When my son was 9, I finally had the opportunity to meet a DAN doctor. Within 24 hours, my household was completely gfcf. Yes, the withdrawal period was very difficult, but good things happened. Within 72 hours, the horrible gastrointestinal problems that plagued my son stopped and never returned. Within 72 hours, my son yawned, said he was sleepy, and put himself to bed. Seven years of nightmares began to end. And 13 days into gfcf, my son announced that his brain had "gone quiet", and he smiled.

Now I was fired up. I knew, I had proof, that real treatment was possible. It wasn't easy, but I found a doctor willing to consider heavy metal poisoning. My son began chelation with dmsa. At the end of the first month, I realized that he had not experienced a single meltdown (out of the blue tantrum). And amazingly, he was asking when he could have more of the "smart pills". He said his headaches were going away and his brain was working better.

Further fired up, I researched everything I could find on biomedical treament not only for "autism" (a misnomer), but also for environmental illness. We switched to safer products and foods, began using a sauna, further supplemented with antioxidents, and everything else we could think of. I say "we" because now my son was actively participating in his recovery. Treament with DMSA and ALA continued for 2 years. Since then, we continue to supplement with nutrients that support natural chelation.

Now our focus turned to making up for lost time. For coordination, my son began karate, which he continues 6 years later with a room full of tournament trophies. For education, he switched to a small, private school, where he was accepted in mainstream classes and allowed to test orally to compensate for poor handwriting. Later, he added summer programs in his areas of interest and began weight lifting.

He is now 16 and healthy. He has a 3.75 grade average and was elected student assembly vice president. He is popular and dates. He walks with his head high, but always aware of others who need a hand or a kind word. In April 2007, 7 years into biomedical treatment, after 4 sessions of interviews and testing, he formally lost his pdd diagnosis. "Well adjusted." "Articulate." "Intelligent." He does have a dyslexia dx, but we can live with that!

This and other stories of recovery can be found on the Testimonials page at Generation Rescue.