Roadmap

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Before we go further, we want to make one point very clear: always follow the unction of the Holy Spirit, your ‘gut’ feeling, on every direction you take or what to do when it comes to your child. YOU are your child’s best advocate and voice. Doctors and therapists certainly help, but no one knows your child like you. What we provide here is simply a guide based on our personal experience, but if you feel you want to handle something differently – go for it! Do not hesitate to contact us for our input. That is precisely what Pootie & Mae was created for-to help. We will call or email you back - directly, no question (or vent) to small, big, or great it can’ be handled - together. 

Step 1-Journal: Journal or write down exactly how you are feeling and what you are seeing: toe walking? No eye contact? Regressive or inconsistent language? Avoidance? Literally whatever it is that has you concerned in the first place you want to have written down. Not only so you can start getting in the habit of tracking this amazing journey you’re about to embark on; but also so you don’t forget anything and have a clear picture for when you go see a doctor. And even after, continue to journal your experience, you and your child will be happy you did in the future. 

Step 2-Appointment*: Make an appointment as soon as possible to see a doctor, specifically a developmental pediatrician. We made mistake of just going to our pediatrician and wasted precious time with guesstimates and ‘pre-screens’ like the MCHAT, when all that doctor will do is ultimately refer you to a developmental pediatrician. These appointments can take up to 6-months depending on where you live.

        *If you are NOT diagnosed at your initial appointment, but still have that gut feeling      something is up, do not leave that appointment without scheduling another in the next 3-6 months.

Step 3-Early Intervention: Contact your state’s early intervention organization. In Indiana, it is called ‘First Steps’ and every state has its own variation. This is a FREE resource that will start providing speech, occupational, physical, and developmental therapy to your child up until the age of three (3) years old. 

Step 1-Insurance: Contact your insurance company and find out, specifically, what their coverage is for autism to include ABA, speech, physical, and occupational therapy. Surprisingly, not many insurance companies offer quality coverage, in which case you can start researching who to switch to during your employer’s open enrollment period. 

Step 2-Therapy: Get enrolled in a local Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) center. This too can be a somewhat lengthy process, so you want to get the ball rolling. Many centers offer in-home or in-center therapy. We prefer in-center as it will start to familiarize them with other children and get them out of the house. You also want to ensure you get a center that offers their own speech and occupational therapy, or are okay with outside therapists coming into their center. 

Step 3-Medicaid Waiver: Enroll in your state’s Medicaid Waiver program. This is an excellent program that will help pay for your deductible costs and fees after insurance. This, regardless of how much money you make. So even if you aren’t on Medicaid, this program will help. It took us over a year to get Pootie & Mae into the program so that is why we encourage you to enroll right away. 

Step 4-Diet/Supplements: From a biomedical perspective, diet and supplements seem to do wonders for treating symptoms of autism: stimming, hyperactivity, not sleeping, etc. Attending to what we put into our child’s body makes a lot of sense, given that even us as adults, if we eat too much sugar or highly processed foods, we can have a strong reaction. Starting with a gluten and casein free diet is the first step. If you see an improvement then we highly recommend going down the road of adding supplements or trying some of the more intense diets like REID, Specific Carbohydrate, etc. Of all the diets all of them have some common themes: low carbohydrate (no rice, pasta, white bread), organic (non-GMO everything), and fermented foods (Manuka honey, probiotic, etc.) are the way to go no matter what! 

Step 5-Love: Simply put, you are going to love your child through this, and they are going to love you right back. Keep your relationship with Christ strong and He will give you the ability to love and do more than you could ever do on your own. He must be the center of everything. God is love. 

You will go down ‘rabbit-holes’ of your own research, and that’s okay, we believe nothing beats a miss but a try. Just remember that your family’s happiness and loving your child come first. Don’t compromise these things by trying something you’ve read/heard was ‘the thing’ to do. Don’t stress yourself out, this is a marathon not a sprint. God is God and we are not, so just show up every day ready to love.