8/7/08 I am new to this site and haven't navigated around much but I was a little surprised that there were no posts in the Oral Chelation category. I would like to share some info about a product that has done WONDERS for my little girl who is almost 22 months, but I'd like to also share a little background. I knew my daughter was different early on. NO eye contact, very little interaction, but the worst came just after she turned one. She stopped with the only 3 words she knew (mama dada and baba) and her babble stopped COMPLETELY (irronically, her eye contact improved at this time, a mystery to me). She started spinning, lining her toys, hand flapping, teeth grinding more than before, doing her "eye thing"as I call it, and generally displaying all the classic signs. My nephew is/was autistic (early intense intervention did wonders and now at age 8 you'd never know) so I knew my daughter was autistic. It took a long time for my husband to come to grips with it. He wouldn't deny it, but he wouldn't except it until he actually read the signs of autism and realized my daughter matched 12 out of the 14 characteristics on the list he was reading. My family has been very supportive and see what she is going through (husbands family is in denial, but also live 1300 miles away and have only visited a few times). I have done a lot of reading and research on the topic (as virtually all parents in this situation do) and I came across a product called Kids Chelat, heavy metal chelator, on the website www.evenbetternow.com. As a mom, I've learned you MUST follow your instincts. They are there for a reason. If I HAD done that before, my daughter would have never been vaccinated, but you figure "I'm not a doctor, I should follow what they say." I believe her 12 months shots as well as the damn flu shot they talked me into did the most damage. Because I felt this, I figured this would be a good product to try. I tried it this past May for about a week and she started to say dada again! 7 months with nothing, you can imagine how excited Dada was!(but I couldn't help but be a little jealous, lol) I was equally excited, but she didn't seem to understand "who" dada was. It was only babble, but I was excited none-the-less). My daughter began to be very fussy and stopped eating (not knowing why I stopped the chelation just in case). After about a 5-6 week stretch she was less cranky and her appetite came back. It's hard to know with toddlers what is what, but I came to find out all that was because of a HUGE growth spurt (my daugher is in the 95th percentile) and teething . I started her back on the Chelation July 5th and I regret I ever stopped giving it to her in the first place! She has excelled in SO MANY WAYS!! Every single day she gets better. I cry tears of joy now instead of sadness (which happened ALOT). She started babbling after just a few days and began saying mama! She went from no babbling, to babbling all day with different sounds (yay!) and now says ma and dada regularly. She asks for her baba from time to time waves bye bye without any prompting, said "Lion" and "roar", replied "YUM!" to some icecream cake and just recently said "all done" when she was finished with her lunch! She is so much more alert and looks at everything (including herself in the mirror) with new curiosity and wonder! She has even been able to show me where her "toes" are (no gesturing yet, but she raised her foot and wiggled her toes!) She is a far cry from overcoming her difficulties, but I am SO impressed with this product that I just had to share. Not that it would work with everyone, we all know how different our children are, but this product was inexpensive and is colorless, odorless and tastless and I just use 5 drops in her drink daily (though the first 2 weeks I only used 2). She was more tired than usual for the first couple of weeks, but other than that I haven't noticed any side effects (except her poop being black, but that just shows me that its been working). She is starting to know "who" dada and mama are. The concept of "where" has been difficult to teach her, but she is starting to understand that concept as well! Yesterday I watched her make faces at herself in the mirror and stick out her tongue! Only parents like me can really appreciate those small things :) and just know how really huge they are. She can now blow a flute and blow bubbles (and understand the word "blow") She has said "hot" a couple of times, once while her bath was being filled up! She has shown more "copying" behaviors (wanting to do what I'm doing). She is starting to follow direction and actually understand me and instead of just crying and me having to figure out what she wants, she has started to try to show me what she wants! All I can say is that for my daughter, this product is a miracle. She laughs so much more now, an honest, genuine laugh. And she LOOKS at me, right in the eyes and for once there is a connection there. Oh, and she has also FINALLY gotten "stranger anxiety". NEVER before did she know the difference between a stranger or a loved one. She would go to ANYONE and want to be picked up, true strangers that I didn't even know. Now she looks to me to tell her if the person is ok to go to and if she is with someone she doesn't know and I'm not in her direct line of view, she freaks out. Also her autistic behaviors have decreased dramatically. She still lines up her toys, but when she is spinning I am able to redirect her and get her interested in something else. Teeth grinding has stopped completey and only hand flapping when she is really excited about something. She still does her "eye thing" from time to time but much less frequently. Every day is a new adventure. I feel very confident that she will be one of the cases that "turns it around". I didn't follow my instincts originally (a regret I will always have) but I will never make that mistake again. I just can't believe the difference in just one month!!! No one can EVER tell me that it's all a coincidence. Chelation works. At least it does with my little girl.