We were very skeptical at trying this, considering the cost, so I really didn’t have high hopes going in.   I honestly did not think we were even going to get him in the chamber or get him to stay in long enough once he was in, but he’s doing beautifully and actually enjoys getting into his spaceship, much to my surprise.

My son is 3 ½ and was diagnosed with PDD-NOS around 2 years old.  We started biomed with him before we even received his diagnosis, first starting with fish oils and Vitamin E.   After seeing that these had increased his speech from non-existent to lots of babbling, I knew that biomed was something we needed to fully dive into.  Since we started, he has come a long way on so many different levels. 

We feel like we have a different child and are now truly beginning to see our child emerge.  Here are examples of some of the things we (and his teacher) has witnessed:

• He never really cared what we were doing, unless something caught his attention.  He would never just come to check on us to see what we were doing.  Now, he finds me to see what I am doing and will want to join in and help me.  If I am working on my laptop, he pulls up a chair. If I am vacuuming, he wants to help.
• After one week of dives, two times per day 1.5 hours each, his speech went from “help” to “help me please mommy”.  Now, he’s even opening the freezer himself and pointing to the blue chicken nuggets bag and saying, “more chicken nuggets please mommy”
• He’s making choices he never made before.  I can ask him what he wants to watch on TV.  Now he tells me.  “Wow wow wubbzy on TV please”  If I ask him what he wants to eat, he makes a choice.  If I ask him what DVD he wants, he chooses it.
• Prior, if we had asked him for a kiss, we would get one on RARE occasion.  Now when I ask, I get one almost every time.
• Waiting for the microwave to cook his nuggets used to be sheer torture which involved me holding him back from opening it up until they were done.  Now, he stands and patiently waits for the microwave to beep so he can take his food out.
• He’s engaging us constantly – having fun, laughing, starting conversations – which is so impressive.  and we’re understanding more of his words.  The gibberish is turning into real words we can actually comprehend and appropriately respond to instead of pretending to know what he means, when we really don’t.
• His eye contact is at a much higher level than it was before – he seeks us out constantly for attention.  A week after we started, his grandparents were visiting and he wanted people around him in the livingroom whether it was playing or watching TV.  He doesn’t want to spend long periods of time by himself anymore.
• He is beginning to be proud of himself.  He couldn’t wait to show people his “spaceship” (the chamber) – he was so proud of it.  This is not anything he’s ever done before.
• He is showing sympathy and is actually apologizing…. One example is when he threw a toy which hit a friend of ours in the foot causing him to say, ‘Ouch!’ – I told him to say, ‘I’m Sorry” – He turned to our friend and said, “Sorry Russ” – we were just blown away.  Not only did he get that he did something wrong, but he put the Ouch together with what he needed to be sorry for.   I never said “tell russ you’re sorry”
• He is definitely more “with it” and I feel like he is understanding what I am saying for the first time; even though I have had glimpses of this in the past.  If I say, wait here, mommy has to go wash her hands, he will HELP me open the gate between our dining room and kitchen and will wait for me to finish.  He seems like he is getting it now – and before, he was confused about what I said, what I was doing, etc.
• He seems more compliant, more cooperative – he just seems to go with the flow better.  I was not sure how this was going to work with doing hbot twice a day, and school in the afternoon, but he doesn’t fight getting into his spaceship twice a day; even if we wake him up earlier to do so.
• He also seems to be getting appropriately upset when told he can’t do something.  Just last night, Daddy raised his voice at him to stop doing something and he actually had tears in his eyes.  In the past, he would just keep doing what he was doing until we either physically stopped him or put him in his room for a while.
• He is becoming quite the jokester, he loves to initiate tickling or making funny faces and noises.  He would sometimes respond when you did it before, but now he’s doing it constantly and even initiating it.  He just loves to laugh.
• He loves to make train noises when he’s playing with his trains and car noises when he’s playing with cars – we can hear him being really animated and pretending with his trains/cars – he’s now making them talk to each other.
• He is really interacting with his peers in a way we’ve never seen before.  A few days ago, he was outside and our neighbor was out with his 4.5 year old son.  He brought him into the back yard and played “with” him – going into his playhouse, down the slide, etc.    It was amazing to see him interacting with another child in this way.  He also how plays trains “with” you.  When I had his train on the other side of the track, he was actually telling me which way to push the train, when to stop, etc.  This kind of play is totally new for him.
• He is starting to ask questions like “what’s this mommy?”  – up until now, we’ve never heard a question out of him at all.
• He is answering Yes/No questions with very little assistance.  “Do you want applesauce?   yes or no?”  to which he responds either yes, no, or what he wants instead.  We actually feel as though we are talking to him and he is understanding and talking back.  We’ve never witnessed him being conversational in this way before.   “I love you’s” are being followed with “I love you too mommy/daddy”
• I spoke to his teacher this passed weekend and she wanted to know what we were doing because, “The last three weeks have shocked us!” She said they all see a major difference in him.  She said that he is funny and they are really enjoying watching this delightful child emerge.  She said that when he first started school last October that they saw 5% of him and now she says she’s seeing at least 80% of him.  She says his temper tantrums have significantly reduced.  He is now imitating the other kids, clapping to the music, and choosing his own activities.  She said, “he’s getting it!”  Her feedback couldn’t have been more positive – and we were thrilled to hear it, as we had not told anyone at the school that we were contemplating hbot at all.
• Also, our son has a lot of food allergies/intolerances.  Prior to starting hbot, he was throwing up at almost every meal.  I thought he maybe had a stomach virus, but several weeks went by.  Then we started the hbot and he hasn’t thrown up since we started.
• Also, he is starting to take an interest in potty training which he never did before

For the first time in a long time, it feels as though he is with us doing what we need/want to do, not us running around him doing what he wants to do.  For once, I don’t feel like I have a son with autism that is ruling our lives and our house every minute of the day – it seems odd to say, but it just doesn’t hit us in the face every second of the day like it did in the past.  We are actually able to enjoy him now like never before and for that I am truly grateful.

From mid-May to mid-June, we completed 90 hours of mHBOT.