Brain Power with Dr. Eko

How Holistic Care Changed My Sons Life, with DeeDee

• Dr. Hokehe Eko

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Description:
What happens when a parent is told to “wait and see,” but knows there has to be more? In this powerful episode, Dr. Hokehe Eko sits down with Deedee, a mom with a nursing background who became the practitioner she could not find for her own child.

Together, they discuss a root-cause approach to autism support and what “testing, not guessing” can look like for families seeking answers.

In this episode, we cover:

  •  Why tantrums, constipation, picky eating, speech delay, and frequent infections may signal deeper issues 
  •  How functional testing can uncover gut imbalance, candida, nutrient deficiencies, and toxic burden 
  •  Why supplements alone may not create progress without foundational nutrition changes 
  •  Gentle detox strategies through food and lifestyle support 
  •  Understanding autism support levels without limiting your child’s future 

This is a practical, hope-filled conversation for parents looking beyond symptom management and toward whole-child support.

Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel!

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If you want to schedule an ADHD/Autism appointment for your child, you may contact Glow Pediatrics:

🌐 Website: www.glowpediatrics.com
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📧 dreko@glowpediatrics.com
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💼 LinkedIn: hokeheeffiongmd 

Welcome And Didi’s Story

SPEAKER_02

You nervous?

SPEAKER_01

We know, we're live.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, we're live. I already got an email. Oh, okay. Hey. Hey.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, everybody. Welcome to our live for today. This is Dr. Echo, Go Pediatrics Founder, and I have with me the amazing Miss Didi. She's a mom. Uh, she came to our practice, and she so very kindly agreed to come on here and tell you about how her pursuit of holistic medicine has completely changed the direction of her son's life. So, welcome to the show, Miss Didi.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Thank you for having me and inviting me. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01

My pleasure. So, so I like all my guests to introduce themselves. So, can you please tell them a little bit more about you?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I guess a brief summary. Um, I'm a stay-at-home mom, um, one and only son. Um, I started in nursing. My background is nursing, but after having my son and realizing that maybe he was having some autistic symptoms, he was a little delayed in speech, um, very picky eating, um, I kind of switched over to holistic care. Um, so yeah, I started there, um, started holistic care, um, started trying to get down to the root cause symptoms of my son. That's what really started my whole journey, his whole journey of trying to understand his symptoms. Um, it just kind of felt like any pediatrician, any doctor that we went to when asked questions had no answers for us. Um, so I just chose a different path, which was kind of holistic health, holistic medicine. And for the past year, that's what we've been doing. Um, functional testing, oat or oat testing, um, vitamin and mineral, frat testing, stool analysis, all of those um nutrition have all helped tremendously. So I'm currently in school um to become a holistic health practitioner myself to help other kids like my son as well. And that's how I found you. So I'm here.

From Nursing To Holistic Search

SPEAKER_01

Well, welcome. So you said a lot of words when you break those things down.

unknown

That was a lot.

SPEAKER_01

So let's start with okay. So, yes, your background was in nursing, but how did you even stumble upon holistic care? How did you even get there?

SPEAKER_02

It was my husband. So um, after not getting a lot of answers when it came to my son, um, just kind of feeling stuck, like nobody understood, nobody could help. My husband stumbled upon a TikTok video of a lady, a mom, autistic mom, who was practicing holistic medicine for functional testing to help with her autistic son. And that just sent me down a rabbit hole. I got to researching, got to Googling, got to TikTok and just researching, reading, ordering books, um, trying to find out everything I could possibly find out. And then I realized that I couldn't find the right holistic professional for me when I needed one. And so I just decided to become what I needed.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. No, that's a that that sentence, I decided to become what I needed. That's so powerful. Because you could have just given up or you could have just said, oh, this is too hard. Nah, I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02

But you I think it hit different when you see your child like struggling, you know, frustrated, tantrums, picky eating, you know, not themselves, kind of like in a fog, day in, day out, constipation. He stayed sick, strep throat, ear infections. Nobody could figure it out. And I just got tired of just feeling helpless. So I was like, at this point, if I can't find what I need to help him, I just gotta figure it out on my own. So I literally woke up one morning and I was like, husband, I'm gonna enroll in school, I'm gonna become a holistic health practitioner, I'm gonna really understand the body, I'm gonna understand nutrition, I'm gonna really understand the brain-gut connection. And not only am I gonna help our son, but then I'm gonna turn around and help others. So this past year, that's what I've been doing.

Functional Testing That Finds Answers

SPEAKER_01

Wow, that is so wonderful. And I'm so glad, I mean, yes, TikTok, but I'm glad he found it, right? And that somebody was sharing their story, which is why we're here to share your story so that we can empower more parents and parents who you may feel hopeless, like, oh my gosh, I don't know what to do with my son. And I go to the doctors and they say it's just autism, right? And yes, I used to be that pediatrician because honestly, we're not really trained to really get into the nitty-gritty of can we make a difference in this child's life, or is this just the way, like whatever symptoms you see? Well, that's it. We'll just try and patch and match with medications as best as we can, but we don't really get we're not trained to get to the nitty-gritty of hey, this is how the whole body works. How can we start to make changes in this cycle that we see called symptoms, right? How can we make the cycle in different places so that we can get our children healthier? So I'm so glad you found it. And so you also mentioned um you mentioned uh tests. Yes. But let's talk about those tests. I mean, you threw out a bunch of names. Your favorite. Okay, great. So so start with your favorite. Let's talk about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, I probably think my that's literally what I do for the past year on TikTok um as a mom in the Austin community, just kind of teaching and sharing our journey, our experiences. That's my whole motto. My whole thing is test. Testing, testing, not guessing. You know, testing gives you answers when most doctors or pediatricians cannot. Um, these functional tests really give you an in-depth um look at what's going on inside the bodies. And most times you can't see that. Look on the outside, you know, of a child. So my favorite test that I always recommend parents to do is an organic acid test. Um, that kind of explains a little bit of everything. Everything. It can give you heavy metal markers, yeast markers, you know, oxidative markers. It can give you so many things to really understand what's going on inside the body. So I always recommend to other mommies and parents um organic acid tests, but we've also done a frat test, a folate receptor auto antibody test that came back negative. Even though it can come back positive, you can still, you know, see great improvement with Luke Lorange steel, such as my son. We also did a stool analysis, um, which helped piece together a lot of a lot of questions that we had regarding his gut, why he was so constipated, he was eating the wrong foods, he wasn't eating enough of the right food. He had an extreme um amount of candida yeast in the gut, um, a few bad bacteria strains that needed to um be taken care of. So we did a stool analysis and we also did a heavy metal. The heavy metal testing also, his came back aluminum. Some kids can come back, you know, lead, all types of um different heavy metals, but his specifically was aluminum.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And there's a lot of symptoms of well, the what the most common symptom of aluminum, heavy metal toxicity is neurodevelopment issues. So it kind of goes hand in hand. So I think along the way, Western medicine just kind of got lazy um and just started. Well, this kid has these symptoms, or well, this kid has those same symptoms. Well, this group of kids has those same symptoms, and they just grouped together symptoms and labeled it autism. Somewhere along the somewhere along the way, I just feel like a lot of doctors um just stop getting down to the root cause. And a lot of what you see in a lot of these kids who are autistic or have autism is heavy metals, you know, they're not eating properly. Nutrition plays a huge part in those tests that I like love is my favorite thing to talk about, um, gives you a lot of answers that most can't.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, and that's correct because I found the same thing to be true. I mean, we do those tests on our the children we care for in our practice, and definitely there's nothing like helping you come up with a tailored approach, right? Versus just doing shooting in the dark, we which we can and you can see some improvement. I've seen some improvement with just saying get your kid off of this or try this or try that. But if you want sustained improvement in symptoms, then you definitely want to test. Yes, and um, it does make a difference because it helps you figure out next steps. And so for parents who are like, okay, we just you just throw out all these tests, and if I order it now, who's gonna read the test?

SPEAKER_02

What does it mean? How do I read it? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01

So that's why you're in school, so you can help parents when you're done, finish reading the test, and that's why we're here at Global Pediatrics. So if you need our help, we're in multiple states, we're here to help. So reach out to us. So, but tell me more about okay. So, when you when you discovered the first test, so the organic acid and you did it, what's how did you know what to oh not how did you know? Well, that too, but also what did you start implementing? Like, where do you start? Parents saying this sounds overwhelming. So, where do I even start with this?

Supplements Trap And Diet Reset

SPEAKER_02

We, as a lot of parents in this journey, when you get the test results, usually most parents you're working with someone because you don't you don't understand the test, you don't understand how to interpret the results. So you're working with someone, whether it's a um holistic practitioner, um, a functional pediatrician, maps doctor, you're working with somebody to help you understand and come up with a treatment plan. So that's what we were doing. Um in the beginning, we were working with a holistic practitioner, and we trusted her and depended on her to kind of explain the results and all that stuff. So we made the mistake, as a lot of parents do, started with a long, long, long list of supplements.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, that was good with much sugar. Oh my goodness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

We gave this long spread. I mean, she she explained all the test results, and then she provided this long list of supplements. And we found ourselves in this supplement graveyard, just you know, morning, lunch, dinner, day after day supplements, supplements, and we just thought, like, this is it, this is it, this is gonna make it, this is gonna change. And then we started getting frustrated, like so. Then once I decided, okay, this is not working, I'm not seeing any improvement, this is very, very expensive, this is not making sense, something does not seem right. We no longer worked with her. I enrolled in school in a holistic program, and that's when I started to really understand food is medicine. It starts with nutrition, food is everything. And again, food is food is medicine, food is nutrition, food is everything. Okay, and I started realizing, yeah, I'm giving him all of these supplements and stuff, trying to get get rid and detox and do all of this stuff. What is this baby eating? And even though I had already taken out dairy and gluten months prior, and it did make a difference. He no longer, you know, was sick, he no longer got strep, ear infection, he no longer was constipated. Removing dairy and gluten was the first step, and it did wonders, but it wasn't just there. I had to keep going and build off that. I didn't. I just started, I just took gluten and dairy and just added in a whole bunch of supplements and got frustrated. So I stopped the supplements and I really started focusing on his food. I took away all of it. It was still, even though I thought he was eating better, he was still eating a lot of processed food. I was still so I literally had to just start from basics. I really understood nutrition, understood gut healing food, and started there. I started making everything at home, veggies. I didn't care how I had to get it in him, blend it, dice it, chop it up, sink it in anyway, anyhow. And when I started for really focusing on his diet, that's when it clicked. That's when I started seeing improvement. And then I'm like, okay, if I want to, you know, add in a supplement here or there temporarily, that's fine. But it was the food that started everything.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. My best saying is you cannot out-supplement a bad diet. Yes, matter what you supplement. We I have parents calling me, oh, I started this and I started this, and I saw some improvement. And yes, you may see some improvement, but nobody can stay on supplements forever. Exactly. It's temporary, it's not permanent, food is permanent. We have to go back to the root cause. What's the foundation level? What is this child eating? What is inflaming this child's gut, which is inflaming this child's brain? Thank you, mommy, for saying it. Because it's like when the doctor says it's like, okay, yeah, yeah, I hear you. But if it's another parent, it's like, okay, oh, we can load up kids with supplements. We have to fix the foundation.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know how many parents come into my TikTok live stream and they're like, you know, well, I started this supplement or I started this or I started that, but you know, I'm not seeing anything, I'm not seeing any improvement. And my first question is, well, what's their diet like? You know, what are they still eating on a daily basis? You know, what are they still eating? Have you removed this? Are you still doing that? Or what tests have you done to really understand what they should be eating, what they should not be eating, what they're deficient in? Like, what is their diet based off of? And then they start telling me, and I'm like, Well, you might want to cut that out, and you might want to substitute that with this, you know, you might not just want to, you might want to take that out too.

SPEAKER_01

So, yeah, I get it. Oh, I am so thankful that you're you've not even you're not waiting till you finish school, like you're taking what you've learned and your lived experience, which is so important, and you're helping parents. So, thank you so much for doing that. Yeah, definitely helpful. So, okay, so now if parents, you've heard food is medicine, you can't out-supplement this thing. You gotta fix the foundation, take out all the inflammatory things, add in the sustaining things and the nourishment, and the and children with autism, right, have a lot of deficiencies, as we talk about a lot, even the basic things like iron and vitamin D, they're highly deficient in it.

SPEAKER_02

And if you don't address those things, we can load you up with all the other things we like, but if you and a lot of doctors have parents thinking that if a child is deficient in certain vitamins, that the only way to support those deficiencies is with a supplement. You can get you can do that through food, nutrition every day, every day, every meal, build on it day by day. You don't have to just depend on a supplement in a bottle. Food out the ground, food, out the ground, out the ground.

SPEAKER_01

That part, yes. So, for example, parents will say, Oh, I'm giving him the the water, the flavored water. I'm like, Okay, think about it. That's still a chemical that's flavoring your water. So, how about we take some blueberries and flavor your water or some lemon and flavor the water, right? Versus the chemical.

SPEAKER_02

I was guilty of that too. I was guilty. He held on to that. He fought me, he fought me on that. He loved his flavored water, but I had to, I had to switch it out. I had to because I knew there's uh so it could be something that flavored water that he may not need, you know. So I had to, I even though I always tell parents, who's the mama, you the mama, you know what's the best, you know what they need. They may not be what they want, but you know, long term, you know what the body needs. If I tell you, you know, you can't say you don't know because you know now, you know now. So if you still give them what they don't need and you are aware, you know that mom, put your foot down, put your foot down, mama. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm. Okay, and so for the parent listening and saying, Okay, this sounds all really complicated. Like exactly where am I supposed to start? What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_02

Testing, testing, start with testing. Um, I know a lot of parents be like, where, how, how do I find it? Where I always say start with testing and diet. Testing and diet is where I recommend starting. So there are a lot of ways. I don't know if you can list them on here. I'm not sure if I can like save the websites or whatever, but there are a lot of places that you can go to order the test on your own and always start with nutrition. You don't need um a doctor or a doctor appointment or nobody in a white coat to tell you how to feed your child. Um, I think like reading is knowledge, reading is everything. You can order so many books about teaching you or educating you on nutrition and start there. I removed dairy and gluten. That was the first step I did. I removed dairy and gluten, I cut out a lot of sugar, processed food. I started making stuff at home. I ordered a lot of um Mediterranean diets and anti-inflammatory diet books just to kind of better understand. And I went to school. I went to school. I went to school, I changed his diet. I read, I read, I researched, and I just started with baby steps. It's not gonna happen overnight, it's not gonna happen in a week. It took me almost 10 months to change the way my son eats. It took me 10 months of not giving up, being frustrated, trying this, him not liking it. Yeah, the whole it's a whole process. It's not easy, but it's possible. You just have to get started. That's the hardest part of this journey, it's just changing the habits and getting started. Once you get started and you commit and you understand this is what your child needs, it becomes easier. You just work at it and you chip at it day by day.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, you've said something, a couple of things very important. I the first one is the mindset, right? Yeah, knowing that first of all, it is possible for your child's symptoms to improve, and second of all, is to commit to the process. There is no magic pill, there is no take out one thing, and everything will magically improve. Yeah, every child is different, right? So there's not one thing for one child, that's why we do personalized care. Every child is different, every child is different, so um, it's just knowing and expecting that it's gonna take a while and not and they're not giving up part, so it's just one small step at a time, every day. Take it day by day, yes, and it's possible. That's the biggest thing. It is possible, yes. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_02

So you're gonna have some bad days, you're gonna have some bad days in the midst of it. You may see so much progress, and then it's like a week or two, you may see your regression, and then it might kind of feel like uh you might lose hope, you might kind of feel start feeling unmotivated, but it's a part of the process. Keep going, continue to feed them what they need, continue to be patient with them. It takes time, it takes time, but it is possible.

Detox Talk And Chelation Lessons

SPEAKER_01

Yes, thank you for mentioning the regression because that can happen, and depending on what you're doing, say you're doing a detox for your child, gentle detox, please, gentle, be gentle, not go buying all the detox products you see. You can detox with food, and that's how it's gently, because this is a little person we're talking about. Yes, yes, yes. I actually talked to an adult the other day who his detox went bad and he was almost a vegetable, like he was trying to detox, and the amount of detox he was given, he wasn't given was too much, and he completely, for lack of a better word, like fried his brain. It's like just he became somebody who was lost. So, gentle detox. So, where was I? I was saying that when even when parents are detoxing, right? The body sometimes the body system can feel overwhelmed that you can start to what look like regressive behaviors, like the something that disappeared has come back. But don't worry, you stay with it because it's just the body's way the body's trying to clean up. You have to think this long for the body to get to where we are, so it's time for it to clear itself out. It didn't happen overnight.

SPEAKER_02

So supporting and getting back and balanced, you know, healthy, it's not gonna happen overnight either. It's a process, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

That's that's so important because I I hear the frustration in parents and just yeah, or they get scared, you know, they they think maybe they've done something wrong and it scares them, so then they just want to stop and it's like, wait, wait, let's let's slow down, let's be gentle, let's find a more gentler approach, right? But yeah, it's all a part of the process for sure. Yes, absolutely. Speaking of detox, um, I remember like early, early in my son's journey, like let last year, back in like April, May, June, last summer, when we were working with a holistic practitioner, we were advised to do the um what is it, the A A C C chelation method? So we actually did 14 rounds of chelation, but we halted, we stopped because I personally, like I said, I felt like it was too harsh. I felt like it was too harsh. Um, and there were more gentler ways through food to detox him naturally. Right. And so I chose to. Stop that form of detox and go through another route, more nutrition, more gentler, and the progress was even better. I felt like he really did not react well to the chelation detox, heavy metal detox. He did not react well to it, was very harsh on the body. We did 14 rounds, but after that, just focusing on nutrition and detoxing him through nutrition, he made way more progress, much more happier child. So it's always other ways to do it.

SPEAKER_01

So let's dig a little deeper into the detox thing because that's like the buzzword now. Everybody detoxing. So what made you realize he wasn't tolerating the the chelation well?

SPEAKER_02

Um, I just after 14 rounds, the research that I had did, even though I know every child is different, how they react um to detox are different. But just from the research that I had seen or heard or read from other children that have done those amounts, 14, 10, I was kind of comparing, and I just it wasn't matching. And he was very irritable. He was irritable, he just wasn't in the best mood. Um, and I know when you do ACC chelation, it's you know a weekend thing. It takes a lot out of you. Not only it takes a lot out of the child, it takes a lot out of the parents as well. And it was just a lot. We spent the whole summer just stuck in the house, just really committing to chelation. And by the end of the summer, it just wasn't worth it. I don't know, maybe it was a discernment, maybe it was like a mommy gut feeling. I just thought it was something else. And we were advised to do the chelation because his heavy metal results showed mercury. But once I enrolled in school and understood better how to interpret the heavy metal tests myself, I reread them and realized that was wrong. It wasn't mercury, it was aluminum, and we didn't have to chelate to detox aluminum, right? So I just stopped it. I I completely stopped, cut it off, um, continued to learn and educate myself and detox him naturally with food. And he's been doing amazing.

SPEAKER_01

So, what's the difference between between before you started detoxing with food and the difference after? Like, what changes have you seen specifically?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, he's talking up Storm now. He's asking for everything. He's asking for his piano, his truck, he wants to go outside, he lets me know when he's eating. I am a personal chef over here, okay? Anytime that baby is hungry, he's like, E, I want eat. You know, he tells he asks for everything. He, when you ask him a question, he's like, Yeah or no. You know, he answers, he understands, he has a personality now. He loves music, um, he loves outdoors, he loves water. He is like, he's just thriving. He's thriving and he's talking more and more every day. Um, with the chelation, it was still like he was kind of just foggy in the toll that it takes on the body, I guess, like made it worse. But now he's just eating, walking around here with dodo, as in his bottle of water and his music, having a good old time. So it's definitely a difference. He's a little old man walking around here now.

SPEAKER_01

Well, those who don't know what dodo is, that's fried plantation. So I'm loving dodo. Yeah. Well, fried in avocado oil, so let's make it now. We are here promoting dodo. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but he loves dodo. Well, no, I I I eat dodo all the time, so you just have to make it in the right kind of oil. That's all. Yes, avocado oil, yes. Yes, that's what I fry it in. Avocado oil is a wonderful treat. Uh-huh.

Breakthroughs In Speech And Daily Life

SPEAKER_02

So that's good. That's good. That's good. Yeah, he's he's good now. So we just continue, um, continue to feed him good food, continue to um he's on Lucavorin, sticking with his LucaVorin, good nutrition. Um, we're gonna start speech therapy since now. Um, I feel like the work that we've done holistically, uh, functional testing-wise, he is thriving. He is learning something new every day, learning a new a new word every day. So I think now with the combination of holistic healing and um speech therapy, occupational therapy, I think he will do amazing. And just to think that this time last year, he was for sure level two. For sure, he was level two last year. But with the work that we've done this past year, that now he's level one, it's just proof. It's just it's proof, it's proof that when you feed the kids, you do right by the babies.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes, yes, body, mind, and spirit, body, mind, and spirit, the whole child is the whole child, child, not segments of them, not their behaviors because your child is not their behavior either. Exactly, right? Their behavior is communication that their body can require something wrong, red flag.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, hey, if they could talk, they could tell you, but they can't, so they tell you in other forms, right?

SPEAKER_01

Because you mentioned something about overgrowth of yeast, and one of the most common manifestations is aggressive behavior or just not even functioning well.

SPEAKER_02

So, can you every parent that sends me in their child's test results? Every child has yeast, an overgrowth of candida, yeah, and almost every child I see has some form of heavy metal toxicity. Yep, so there we are. It's possible. Recovery is possible, yes, it doesn't happen overnight, but if you commit with functional testing, nutrition, gut brain connection, it is possible.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, absolutely. So thank you for laying it all out, and also thank you for bringing in the piece about therapy because that's important too, right? The combination of the two heal the foundation and then you add in the therapy the child needs and get them where they need to be, yeah, right. And then you're gonna look into ABA therapy. So just doing therapy by itself, yes, there is some progress, but not until you address the child themselves, right? When I talk to my therapist friends, I'm like, listen, send me your children, yeah, feeling better, and then I'll send them back to you. Your therapy can actually work like it's supposed to.

SPEAKER_02

Like, I can say firsthand we did eight months of speech therapy before we did functional testing and holistic healing. We did eight months, three times a week of speech therapy, but absolutely no progress. I believe you, no progress. But now, after getting down to root causes and really healing from within, understanding what's going on internally. Right now, I think that he would do amazing in speech therapy. Now, now he'll actually understand and be present. The fog and all has been removed. He's here, he's present, he makes eye contact, he looks at your lips, he wants to repeat everything you said now. A year ago, two years ago, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01

That gives makes me so happy. Me too. So tell me, because I like to point it back to parents. What does having your child say two years ago where he would have been even either level two or level three support? Yeah, what does that do to you as a parent? How does that impact your work? How does that impact your life?

SPEAKER_02

Oh God, it's like a breath of fresh. I think I told you when I spoke with you the other day, like it's like I'm living in the answer prayer for so like for months, you know, my husband and I were just like the the parents that know that get it, get it. When you just want nothing more, nothing else matters. You just want your child to be okay, be thriving, be able to talk and express their needs and wants or what's wrong. Um, and you see your child struggling and you feel like you can't help, it just literally shakes your world. Nothing else matters until your child is where they need to be, and you know that for sure they are okay. So a year ago, two years ago, we I'm I'm gonna be I'm gonna keep it 100. We were depressed, wary, self-isolating. Like we just were worried about him, just trying to get answers for him. Now, presently, we understand we got the answers, you know, we have the game plan, we got the blueprint, we know we're just chunking at it. We see what can be done, we see how much progress he has made, and it just motivates us to keep going. Um, I'm so grateful that I started school in the midst of his journey because now um I can turn around and help other parents and create a community and just spread the word and share his journey and inspire and educate others because it's possible. So now I feel like yes, like huh, we got out of it. Now let's help other parents help their babies.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, because I find a lot of parents, like for your husband, he how was he doing at work? Was he struggling at work?

SPEAKER_02

Stress. I think um in the beginning, must for real, my husband had like three jobs. One thing about those, they they know how to work. Well then my husband had three jobs, but he let go of two. Um, and we just really just honed in and locked in and focused on him. Nothing else mattered. Um, we just kind of did the bare minimum, make sure we took care of business, handled priorities, and everything else was him. So now daddy's great. Daddy can walk in there and ask his son, you hungry? You eat, and he says, Eat, yeah, I'm hungry. So they are thriving, they are talking. He's much happier. Everybody's happier. When the child is talking and thriving, it's just everything's all right.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes, yes. And you're sleeping because for us sleeping, yes, yes, honestly, sleep has not been an issue for him specifically.

SPEAKER_02

I know sleep disruption can be a huge issue in kids with autism, but for him, it wasn't a huge issue. He's been sleep training since like six months, so he's always slept through the night unless you know, like he was sick or something, but it's still a plus. Yes, he's sleeping. He sleep through the night in his bed, yes.

Family Impact Plus Autism Support Levels

SPEAKER_01

In his bed, in his bed, yes. Oh, goodness. Lots of parents I meet, my goodness, the either the kids used to sleep and have gone backwards and don't sleep, and sleep in their bed, yeah, like they literally have to feel their parents touching them to sleep, they have to feel them at all times, or they wake up at the same time every night in the middle of the night, yeah. Right, and and that's such a huge pain point for parents. It's like, yeah, that's why I was asking about work because that affects your performance at work.

SPEAKER_02

There is no way you go to work and you I will let him sleep and I deal with it, I'll be up with the baby. I'm like, You sleep, you gotta go to work, I'll be up with him. All day I'm like, huh, right, right.

SPEAKER_01

So so I'm so thankful because the way we I call myself an adult pediatrician now because it is the whole family care, it's not just the child. Yes, your child affects your whole dynamic as a family. So if we can if and we tell parents whatever we tell you to feed your child, eat the same thing because you two need to be healthier, you two need to sleep better, you two need to clear out the constipation or whatever. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

I promise you, like a year ago, it was so stressful to have to fix two different meals. I'm like, Well, my son don't eat this, he only eats you know these four same safe foods every single day, but we don't eat that, so it would be so stressful. Um, trying to fix two different meals to compare as now this morning. I fixed everybody some sweet potato waffles, some scrambled eggs, some fruit. Everybody in the house ate the same thing and it was easy reasy.

SPEAKER_01

That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_02

Everybody ate the same thing with no problems. No, I don't want that pinky, nothing. He said he wanted, he was eating, he was ready to eat, he wanted his eggs. A year ago, that baby did not eat eggs. Today he asked for his eggs. Yeah, and that's why I tell parents imagine if you just focus on your child's nutrition. What if that was the missing key, the missing puzzle that makes your baby sleep throughout the night? Wouldn't that work wonders if you just focus on a nutrition? But he only eats that, or she oh hey, hey, they don't need that. Take it out. I bet you you start sleeping better. Which take it out, keep it out.

SPEAKER_01

See, because the gut and the brain are connected, connected.

SPEAKER_02

Whatever you do in your gut will help fix the if you are feeding something that they should not be eating and it is turning their gut upside down, they're gonna be up all night, and now you're mad.

SPEAKER_01

See, take it out because the brain and the gut makes melatonin. Not just the brain, the gut makes melatonin. So when you they're setting their tummy on fire, well, their brain is gonna be on fire. There you go, there goes your sleep, right? And it doesn't matter if you give them melatonin, too.

SPEAKER_02

That that's a short that's when I see when I see autism parents, you know, on TikTok most posting videos of who else's babies up in the middle of the night. I'm like, I could really help you. I promise you, we don't have to be like that, you don't have to accept it. I promise, I promise. I'm like, you do not have to keep waking up like that. Like, please just look into their food. But yes, if you don't know, you don't know until you know. So and that's why we're here.

SPEAKER_01

That's why we're here talking about this. So, what is one last thing you what if you if a parent sitting in front of you, what would you say to them right now? What's one last thing you can tell our parents?

SPEAKER_02

Um nutrition is everything, nutrition is medicine, functional tests such as oat tests, heavy metal, stool analysis, those functional tests can give you answers about your child's symptoms that nobody else can. Um yeah, testing gives you answers, nutrition is everything. And follow me on TikTok at DD Unders D405 underscore and follow my podcast, Angelic Healing with Didi.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's the name. Wonderful. Yes, we'll definitely have the links everywhere. So please follow her, she's amazing. And thank you so much again for coming. Thank you for inviting me.

SPEAKER_02

I always love talking with you about these things. It's so refreshing to find somebody to just talk with who understands and gifted. So thank you for inviting me.

Final Encouragement And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_01

My pleasure. We're so glad you reached out to us for the evaluation, and that's how we met. So yeah, pleasure. Yes, so I can't wait for you to get out in the world and start helping all these parents too. I know my gosh. Yeah, you'll be so wonderful at it. There's nothing like lived experience to boost what you're doing. So, yeah, we are so thankful to you, and yeah, thank you, parents, again, for watching. And if your child needs medical evaluations, if your child needs holistic care, we're here to help. So she's amazing. Thank you, thank you. Yes, all right. Well, that is it. Thank you for having me. Oh, what's the comment? I think there's a comment. Oh, it is what's a level two or level three? Oh, great, great question. So um that's that's pertaining to diagnosis. So when we do a medical evaluation of a child with autism, as a we're looking at the level of support the child needs. And what does support support means? Does this child need a smaller classroom? Does this child need one-on-one care? Does this child need occupational therapy, speech therapy, ABA therapy, which stands for applied behavior analysis therapy? That's a specialized therapy for children with autism. So when we do the medical evaluation, there's three levels of support we can assign to the child. And I like to love to stress this. The levels of support have nothing to do with who your child is or their trajectory in life. The fact that your child needs level two support today does not mean they will need level two support in a year. It's only is signaled and it's a message to the schools, it's a message to the therapists, it's a message to the insurance companies. Please let's surround this child with as much support as he can get now so that he can make the best, he can be the best version, he or she can be the best version of them. That's it. Absolutely, has nothing to do with will they be able to take care of themselves in 10 years because it's entirely possible for your child to take care of themselves in 10 years when you start early, you start early and make the changes that your child needs. So, yeah, I hope that answers your question. Thank you so much for asking. So, if there's no other questions, we will this has been fun. Look at this, we've you can just keep going. So, yeah, we're gonna do this again. We'll definitely have you back on and love to um keep sharing with our parents. So, parents have an amazing day, and remember you are valuable, you are loved, you are seen, you're the best parent for your child, and now you've heard it, you know it's all possible for your child to improve. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for having me. My pleasure. Take care, bye bye, everyone.