About Babies

From Despair to Hope:
 Our family’s journey with an autistic child
Final Entry
By Sheri Hunt

Haidyn Hunt

Shortly after we placed Haidyn in school, I began to feel like Haidyn was sinking deeper into autism. He was becoming a picky eater and smelled everything. He would eat only yogurt, goldfish, chips, pizza and chicken nuggets. His eye contact began to get worse and he was flapping his hands all the time. Haidyn had no fear and had a high tolerance for pain. He would climb our kitchen cabinets and then jump off onto the tile floor. One day I heard Haidyn laughing in his room and went to see what he was doing and found him playing in a pile of broken glass. Thankfully he only received a few scratches but I constantly lived in fear of what Haidyn would do next. One evening after church we were talking to some friends and the pastor’s wife came over and informed us that Haidyn was running up and down the hall naked. What were we going to do?

Thankfully, about that time, God provided us the money to meet with Kay, the Neurodevelopmentalist. She has been working with special needs children for over twenty-five years. At our first appointment, Kay watched Haidyn play and tried to interact with him. She asked questions about his hearing, eating habits, and checked his eyes. We learned so much about autism and how it is affecting Haidyn.

She informed us that all children that are labeled autistic have sensory issues. To help overcome the sensory challenges Haidyn faces, Kay designed an individualized program that we were to do with him every day. She encouraged us to be consistent with his program and we would see changes.

We worked on his vision to help him use his central vision rather than peripheral. This would stop him from spinning, twirling and stimming.

She also noticed he was sensitive to a lot of noises. She explained that autistic children can learn to not hear certain sounds because they cause pain or distress even when the source of pain is gone. She encouraged us to start a program called Samonas sound therapy which provides a slight massage to certain areas in the middle ear that helps open the system to sounds that were previously shut out or never accessed. Not only would this help his hearing but also speech and language problems.

To help with Haidyn's picky eating habits, she introduced us to Chembalance. On this program smells and tastes are tested and the response helps to estimate the need for specific nutrients.

Kay supplied us with several deep pressure exercises for Haidyn’s high tolerance for pain, and a two week behavior program dealing with positive commands with positive or negative consequences.

To deal with Haidyn’s food allergies, we were encouraged to research the Gaps diet which supports digestive healing.

After meeting with Kay, we had a long list of exercises and plenty of information to research. She insists that we kept in contact at least once a month. At the end of our meeting, Kay gave us a hug and prayed with us before we left.

We meet with Kay every six months and have Haidyn re-evaluated. Sometimes we need to change Haidyn’s individualized program with new exercises and more research.

We are now homeschooling both of our boys and every day I work with Haidyn at home. My day begins in prayer for wisdom, guidance and strength; and God is very faithful because each day is different. Some days we see big changes, other days small changes.

We thank God every day because He has filled our hearts with hope.

Brother Dyson and Haidyn
 

Larry Hunt cuddling with Haidyn