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Autism Spectrum Support
Comprehensive support for autistic children and adults focuses on comfort, regulation, gut health, sleep, and sensory integration, honoring who your child is.
What you may be noticing
Your child experiences the world with intensity. Sounds, textures, and transitions may feel overwhelming. Sleep may be hard. Digestion may be uncomfortable, with constipation, loose stools, or a very limited diet. Speech, coordination, or social connection may be developing on a different timeline. You want your child to feel comfortable in their body and connected to the people who love them.
Why it is rarely one thing
Autism is a neurodevelopmental difference, and my aim is never to change who your child is. It is to find and address the physical challenges that frequently travel alongside autism and make daily life harder: gut distress, poor sleep, immune activation, sensory overwhelm, motor difficulties, and pain.
Behaviors are often signals. A meltdown may be a gut that hurts, a sensory system flooded with input, or anxiety without words. I also hold a working hypothesis that some children live with unrecognized pain because the brainstem circuits that modulate pain, including the periaqueductal grey and the rostral ventromedial medulla, are not coordinating well. These signals deserve investigation, because many respond to support. A child who sleeps through the night, digests comfortably, and feels regulated has more capacity to connect, communicate, and explore.
Patterns we look for
- Gastrointestinal symptoms and microbiome balance, which influence comfort and behavior.
- Immune activation and neuroinflammation, an active area of research (working hypothesis for individual clinical decisions).
- Sleep and melatonin rhythm.
- Retained primitive reflexes, such as the Moro and tonic labyrinthine reflexes, which can heighten sensory reactivity and affect posture and coordination.
- Sensory processing: vestibular, proprioceptive, auditory, and visual integration.
- Nutrient status, including iron and ferritin, vitamin D, zinc, B12, and folate pathways.
- Cerebral folate autoantibodies, studied as a contributor in a subset of children (working hypothesis).
- Toxic burden and environmental exposures, including mold in the home.
- Tongue and lip ties and fascia tension, which affect feeding, speech, and posture.
- Hemispheric and cerebellar timing, which shape coordination and processing.
How I evaluate it
Each evaluation is adapted to your child, beginning with rapport and play. A comprehensive functional neurological exam observes posture and gait, eye tracking and pupils, tone, reflexes, coordination, and primitive reflexes.
Functional labs are chosen gently and may include a complete blood count with ferritin, vitamin D, zinc and copper, B12 and folate markers, a thyroid panel, comprehensive stool analysis, and organic acids. Coordination with your pediatrician, developmental team, speech therapist, and occupational therapist keeps everyone aligned. Seizures or any loss of skills need prompt medical evaluation.
How we address it
- Look at the home first: mold, fragrance, and chemical exposures, reduced at a pace your family can sustain.
- Comfort next: address constipation, reflux, gut pain, and sleep.
- Support gentle drainage through bowel, lymph, kidneys, and skin, and fill nutrient gaps matched to testing.
- Integrate primitive reflexes and sensory processing through play: floor-based games with favorite toys that activate eye movements, coordination, and balance, renewed each month and short enough for you to deliver at home.
- Address ties and fascia tension with your pediatric dental and bodywork team when present.
- Build coordination and timing with brain-based rehabilitation designed as play.
Our brain is the master system, at any age. Neuroplasticity is the reason for hope, and comfort and regulation open the door to connection.
Book your Comprehensive Functional Medicine Eval/Neurological Exam today to discover what the contributing root causes are that are underlying your health concerns.