The 7th of September 2005 was the day we realised with a crash that Nic had autism. He was a fretful, colicky baby from day one and we believe he regressed into autism through having painkillers and antibiotics at birth and also through breastmilk.

Nic received his official diagnosis the same week we attended the Treating Autism 2 day conference in 2007. We came away with the realisation that it isn't normal or acceptable for a child to sleep for 5 hours per night and to have up to 8 foul-smelling bowel movements per day!

We got stuck into treating Nic immediately, the interventions that have benefited Nic the most are dietary changes, running tests to see where Nic needed supporting and detoxing, cleaning up his environment and more. It wasn't as hard as it may sound!

We have had a lot of experience with autism as Nic has two cousins with the condition. We also believe Nic had a genetic predisposition to inflammatory conditions (one of his sisters has Bowel Disease). These 'coincidences' led us to dig deeper and look for reasons and answers. We have had Nic's genetic material examined and are about to have his RNA tested to see where we can support him further.

Nic is now 3 ½ and is not an easy responder but we have seen improvements in his sleeping, receptive language and bowels, and have started to hear the odd word or two!

I truly believe Treating Autism bring a message of hope to all people with autism who have health issues. You know what they say: 'A healthy child is a happy child'