What a difference a year makes

So recently I was going through some old pictures and video on my computer and I came across some old video of Jackson on Christmas morning last year. It's video of him seeing the tree in the morning after Santa visited. Seeing his reaction to all the presents is something I like to record each year.

Anyway I was struck by the video proof of just how far he has come. Last year at Christmas Jackson was about 3.75 years old. He had been on the diet for about 5 months and we had not yet started supplements. It takes a few months to clear out all of the gluten from your body so Jackson was doing well at this point compared to where he started 5 months prior. Before he started the diet he did not speak in sentences, now here he is 5 months later and he is clearly speaking in sentences. BUT, his sentences in this video are all the same basically. You can see how he is very happy to see the presents but his mind gets stuck in a loop and he keeps repeating "can I open the presents please?" over and over. That repetitive speech is called Echolalia and is one of the symptoms of his autism. He makes slight glimpses of eye contact. He was totally unaware that it was Christmas before we came out to show him the tree. He didn't understand about Santa and before we came out to the tree he was getting dressed and getting his hair combed completely unaware of what waited for him in the living room. Here is the video.



Second video shows Jackson at this past Christmas, 12-25-2010. What a difference a year of Biomed makes. In this video he comes to wake us up on Christmas morning, before dawn, like any other kid. He defiantly understood about Santa this year and in fact actually helped make a letter to Santa to ask for what he wanted. This year he was anticipating Santa's visit. He was just as excited as last year about the presents but this year his mind was not stuck in that loop that it was last year. This year he was able to express the thoughts going through his head instead of just repeating the one sentence. He included us so much more and made better eye contact while opening up his new toys. This year he turned his head to make eye contact when his name was called, he was aware of so much more and so much more tuned into the world around him. This year he is doing so well compared to last year that I just had to share, I'm very proud of how far my little 1 pound 10oz. baby has come. Days like this where I get to see all the hard work pay off, are the days that keep me going.