About

Beat The Spectrum is a company of parents and professionals with a vital mission.

Our main goal is to open doors for many families to alternative medicine, bio medical treatments for kids with neurological disorders, such as gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, which are amongst the most common medical conditions associated with autism spectrum disorder, sensory proceeding disorder and ADHD. These issues range from chronic constipation, diarrhea, colics, acid reflux to irritable and inflammatory bowel conditions.

There has been a strong correlation found between GI symptoms and autism severity in children, proven by research. Healthcare professionals identify GI issues as one of the symptoms associated with autism. Some of the outcomes children, who experience sensitivity to foods, will experience symptoms of an extreme pain, discomfort, as well as acting out, become irritable or even withdrawn. Furthermore, such symptoms will cause inability to sleep through the night, sleep deprivation, and continues tantrums.

New evidences associating autistic regression with a pattern of immune dysfunction, brain changes, repetitive behaviors and GI issues have been found by researchers.

Hippocrates once said that “all diseases begin in the gut” and we can’t agree more with this. A healthy and balanced diet can help many supplements do their job even faster and better. Our main goal is to continue developing and exploring the most effective products for children with special needs and those suffering from environmental illnesses.

You have our full commitment that we will provide all necessary information regarding the high quality of the products specifically designed for sensitive people who seldom tolerate supplements easily. Our commitment is that all of the products are made in the United States of America, carefully tried and delivered in small batches to ensure freshness, and best quality, that we chose to use on ourselves and our children, prior to suggesting them to you.

You will receive the latest and updated information regarding the most effective treatments such as ABA, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and massage therapy. You will be able to browse, receive and share strategies, tools and homework that our community identified as effective in boosting our kids speech, reinforcing self-help skills, solutions for picky eaters, exercise and tools for kids with sensory issues and low muscle tone or hyper tonicity in kids.

Bio medical treatment was the first step in the recovery journey we took with our children in order to improve health related issues that created a significant barrier for learning and comprehending information on the daily basis. It quickly became obvious, that children were unable to develop, learn and comprehend information while they were constantly chronically constipated, sleep deprived, and suffering from the reflux.

Our passion is to improve the well being of our future generation, generate love and support, make it achievable and affordable for all parents to provide the most effective and necessary treatments to their children while sharing valuable resources, tips and strategies that we took in order to be where we are right now.

We believe that every single child deserves to receive maximum help and it doesn’t matter if she is coming for the poor or rich family! Knowledge is a power and if you are highly motivated parent who wants to help your kid to improve and succeed, this website is for you! Join our team so together we Can Beat the Spectrum and inspire others with our successful stories!!!

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Story of Akiva

We were the happiest parents in the World when our first-born son Akiva entered our realm. Within the first few hours our doctor announced that Akiva has to be put on antibiotics to protect him from possible pneumonia, due the way he was breathing. Doctors did the lab test, but didn’t want to wait for the results and started their treatment right away and placed him in NICU. We tried our best to convince the doctors to wait for test results in order to determine if in fact Akiva has a pneumonia, but our reasoning were ignored. Once they received the lab results, it occurred that they were negative and he didn’t have any pneumonia, but he received the antibiotic treatment any way. I remember when the nurse told us “I do not know why they want to keep him here, he seems so healthy. He is crying so hard when he is hungry, has very good appetite and very active.” I spent every day in NICU and tried my best to breastfeed him, I remember it was a battle as well, because for some reason doctors didn’t want me to breastfeed him, especially first 2 days, because they didn’t want him to work hard, because of the possible pneumonia and breathing issues. This is how we spent our first 4 days in the hospital and then after a long fight we healthcare professionals who couldn’t find any arguments regarding why he has to stay longer, because all of the results were negative for pneumonia and most likely he just swallowed some amniotic fluid during the delivery, that why it caused some breathing issues. That was the beginning of our nightmare!

We arrived home! It was so relieving and we were looking forward to our parenthood! Akiva woke up every 2 hours, screaming out of his lung and I always thought he was hungry, but he wouldn’t eat. Next day I made an appointment to our pediatrician and she told us that he has colic’s and its totally fine, because its not unusual for boys and it will go away once he is older, but once he was getting older his digestive issues were more severe. He was suffering from colics, every single day, for the first four months, then he developed reflux, was vomiting and spiting out the food, he had poor appetite, was losing weight and didn’t sleep through the night. When he was about 8 month old he started to suffer from chronic constipation. We were exhausted every day of our life and our pediatrician couldn’t offer any solutions that would help us.

We started to notice that he stopped making any sounds and didn’t babble, when he was 9 month old. As Akiva turned 15 months, we started to notice some strange behavior like he could play for hours with the plastic plate and wasn’t interested in other toys, he didn’t want to interact much with us and would tantrum every time we tried to change his routine or take his favorite plate from him in order to replace it with a toy, also he didn’t use any gesture to communicate, didn’t point and didn’t talk and didn’t babble , he would use my hand as a tool if he would need something, without verbal communication.

In addition to the strange behavior, we noticed that Akiva had a poor eye contact and didn’t react when we called him by his name. Every time we went outside for a walk he had to take the same roads or he would have a meltdown, if we would change it. When we were at the playground, he was only interested in “sprinkles” and didn’t interact with kids or even looked at them. He also was sensitive to different noises like vacuum cleaners and blender, he couldn’t tolerate even a drop of water on his shirt, we had to change it right away, haircut was impossible, he would throw the tantrum in hair salon. He repetitively switched the light off and on at home, was obsessed with fans and wheels.

When he turned 18 month, we became extremely concerned with his physical health, development and our doctor suggested to evaluate him.

After assessing our son, a specialist made the diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder. He had severe receptive and expressive language, was unable to follow directions, inattentive, clumsy, had low muscle tone, fine motor delay and apraxia on top of it! Our doctor’s prognosis was that he might remain non-verbal, having some sort of mental retardation and end up in special education program.

That day had become the most fearful and tearful day in our life. We didn’t know what to do, where to go or how to even comprehend this news. I was overwhelmed by the most negative thoughts in my mind and just couldn’t overcome it, so I started to analyze what could possibly lead us to this diagnoses, even though I was told he was born this way, but later I found that it could be triggered by physical factor.

I went over his medical records and obviously the history of his GI issues were part of his life and I started to do some intensive research online and I found hundreds, if not thousands like me in different blogs and media sources, discussing the same problems. I found various protocols that successfully worked for other kids, all the information about gluten free, dairy free diet and low carb diet. I made an appointment with the nutritionist next day and she suggested to do several lab tests to identify if Akiva was vitamin/mineral deficient, iron deficient, or had candida overgrowth. We did all the test and found out that he had yeast infection that wasn’t detected by previous pediatrician and left untreated, he was iron deficient and was vitamin/ mineral deficient, actually nutritionist was surprised that after antibiotic treatment, our doctor never suggested to check his gut flora, because according to the gut bacteria test results, he had yeast overgrowth and she told me that antibiotics can cause bowels to become more porous and it can cause various of issues. In addition it can change the gut micro biome, so she prescribed Nystatin for 10 days, probiotics and we had to follow the diet and started supplementing him, by adding a new supplement every 3 days, gradually. We couldn’t follow up with the nutritionist, because it was too expensive and at some point we had to create the biomedical journey by ourselves.

It took a while to receive all the services and it was suggested that he needs to be in special educational preschool. We were not happy with the plan and didn’t accept the help that was offered to us by the regional center, but again, it was our experience, yours might be different. I was already inspired enough to try bio medical treatment and didn’t care much about the services.

What happened next was a first miracle, after a week of following our “Action list”, removing all the gluten, dairy and sugar with the support of supplements. As a result, Akiva’s meltdowns reduced from 5 per day to 1, he stops obsessively and repetitively switching the lights and started finally looking at me, after a month he stopped constipating, his meltdowns were gone, he started to sleep through the night and woke up being happy!

We hired an amazing speech therapist, which saw him and told us that she didn’t think he was autistic, because he was so compliant and engaged!

The day we started our biomedical journey was the day our son was born again. He started to achieve his milestones.

When he turned 2 he started to communicating with us, using some sounds and looking at us.

I also did some homework with him and followed our speech therapists instructions, which included lot of learning through play.

Activity and finally I saw him engaged, interested, and curious. He was opened for new ideas, shopping became fun and we were able to visit all kinds of places.

When he turned 3 I asked one of the developmental specialist if she was suggesting to him ABA, but she replied to me that its beneficial, but not necessary, because his issues are not severe!!! He was fully potty trained and used single words for communication, at 3.5 he was able to drive his bike and scooter and he started to draw beautiful pictures using all kinds of drawing tools and didn’t care about getting dirty as much. He would come to me with the big hug and a lot of kisses, he started to imitate and look at other kids.

When he turned 4 he started to use sentences for communication, express his needs clearly and his pragmatic speech was improving dramatically. He would say “Mommy, look at this big moon, this is so cool”.

Right now he is 5 year old boy, who is fully verbal, and bilingual! His self-help skills are at the same level with his peers! He is very interactive and asks tons of questions, mastering in visual art, science, and math. He attends general education in public school. His condition already improved by % 80. His behavior continues improving dramatically, he already has friends in school and constantly asks them for a play date . He is deeply attached to his younger brother and watches him in the parks and starts to worry about him, when he runs away. I still can’t believe it! The main thing he needs to work on right now is to pay attention to the surroundings.

As I continue chatting with other parents and to researching, it has become clear to me that autism spectrum disorder in many cases is related to the immune system and GI issues.

I am blessed with what is happening with my son right now and am happy to help with all the possible information to other parents!

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Health conditions that are common in kids with ASD, ADHD, SPD and ADD

Gastro-intestinal Disorders

According our research and studies children with autism have digestive ranging from mild to moderate issues such as chronic constipation, diarrhea, leaky gut syndrome, dysbacteriosis. According the “Journal of Medical Microbiology “ 91.4% of 58 autistic children studied had a GI disorder, also both human and animal studies have shown that even a one-time antibiotic treatment can lead to long-term disbalance in microbial populations, so If your child has any digestive issues symptoms such as chronic or recurrent abdominal pain,colics, reflux, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation or food intolerance/ sensitivities, we would suggest you to take your child to gastroenterologist and nutritionist.

Neuroinflammation and immune issues.

Several studies find that some ASD children have low immunoglobulins , predisposition to respiratory and GI infections as well as autoimmunity and cytokine profiles have been linked to ASD as well. Some individuals with ASD shows an active inflammation in the central nervous system, sensitivity to environmental toxicants. Certain autoimmune issues can obviously impact behavior and its important to
Request an immune evaluation for immunodeficiency.

Sensory issues are often observed in kids with autism and Several studies have reported associated motor problems that include low or high muscle tone, toe walking, under sensitivity or over sensitivity to touch, smell, sound, taste, movement and also have trouble sitting still and pay attention.

Low blood sugar levels

Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in some occasions can mimic and trigger the symptoms of ADHD and asd. Hypoglycemia in children may cause aggression, hyperactivity, the inability to sit still, and the inability to concentrate, nervousness. If child has Hypoglycemia, its important to focus his diet on high- protein, high – fiber food and avoid refined sugar, sweet and high –starch food and additives.

Allergies – allergic reaction or sensitivities to chemicals, preservatives, processed food,synthetic dyes, sensitivity to gluten.

Heavy Metal Toxicity Overload – The role of environmental factors is vital. Pesticides, lead, mercury are just a few of the toxins that permeate in our everyday life. It is beneficial to check the child for heavy metal and if necessary follow some chelation protocol and discuss it with the doctor.

Hearing and Vision Problems – It is important to check the child’s vision and hearing in order to avoid wrong diagnoses, because it might effect the way how child develops, causing behavioral and attention issues.

Hypothyroidism -The role of endocrine system is important. Autism and hypothyroidism are two such diseases becoming epidemic these days. Thyroid hormone is responsible for the energy production, metabolism of every cell in the body, including the brain, can cause mood disorders and concentration issues. Routine blood tests is recommended in order to determine any thyroid imbalance.

Anemia – is a condition that affects red blood cells , some kids, especially those one who is picky eater needs to be checked for iron deficiency. Approximately 30% of children with autism aged 4 -10 years are reported to have a low intake of iron.

Sleep Issues – Adhd kids and kids with autism more tender to have sleep issues. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, moderate sleep deprivation, even losing less than one hour per night of sleep — can affect the academic performance of children , cause behavioral issues. Proper routine, enough physical activities and diet is recommended.

Parasites – can cause intestinal and behavioral issues. It is recommended to check your child for parasites and follow proper treatment if necessary.

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Referrals

http://www.communityed.ca/docs/booklists/autism.pdf
https://www.knowyourgenetics.com/media/pdf/Simplified%20Protocol.pdf
http://www.autism.com/symptoms_immune
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-wealth/201307/food-inflammation-and-autism-is-there-link
http://www.autismfile.com/science-research/the-autism-and-allergy-overlap