large pot about half way with water.  When the water is boiling  add the grated soap and stir occasionally until all the soap has dissolved.  Once the soap is dissolved,  add 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washer soda.  Add these slowly as they can cause the water to bubble up and over flow.  Continually stir the pot until all the ingredients have dissolved.  Turn off the heat and wait until the mixture is warm.  I like to use empty vinegar container (as I have so many of them!) to store my homemade laundry detergent.  I use 4 vinegar bottles and pour my mixture into them so that each one has equal amounts.  Then I turn my tap water on very hot and fill the bottles up the rest of the way.  Fill them very slowly so your mixture doesn't bubble up and you end up with a lot of foam on top.  Give them a good shake and you're done!  

The laundry detergent will thicken over night, but a few good shakes in the morning should even it out.  If your mixture becomes too thick, just pour some into another container and add hot water until you have a nice consistency ( about that of regular laundry detergent).  I add about a cup to a regular wash.

Fabric Softener

Vinegar!!  That's it...one ingredient!  I add white distilled vinegar to the liquid fabric softener cup at the beginning of a wash and that's it!  Vinegar removes all soap residue from clothes, which is what causes clothes to be stiff.  What I'm left with is clothes that feel just as soft as any fabric softener could do and no static.  What about the smell you might ask?  There is none!  As soon as your clothes dry any trace of a vinegar smell (I never even notice a smell when I pull them out of the wash) is gone!  I promise...not even a slight smell of vinegar.  My clothes have no real smell, fresh is the only word I can use to describe their smell (if you can't tell, I'm a little obsessed with my laundry).

Multipurpose Cleaner

Again, I only have one word...vinegar!  As you can probably see by now, I have a love for vinegar!  It's cost effective, safe for the environment, and 100% free of chemicals.  It's effective in killing mold, bacteria, and germs.  I never have to worry about spraying it on food work surfaces or on my kids toys.  I keep a spray bottle of pure white distilled vinegar in my kitchen and that is what I use to clean EVERYTHING from my counter tops to my daughters highchair.  The smell of vinegar really doesn't bother me, but I know that most people don't like it in such a pure state.  I've also made Lemon Vinegar, which completely masks the smell of vinegar and all you're left with is a fresh lemony smell in your home.  I first read about lemon vinegar in this amazing blog One Good Thing by Jillee.  

Bathroom cleaner
I use a mixture of white distilled vinegar and borax to clean my toilets.  Baking soda and vinegar for my tubs, showers, and sinks. If I have any mold I use 3% hydrogen peroxide.  I just spray the moldy surface until it is saturated and let it sit for about 10 minutes.  Then, I scrub to remove all mold and mold stains, wipe the surface, and give it an extra wash with pure white distilled vinegar :).  Again, for my bathroom counter I use undiluted vinegar.

Floors
As you can probably guess, I use vinegar to clean my floors!  I mix vinegar (probably more than I really need) with water and mop away!

Autism…now what?

What do you do after you receive the diagnosis that your child has autism?  This is not a simple answer nor is there a prescribed list of things you should do since each child's needs will be different.  For me though, I would recommend the following steps as a starting point.  This is not what I did, but rather what I wish I would have done.  The things I’m recommending I eventually got to, but I took a long route in getting there.  

 I had a few stumbling blocks along the way that slowed down my journey.  The first one was denial.  When I received his diagnosis I was in deep denial.  I didn’t stand still, but I didn’t dig deeper either.  Well, I dug, but in all the wrong places.  I spent countless night after countless night looking up what autism was from a conventional standard medical point of view.  That only led me further into my denial because if I believed them then this would be a dead-end diagnosis with no hope of recovery.   I told myself that as soon as his speech caught up no one would notice any difference between him and other children.  I told myself that he would simply outgrow it.  I desperately looked for stories of children who simply outgrew their autism. I only did what his school recommended, which was speech therapy and occupational therapy.  While that’s fine and a great beginning I should have search out the right kind therapy for a child with autism. 

 Not all children are the same and not all therapist are the same either!  Well, hindsight's 20/20.

Here’s my list of the steps I think every parent should take.

    1.   Find a speech therapist that specializes in children with autism.  I did a lot of home therapy, but I really find that receiving any therapy in a therapy facility affords much more opportunity for progress.  The resources are better and more abundant than what a therapist can bring to your home.  Also, there is a lot more on going training, supervision, and consistency in methods when a therapist works at a facility vs. one who is an independent contractor.  Again, solely my opinion.

2.  Secondly, and most importantly, is to find an occupational therapy facility that specializes in sensory integration.  This is SO important I can’t emphasize it enough!!  The type of therapy you receive from sensory integration OT is very very different!  This therapy has made the biggest impact on my son’s progress more than any other therapy.  I could only imagine where we’d be had he had it from an early age. 

    3.  ABA.  Sadly, we never did Applied Behavior Analysis.    I would try out every type of therapy you can until you find the right combination for your child.  While we are not in exclusive ABA therapy, our current therapist use ABA in both speech therapy and occupational therapy 

    

    4.  My next, and most important step, would be to find a DAN! Doctor.  This has been the single most important decision that my husband and I made and one that I believe will save our son from struggling with autism.  DAN! (Defeat Autism Now)  Doctors  follow a certain protocol when treating autism and believe that autism is a biomedical disorder that is caused by a combination of lowered immune response, external toxins from vaccines and other sources, problems with food allergies and digestive issues, and at times genetic predisposition.  Unlike traditional doctors, they do not view autism as a psychiatric disorder.   They work on healing the child internally to minimize or stop autistic behavior.  Treatment usually consists of nutritional supplements, gluten/casein free diet, extensive testing for allergies, deficiencies, and genetic vulnerabilities, treatment of yeast overgrowth which is very common in autistic children, and detoxification of heavy metals and toxins. 

 

My child is not the same child who I brought to our DAN! Doctor almost 6 months ago.  The changes have been noticed by everyone in his life.  The changes have been big!  We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way

I think that these are good places to begin when your child is diagnosed with autism.  It’s not easy in the beginning and it requires a lot of time, patience, planning, organizing, and sacrifices, but it does get easier.  It becomes second nature and you establish routines.  Many people become discouraged and even give up when they see the work it takes.  Don’t give up!  When I came home from my first DAN! Doctor appointment I was overwhelmed.  I spent all day and night making charts and graphs and plans in order to  give my son his supplements and other therapies.  Now, I prepare 3 baggies of supplements the night before, mark them breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I’m done.  I drive him to all his therapies just as any other mom drives their kids to soccer practice or dance class. We do exercises and therapy at home just as any child would practice their hobby or sport at home.  When we go out to parties or restaurant I pack his lunch box with his gluten/casein free foods and no one has said boo to us.  I know that each child is different and that each child’s needs might be different, but I believe this is a good bouncing board to start from. 

I highly recommend reading the book “Healing our Autistic Children “by Dr. Julie A. Buckley.   It will change the way you see your child, autism, and treatment. 

Gluten Free Casein Free Almond Milk Vanilla Pudding

Since going gluten/casein free there have been a lot of snacks that Alec misses.  Most of them I've been able to recreate or buy, but there are two that I haven't been able to figured out.  Those would be cheese crackers, like goldfish or cheese-its, and vanilla pudding (we're not fans of the soy pudding and the almond milk pudding we find is only chocolate...which he won't eat).  The crackers pose a bigger problem because how am I suppose to make a delicious cheesy cracker with out using cheese?!  I have yet to find a cheese substitute that is delicious!  I love cheese and could eat it all day long, but the cheese substitutes are OK at best.  Nothing I would indulge in.  With that being said, I will try to make a gluten/casein free vanilla pudding first!  Besides making it GFCF I also want to reduce the amount of sugar I use in this recipe by substituting pure stevia extract.  We're treating him for yeast, and yeast loves sugar, so I've been trying to reduce his sugar intake.  Crossing my fingers that my very picky eater approves of this non-dairy version!  He loves his coconut milk yogurt, but not the coconut or almond milk ice cream...who understands!

Vanilla Almond Milk Pudding

1/2 tsp stevia extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup corn starch
2 1/2 cup sweetened vanilla almond milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1.  In a small dish combine cornstarch with 4 tablespoons of almond milk.  Mix until dissolved.  

2.  In a small saucepan combine cornstarch mixture, stevia, salt, remaining almond milk and eggs.  Whisk until combined

3.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and bubbles just begin to form on the surface.

4.  Whisking constantly, turn down heat to low and cook for about 1 minute more

5.  Pour the mixture through a fine sieve.  Mix in the vanilla extract. 

6.  Place plastic wrap directly on the surface and chill for 2 hours before serving.

****Success!!! He gobbled it up and asked for seconds! It's really good :)