Care4autism

The Initial diagnosis Our son was diagnosed with autism as early as 18 months.Our first concerns were his lack of speech, and social skills.The pediatrician expressed his concern but did not push it futher, more so because we are a multilingual family in that we speak 4 languages at home.In our subsequent visit he sounded the first warning bell.We followed it up by a hearing test. The test confirmed his hearing was normal. We were then referred to a psychologist and then began our journey .We had already started reading up on some material on the Internet on autism.Call it coincidence.I used to take him to a playgroup, where one of the mothers was a pediatrician again.I expressed my concern. Luckily for me,she observed him for an hour in natural settings. She called me up and asked me if I heard of the word autism. All of a sudden things were moving too fast. We were in the United Sates at that point of time.We had never heard of this problem back home. We got a se...

For the ignorant, ICH stands for Indian coffee house. Started by the coffee board of India, it is a chain of restaurants, spread across India. Much before the advent of Baristas and Café coffee Days’, people would sit over a cup of coffee here. My husband is in a transferable job. After we moved to Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, (central India) we rediscovered ICH. ICH is a no frills place, but for the frilled turbans of the waiters who are dressed in white uniforms. Sometimes the waiter takes his own sweet time to present the bill and so we just walk up to the counter and pay the bill. It is generally bustling on Sunday afternoons with the holiday crowd, but we manage a table for ourselves. My son relishes his two plates of Sāmbhar vada and washes it down with a glass of strawberry tea from café coffee day, a one km drive from ICH. ICH has been a blessing to us in many ways. He continues with his GFCF diet, he has a place to eat out. Since the ambience isn’t too classy or formal he gets ...

Bonda is a typical south Indian snack. It is basically cooked potatoes in a coating of chickpea flour. One can also use water chestnut flour (Singhada atta) for this purpose. Also refer singhada pooris in an earlier post. One needs boiled potatoes, 2 in number, finely chopped coriander leaves, curry leaves ginger, 1small onion and I small tomato. Take 2 tablespoon oil, add jeera (cumin), let it sizzle, and then fry onion till translucent, add ginger and tomato Add salt, chili powder and coriander powder to this. Add the cooked potatoes. When cooked, garnish with coriander leaves. Make a batter of chickpea flour. For this, take a cup of chickpea flour. Add salt, chili powder, asafetida, coriander powder and water to make a smooth batter. Make a ball of the potato filling and roll it in the batter to give it a coating. Deep fry in oil. One can add shelled peas, to the filling. Serve hot with chutney

Recently, I had been to a bookshop to buy some books for my daughter. Eventually I picked four books for both my children. As I presented the books for billing, the lady at the counter, seemed more like an apprentice to me, went about her work diligently. She wrote out the titles and their costs. She then pulled out another piece of paper and started to calculate the total. This is what she had to total. (30+30+30+45).She had to redo it a second time and unable to do it she then pulled out a calculator. I prompted her, the answer. (More out of habit).After having got her answer, she entered the “totel” with a flourish on the bill. The incident made me think. This is just not about her, but many people who rely heavily on technology. Here was this lady in her late twenties/early thirties, “normal” in all aspects struggling with a class 1 addition problem. I am badgering my 8 year old autistic son with addition and multiplication every day. It might be a simpler solution to teach him to ...

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change; courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference." I read this on the net put up by another parent, and found it most appropriate for our lives.

To make sago kichdi ,you need, sago -1 cup, ¾ th cup groundnut, roasted and peeled , 1Large potato,   cooked, peeled ,diced, 2 Tbsp sugar and salt to taste. Rinse and soak sago in enough water (just to cover sago) overnight. Gently mix in roughly ground peanuts, sugar and salt to taste and keep it aside. Now heat oil in a pan and add jeera and curry leaves .When jeera (cumin) starts to sizzle add slit green chilies and diced potatoes and sauté for few minutes till potatoes turn light golden. Mix in seasoned sago and stir gently for about 5-7 mins. Cook for another couple of minute. Serve hot garnished with finely chopped coriander leaves and enjoy. A blogger has described it as “as a medley of sago pearls tempered with peanuts and spices”.   Eloquent words. Surprisingly this is had by people more so on fasts on various auspicious days, not as a staple breakfast dish.

Poha  is made with flattened rice, again a Maharashtrian dish. Ingredients 2 cups poha ,1tsp mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chilies slit vertically,1 large sliced potato, a handful unsalted peanuts,1 medium onion, a pinch of turmeric, lime juice-2tsps,salt to taste. Wash the poha under running water, and soak it for 5-10 minutes depending on the poha used. The soaking time will vary. Take oil, heat it and add mustard, curry leaves, chilies and onion. Then add peanuts, potatoes and fry till cooked. Drain the water from the poha and add to this. Let it cook. Remove from fir add the lime juice Garnish with green coriander leaves. Serve with mint chutney.

Ven Pongal is a south Indian dish, made with rice. The ingredients are I cup raw rice,1/3 cup split yellow moong dal, cashew nuts broken 1 tbsp, 1tsp jeera, 1tsp black pepper, curry leaves,1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger, salt,1/2tsp asafoetida, 4-5 cups water . Wash the rice and dal mixture. Add salt and water. Cook in a rice cooker.Fry the jeera, (cumin) cashew, and curry leaves black pepper in ghee. The dal can be lightly fried before adding it to the rice. Serve with sambahr and chutney.

This is a typical Maharashtrian snack. Kothimbir is cilantro and this recipe has tons for it. I went for this recipe because cilantro has chelating properties. The more the merrier. You need 2 bunches (fairly big) cilantro 11/2 glass besan (chickpea flour) ¼ tsp baking soda 1/2tsp Jaggery/molasses 2TBSP tice flour to make the wadis crisp 1/ 4tsp tamarind paste Green chillies-2 Salt to taste oil seasame seeds for garnishing Mix all the ingredients into a batter like consistency and keep in the cooker. Steam it for 15-20 min without a whistle as in the case of idli.(   Check GFCF breakfasts). Insert a toothpick and if it leaves no residue on the stick remove from the cooker .leave it to cool and cut it into small squares. Deep fry and relish with sauce or chutney

Recently Harish was down with flu and was refusing to take solids. The collection of soup recipes I had come in very handy. Many a times as with children on the GFCF diet one cannot offer them any beverage for that matter. Some do give soy milk.I have not tried it.The last 2-3 days he had soups and idlis. Please check GFCF breakfasts for idlis. Idlis is steamed food and hence safe and healthy. Now on to the soups. Dal-vegetable soup: Take one tablespoon each of dhuli masoor and moong dal. (De-skinned and split red lentil and yellow lentils)Add vegetables such as shredded cabbage 100g, beans 2-3 in number, carrot-1 and pressure cook. Add salt, pepper, oregano and serve. My son loves the flavor of oregano. Tomato soup: Tomatoes-2 in number, 1carrot small-medium size, 1 inch beetroot for the color, salt pepper, mint leaves for garnishing. Boil the vegetables. Make a puree of it and filter it. Serve hot. It is ideal to use the seeded (desi/organic) variety as it has a better flavor. Add ...

I know of nobody who is purely Autistic or purely neurotypical. Even God had some Autistic moments, which is why the planets all spin."  ~ Jerry Newport   Jerry Newport, 58, grew up in Islip, NY. Diagnosed with Asperger’s in 1995, he has a BA in mathematics from the University of Michigan. His life was the basis of the 2005 movie Mozart and the whale.

Recently we met a super specialist, doing doctoral thesis on autism. Widely travelled and well read on the subject of Autism, he narrated the incident of a father with a mentally challenged child. The father himself a well educated man, was advised by a saint to take his son to a holy river, to take a dip   once a year, on a particular day and time for 18 years to cure him of his mental retardation. Preposterous is what most of you would have to say. Count me in. He then asked my husband would you? He said yes. I was shocked. After all he was the non conformist, with three masters to boast. He then said Yes, I would, as a father, if it would help. When faced with a challenge of the magnitude as autism, we want to leave no stone unturned, there isn’t much to lose anyway. But what if and that if is a very big question, should the child turn around. It is this weakness many quacks in various forms sometimes as herbal practitioners and babas exploit. Why for that matter there are so many h...

In my earlier posts on breakfast I had written about idli, dosa and upama. Here are some more options Uthapam : The idli dosa batter after 2-days     begins to get a little sour. This is basically a receipe for leftover batter. Add finely sliced onions, tomato, coriander leaves, and green chilli (optional) to it. Pour the batter with a spoon into a girdle with a curved base. Pour a tablespoon of canola/refined vegetable oil around the edges. It is similar to a dosa but much thicker. Let it cook on low flame, cover the girdle.Once cooked on one side flip it over and let cook on the other side. One can also garnish it with onion over and above the onion already in the batter. Serve with chutney Ada : raw rice -2cups urad dal-1/4 th cup   arhar/toor/yellow lentils-3/4 cup Soak the above for3-4 hrs. Grind coarsely. While grinding add the required quantity salt, curry leaves, asafetida maybe 1 tsp, red chilies. It is preferable to use powdered hing/ Asafetida as the solid one...

Ragi biscuits Ragi flour 2 cups powdered sugar-1cup ghee-1 cup cardamom powder-tsp Baking powder -1tsp Roast   t he ragi   flour, so that it does not leave a muddy taste   in the mouth. Take care to see it does not burn. Sometimes you also get roasted ragi flour. Add the other ingredients to the dough. Make small balls and leave enough space between these in the cookie sheet. Slightly flatten them with the back of a spoon before starting to bake. Bake at 180c for 20-25 min. Ragi is used extensively in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka it is eaten as ragi mudde. It is made by boiling raagi in water, and letting the water to condense. It is made into balls and had with sambhar .Please check my previous posts for more on finger millet paratha/Indian bread and ragi laddus/sweet balls

  Laddu is a traditional Indian sweet ball made from flours. In this case we shall be using GFCF flours such as chick pea, finger millet, GFCF sooji. Substitute butter with ghee (clarified butter). I use homemade ghee for Harish, in which I skim the top part and leave the residue. The residue has brown sediment like particles which is casein. Chick pea/besan laddus 2 cups chickpea flour 11/2 cups sugar 1 cup ghee   in a heavy bottom vessel fry ghee and besan. Stir continuously so that lumps are not formed. Remove and add sugar. Mix it well. Make balls by rolling the mix with your fingers. Raava   laddu. Repeat the same process with sooji of sunira foods. It might be a good idea to run it in a mixer, as sooji is coarse. One can add finely grated nuts. Usually milk is added in the final mixing I have added water.   As an afterthought I felt I could have added almond milk/coconut milk. After the laddu has taken it‘s shape roll it in dry coconut powder so it has a coco ...

They say man proposes and God disposes, today Mom proposed and Pop disposed. The new recipe was meant for Hari but he expected something else and so did not even try. Chicken Rolls. He just did not want to even give it a try. No point pushing it, we will reintroduce it later in a different way. For today his pop had to relish the new dish. Collataral advantage. It was yummy and am sure if introduced when he is really hungry, maybe as some evening snack, he will love it. Many a times we have had great expectations and after lot of effort it would be frustrating to see him not eat it. Not anymore. Now we laugh it out and decide to modify the setting, display, taste or whatever and try again. So its got to be another day. For today, thanks son, I loved it!

The basic kati rolls begins with paratha ,toasted on a tava. The kati roll is similar to a Frankie. Whipped egg is poured on the hot girddle and the bread, as in this case the     paratha is placed on it. The stuffing is placed in the centre. For vegetarians it could be fried vegetables, spicy potatoes.I have used chicken. Any GFCF all purpose flour will serve the purpose to make the paratha. It should be very fine. To make the chicken stuffing, use boneless chicken. Fry onion, tomato, ginger and garlic. Add salt, chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala to this. I had a dollop tomato sauce to this, preferably use an organic one. Garam masala is a combination of various spices. Pressure cook the chicken and sauté it along with it.The chicken should be chopped finely( minced meat). GFCF soy sauce, mustard sauce is optional. After placing the filling roll the sides of the paratha and serve hot with a chutney/sauce.         ...

The authors of this book, Dion E.Betts and Stacey W.betts, mention in their preface, yoga helps children in this spectrum to increase balance and strength. It also reduces stress and anxiety. Stacey’s eldest son is diagnosed with Aspergers. The book has photographs of various poses/asanas.                        Another book along these lines is the Brain gym written by Paul. E. Dennison and Gail.E. Dennison. The book is full of illustrations. It targets specific skills such as reading skills, writing skills…basically academic skills. Each skill has a set of exercises such as lazy 8’s, cross crawl etc. The book is recommended for everyone, those  who wants to improve the quality of his living, learning.

Most parents in this spectrum are desperate to provide peer interaction for their children and that includes me.  Some of the games I have adapted from RDI, some are my own.Over a period of time harish has actually begun to enjoy these games. This is a collection of games I have tried and it has worked.   Most of the games have been designed keeping in mind that Harish is nonverbal. Indoor games Game 1: Pass the parcel/ball.The ball is passed around with the children sitting in a circle.Simple commands are written in slips of paper and placed  in a basket. Music is played and when it stops the child who has the ball has to pick a slip of paper and perform the comand written on it.Or the instructions can be verbal . Keep the level of your child in mind. For example, I would tell Harish to perform simple actions such as brushing, touch everybody’s head. Game 2: This is to increase eye contact. 3-4 children sit on bean bags placed in different corners. It is a must that nobody talks. The...

The first time we shared an interest. Earlier he would not look at the same object that I was trying to draw his attention to. The first time he scanned the room to reassure himself we were there. He kept returning his glances. His first meal in a restaurant with  harish sitting at his table using a visual cue we used at home, his table mat. This was suggested to me when I was taking harish to AFA at New delhi. The first time he tacted that he was hungry. This was using the principles of applied verbal  behavior , where he signs and asks for something that is not in his immediate environment. The first time he pulled a stool, climbed on it and opened the latch on the top of the door for his father who was getting back from work after a late evening. The first time he jumped to reach out and pluck a fruit from a tree. Earlier he would look around for somebody to lift him up. The first time he played a prank on his father. He father gave him a friendly pat on his back when he was sitting...

This is what I call them because of their shape. I have used Sunira foods maida. The ingredients Maida-200g Ajwain/carom seeds Salt Ghee -2 tablespoons Water    Knead the dough. Roll it out ½ inch thick with a rolling pit. Use a pizza cutter or a knife to cut diamonds of it. Should it stick to the surface just lift it off with the knife? Deep fry in the oil. As a variation to this you can put it in sugar syrup for the sweeter version of this As for the end result it is quite hard and the sweeter version gets even more harder. Another option would be to mix some maida with besan in 75:25 ratios and try.I would give this receipe maybe 4/10.

Substitutes for margarine in India include apple sauce, apple butter and even some fruits like banana. Apple sauce fine or coarse textures is puree made from peeled or unpeeled apples. It has additives such as sugar and spices. Of course there are GFCF margarines available abroad. Substitutes for egg : 1tbsp milled flax seed and 3tbsp water or an egg replacer. For the egg replacer follow the instruction on the box. Generally it is 1 heaped tablespoon Egg replacer plus 2 tablespoon warm water. Substitute for soy sauce 240ml/8fl.oz Molasses 90ml/3fl.oz. Balsamic Vinegar Sugar to taste     Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until well blended. Source: TACA Maple syrup 240 m l : 240 ml honey Molasses240 ml: 240 ml honey/240 ml maple syrup/ ¾ cup (180 ml) light or dark brown sugar heated to dissolve in 1/4 cup (60 ml) liquid. Source: Joy of baking.com Vinegar: Use distilled white vinegar. Red, white wine, balsamic vinegars are gluten free. Balsamic vinega...

This has been a “sundara “Sunday with sunira foods. Harish had upama with GFCF sooji for breakfast and chole baturae made with sunira‘s maida which is gluten free. To make baturae you need Sunira maida water preferably luke warm as the label says salt Make dough with the three ingredients. Heat the oil in a kadai. Divide the dough into balls. Just before rolling out the dough, dip the ball in hot oil and roll it out. As with paratha do not dust with flour. In all fairness they look like baturas. Normally batura dough is made with maida and curds. When served with a chatpata chole slightly on the spicier, khatta side it makes a great Sunday brunch. As an afterthought also serve kuchumber salad, pickles with it. Speaking of pickles available in the market many of them contain vinegar which may not be gluten free. If one can make gooseberry pickles at home then it has great nutritive value and taste. Maybe will give it a shot. Singhada atta pooris/water chestnut flour pooris Pooris and...

GFCF sooji-200g Beans finely chopped 2-3 Carrot I small finely chopped Green chilli as required salt as required Tomato-1 Ginger 1tsp finely chopped Onion I finely chopped             Fry 200g of Sunira foods sooji,which is GFCF. Heat oil1-2 tbsp, add mustard, urad dal, curryleaves, ginger and green chilli and sauté. Add onions to this and fry. Add the remaining vegetables. Add salt. After the vegetables have been fried for sometime, add a little more than double the quantity of water. If you have used a measuring cup of 200g for sooji take 21/2 cups of water. Let it boil. Add the sooji to this cook till it solidifies. In terms of texture and look it resembles the upama of   regular dahlia.