Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John: How to Heal a Brain
This past January, I brought Johnny to his first appointment with Dr. Josh of Infinity Functional Neurology. We talked a bit and then Dr. Josh did an exam to check John's reflexes, balance, eye tracking, posture, coordination – all kinds of things that relate to nervous system function.
What Dr. Josh found was that Johnny's primitive reflexes, which he should have grown out of by a year old, were essentially the operating system his brain was using. This means that he would startle like an infant in response to external stimuli... like loud noises or large groups of people. How does an infant startle differently than a child or an adult? One example is this test: Dr. Josh had Johnny stand in front of him, back turned to him, and then he grabbed Johnny under the arms and pulled him backward abruptly. Instead of stretching his arms out behind him to catch his fall, Johnny's arms went up, as if someone had just leaped out from behind something and shouted "Boo!" After Dr. Josh explained this to me, it made so much sense why such a significant portion of Johnny's life was spent freaking out. It's like his brain was mis-calibrated. This was the underlying cause of traits that looked like Autism, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, and Restless Leg Syndrome.
How does something like this get fixed?
What needed to happen was to specifically engage and activate the parts of Johnny's brain that were stuck in primitive reflex mode, and then to get his body moving in certain ways that would exercise, strengthen, and develop those parts of the brain once they were engaged. Dr. Josh said that it usually takes about six months of therapy and rehab to get a brain connected, strong, and harmonious.
WHAT? SIX MONTHS? Was Dr. Josh telling me that my child, and our life, could be completely different in six months’ time? That everything we've been dealing with is not in fact a life sentence?
Yes he was. And here I am ugly crying about it again. Crying tears of relief because there was HOPE, and grieving for all that we had lost – for all Johnny had had to suffer.
So we began. Here's what it looked like:
Twice a month we would drive two hours to the clinic for a two hour appointment starting off with a chiropractic adjustment and then laser red-light therapy, playing games on the Neurosage while standing on a vibrating board to improve balance and coordination, eye-tracking exercises, and all kinds of midline-crossing exercises and games, and perhaps also some physical therapy.
At home we did therapy 5 days a week, and our routine is as follows:
Step one: activating his brain by engaging all his senses.
Johnny wore special glasses with blue lenses and blue flashing lights (from the Eyelights company).
We put a drop of peppermint essential oil on his tongue and under his nose.
We turned on Solfeggio frequencies (I downloaded an app for free on my phone and I adore it still – look up healing frequencies for a crazy fun adventure down the rabbit hole).
We spent some time running a little vibrating back massager up and down and across his body to engage the touch center of his brain and also to engage his vagal nerves.
Once we finished using the back massager, I attached a tens unit to him.
All of these sensory-engaging things were going while Johnny did his exercises, except the back massager.
Step two: doing exercises specific to the reflexes that needed to be integrated
There were four reflexes we had to work on:
Asymmetric Tonic Neck Reflex
Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex
Moro Reflex
Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex.
The exercises he did were lizards, cat/cow, starfish, and boat/superman.
Step three: engaging the vagus nerve
This was Johnny's favorite part, and for good reason.
He would lay on the floor and I would tuck him in with my fluffy blanket, then I'd hold the back massager on his belly for a few minutes, and then rotate through both sides of his collarbone and both ears. This stimulated his vagus nerve.
Step four: strengthening his core stability
We did the basics: bridges, supermans, side planks.
Step five: developing his eye tracking.
We played different games to help him practice focusing his eyes, both with an app as well as a piece of yarn and some beads.
Our at-home therapy routine took us about an hour every day. We did the exercises together, and I found that John was pretty coachable. He did struggle with the tens unit zapping him sometimes during some exercises, so I'd detach it when it was time to do them.
After about three months Dr. Josh did a reassessment, and Johnny graduated to a much less rigorous at-home therapy, and that was a GOOD day. These new exercises focused on vestibular and postural health, and we could get that done in about 15 minutes. His clinic visits also decreased to an hour. This felt amazing.
Finally at the end of July he graduated completely – his brain healthy, everything integrated. (Ahh, here we go, please pass the kleenex). What we get to work on now is normal little boy stuff: impulse control, boundaries, cause and effect. We've had to remind ourselves (and Johnny is good at reminding us, too) that we have to explain these things really positively and gently, because it's easy for us to see this very smart, very capable 8 year old boy and think "He should know this already!" And while he's now willing and able to have some really good, reflective conversations, and quick to understand, it's like his brain needs the same space that a 3 or 4 year old would need to connect the dots at first.
This is not to say that his behavior doesn't regress at times. It does, and it can be as taxing as it ever was, but this is not a stasis. He is growing in health, and so are we – learning how to communicate honestly and without shame, taking more time to explain how things work, finding ways to connect through intense feelings, and overall learning how to build a more supportive environment.
Johnny graduated from the clinic for good at the beginning of August, and the joy and relief we felt were strong, and still are, actually. I am so grateful.
All the steps in our journey from the beginning:
Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John: The Birth Story (so TMI and stuff)
Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John: Developing
Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John: A (Not) Brief History
Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John: The Dream
Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John: Light at the End of the Tunnel