Six-year-old Tyler Ruhe enjoys creating a healthy lunch with his sister at camp. But, he never leaves home without his jar of green smoothie.

We recently had the pleasure of catching up with Shannon Ruhe, mom to six-year-old Tyler who is now recovered from severe autism. Shannon shared many necessary insights for families wishing to help their children recover from this condition. Tyler shared with us too. He was ever-present and engaged in our call—playing with his sister in the background and giving his mom a hug as a reminder that the show-n-tell letter would be "H" for “Hug” the next day.

The Ruhe family is an excellent example of how proper diet and “never giving up” can improve your health beyond your wildest dreams. Shannon set her goal to detoxify and rebuild her son’s immune system, and despite the social adversity and confusion, she now enjoys hugs, conversations and most importantly wellness with her son, daughter and husband.

Q: Shannon will you share some of the symptoms that Tyler experienced in the beginning, leading up to his diagnosis?

A: Tyler was born C-section, and we both received antibiotics in the hospital.  In his first days he seemed to stare passed me when I held him. But three days later, I left the hospital with a completely healthy baby boy.  He was happy, connected, and six weeks later he began to smile.   I’d lived my life to be a mother. He was my dream come true.

Then, when he was between 15-18 months old, it became time for his MMR and Chicken Pox vaccinations.  He had a fever when we went in for our appointment, but I went anyway because I was always trying to follow the rules for raising a healthy baby. Tyler always received his vaccinations on time and went to all of his well visits.

This time, the idea of immunizing him while he had a fever didn’t sit right with me.  When the nurse came in with her needles (he received multiple vaccinations that day), I told her that I needed to clarify with the pediatrician that it was safe to vaccinate Tyler while he was sick.

The doctor reassured me by stating that “if we wait until Tyler is healthy before we vaccinate him, we will never get all of them in.” He laughed, and I laughed with him because I wanted so badly to trust that he was correct.  I even gave Tyler a high dose of acetaminophen as suggested by the pediatrician, while he was still on the doctor’s table.  Tyler always spiked a fever after every shot, and the doctor told us to use medication to bring it down. They told us this was normal.
Later I found out that this drug reduces your glutathione, which is necessary for the liver to help release toxins.

I remember having to sign a consent form before he got his shots that day, and not understanding why I would need to do such a thing. I didn’t even fully read the form.

That night, Tyler cried a very bizarre cry. One that we’d never heard before. His fever spiked very high. My husband and I took turns trying to console him, speaking to our doctor on the phone, and searching through parenting books for solutions. We were just so lost and afraid. The doctor convinced us that Tyler was having a normal reaction to the vaccinations.

Tyler was never the same after that. He got recurring infections and required multiple rounds of antibiotics. His behavior became repetitive, he had constant foul diarrhea and stopped wanting to eat his vegetables and other healthy foods.

Because of his constant illness, we were convinced that he should have a flu shot to avoid him getting even sicker.

After Tyler’s flu shot, we completely lost him.  He didn’t cry anymore. He didn’t make any sounds at all. He didn’t even make eye contact with us for years to follow.

He showed no awareness that we were in the room. There was no pointing or gesturing. No language.  No communication that he was sad, hurt, hungry or happy. He was silent. Blank faced.

He was also very physically affected. His body was very puffy and swollen. He held onto his ear and grabbed and picked at his skin.

I think we set the stage for these symptoms in multiple ways. I believe his autism was a result of medications during birth, not breast-feeding for a sufficient time, introducing harder-to-digest food, like wheat, too early and of course, the vaccinations. I believe the vaccinations set off the worst part of Tyler’s pain and suffering.

Q: What were some of the steps you took to alleviate these problems?

A: I educated myself. I read books about autism and the possibility of treating it. I read Karyn Seroussi’s book,Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and PDD about her son’s recovery through dietary and biomedical intervention. And I also read  Lisa Lewis’ book Special Diets for Special Kids.  Then, I met a nutritionist who helped me understand that there was a relation to diet and Tyler’s illness.

Very quickly after that I removed gluten (the protein found in wheat, barley, rye, pasta and spelt) and casein (the main protein in dairy) from Tyler’s diet.  But, I kept searching because the way he craved sweet foods made me realize that he was addicted to them. He had always eaten his vegetables up until this point. Now, all he craved was sweet foods.

When I discovered Body Ecology, I knew that I had found the answer to fixing Tyler’s sugar addiction. And, so I removed sugar and began cultured foods right away.

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Q: What did you notice after eliminating sugar and adding cultured foods?

A: Tyler became very irritable after we removed sugar. He began having lots of tantrums. From what I read in the Body Ecology book, I understood that he was experiencing die-off. The moment I added fermented foods to his diethe became even more irritable.

After giving him one or two ounces of coconut kefir, he instantly fell into a kicking and screaming fit. His cleansing reaction to the coconut kefir was so instant and so severe that I understood that his body was not yet ready for this step of Body Ecology. So, I slowed down a lot.

I kept him away from sugar, wheat and dairy. I also removed all of the processed foods that we were eating on the Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet. These were contributing to Tyler’s sugar addiction and digestive imbalance. And, I focused on another Body Ecology step, the principle of food combining.

Soon, I learned to remove soy, corn and rice as well. Three months later, we went back to the coconut kefir, and he has been great with it since. We began seeing small improvements right away.

But, it is important to note that we rotate coconut kefir, and other fermented foods like raw goat milk kefir in and out of our diet to keep balance.

As I mentioned at first we eliminated dairy, but we have been able to introduce it back into our diet now. Of course, we know to drink fermented milk kefir that I make at home from raw goat’s milk. Sometimes we also make raw goat’s milk yogurt.

Q: What advice can you give to families who find it hard to get their children  to try new foods, especially when these food aversions are combined with autism?

A: First of all, NEVER GIVE UP. It took me nine months to start doing BED correctly. People often start diets and then they stop without fully understanding the affects or how to use the diet to best suit their family. I always hear that diet doesn’t work for autism. I still hear this. You have to figure out what works for you and stick to it. And, that can take some time.

When Tyler was a baby, he ate all his vegetables.  He loved them. But like every child with autism, Tyler had a systemic yeast infection and also had been infected with viruses from the vaccines. These are pathogens that feed off sugars and live in the blood when it is too acidic. Because of this, Tyler craved sugars and processed foods. It was difficult to get him to eat anything healthy. His gut was imbalanced and he did not have the friendly microflora that creates a healthy inner ecosystem. Actually, his gut was inflamed. It makes me sad to know this now. He could never communicate his pain to me.

Parents often feel guilty for taking away the foods that seem to make their children happy, like raisins, cookies, crackers, and string cheese.

Parents, please, you must conquer your feelings of guilt and not just feed your children what they want. Feed them what they need to be healthy, strong and well. We have to get them over their food cravings because these processed and sugared foods are contributing to our children’s infections.

It’s going to take discipline and organization to make these changes in your family, especially if you have other children. Start slow and establish an organized routine that makes sense for your family.

Q: Can you give us an example of how you established this kind of routine?

A: First, I had to get Tyler and my daughter, Taylin to listen to me, period. I started by sitting them in a chair and offering them food. The first thing I gave them was ground beef, rice and peas. The object was to get them to eat what I gave them. We weren’t yet at the point where they would eat Body Ecology meals. I had to establish trust with them.

So, as soon as Tyler took a bite, I’d allow him a nibble of gluten–free brownie. And, we’d have a celebration to show that when we listen to mommy and try new things – we have a party.

But, I would sit at the table with screaming children until we made progress. It was difficult. Sometimes it took 30 minutes between bites.

Once the kids got this, we introduced vegetables. The first vegetable they ate was steamed carrots.

You are not wasting your time in doing BED because the discipline it takes to do this is setting the stage to do everything else that you are doing. When they are young you have that golden opportunity to get them to trust you and go along with what you know is best for them. This diet does so much more than nourish the body.

Q: What were some of the first Body Ecology style meals that you made for Tyler?

A: A really easy one was steamed vegetables with steamed BED grains, like millet or quinoa.  I added coconut oil and cinnamon, and that became a treat to them. In the beginning I had to make homemade almond milk and pour it over the quinoa, so they could eat it like cereal. This is not proper food combining, but it was our start.

Green drink is also really important. We still have that every day. I add things like celery parsley, oregano and lettuces to the blender, and they drink it with every meal.

A favorite meal of ours was made with onions and wakame sautéed in coconut oil or ghee, steamed quinoa and Celtic sea salt.

Q: Tell us about some of the progress you saw.

A: He started picking up his shoes when it was time to go somewhere -- subtleties only parents will notice. You realize there is a connection. People quit because they feel like the child should start talking or playing right away. But, as a mom you know that they are on the path to recovery.

And now, 5-6 years later, Tyler is academically on grade level, progressing socially, and attending school in a normal setting. He swims and takes yoga class in normal settings. He shows his feelings. He's playing with us and other kids, and is connecting to the world around him.   If I trip, he's the first to ask, "are you ok mommy?"

Now he has opinions and a strong sense of who he is in the family and at school.   We are going through the “WHY” phase right now.    He wants to know WHY all day long.

He can have some gluten-free pizza without a reaction. He can have something sweet without craving more of it. He is healthy!

Tyler tested for seven mitochondrial dysfunctions, and I am just looking at the results of his latest test, which shows that 3 of them have completely disappeared due to proper nutrition. This stuff works!

Q: What’s in a typical day’s meals for you now?

A: We stick to proper food combining every day. That means we don’t mix grains with protein.  We eat meat with vegetables, or we eat grains  (or grain-like seeds like quinoa, millet and amaranth) with vegetables. We always have cultured foods like raw goat milk kefir, young coconut kefir, cultured vegetables, raw cultured butter or raw goat yogurt. And, I make sure to add as much living raw food during the day as we can. Much of their meals are living and raw. A tall green smoothie with super foods like spirulina can also be a meal for us.

Q: Tell us what autism recovery means to you.

A: I’m glad you asked. Although many parents are trying very hard to help their child recover, not everyone is seeing the results that my family has experienced. So, there is so much anger, frustration and fear around this idea of recovery.

Tyler has recovered from autism. We do not use the terms “typical,” “normal” or “cured.” It is clear to me that my child had an event that significantly altered his early development. He still has some catching up to do with certain skills.

He has no more challenges than a “typical” six year old. I am no more worried than a mom whose child has a slight reading problem in kindergarten.  He is extraordinary. He is patient. He has learned to ask questions and work on the social skills that need work. In fact, Tyler’s social ability continues to improve and I have no reason to believe he won’t keep excelling now that he is physically well.

Tyler can stay home with a babysitter or go to the hardware store with his daddy. He has no more digestive problems. Another good sign of recovery was over the holidays, when we left our routine for a while. We found that we could even divert from our usual diet and still be fine.

Q: What else would you like to say to parents who are struggling with their child’s autism diagnosis?

A: Don’t Give Up! At times I was so discouraged and our progress seemed slow. But, I literally decided what I wanted, and was determined to make it happen. Every day I had to make sure that I didn’t dive into misery. I just decided to stand firm in the belief that Tyler would get well.  So much good came from this. I learned a ton about myself and my life and how wonderful it is to get a hug from my baby. We take nothing for granted now.

The human body certainly can heal. Whether you chose to work with a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor, chose to do homeopathy, energetic medicine or any other type of therapy, the Body Ecology Diet makes them all work better.

No matter what is going on in your child's body -- he may test positive for Lyme disease or he may have been damaged by a virus from a vaccine -- you have to create balance in his body. You don't want to contribute to the problem by feeding your child the wrong foods. Instead help the body heal by feeding it what it needs to repair itself.

The best thing we can do with our children is to join them right where they are, with loving acceptance.  However, acceptance does not equal passiveness.

Your kids know how you’re feeling by the way you look at them and act around them.

Autism can be very frustrating for a child. They often develop a poor self-image because of the way others treat them. They know they are smart but can’t express this to others. The rest of the world sees them as strange or different.  If you have to home school your child to keep him away from “labels,” do it! Moms really do know what is right for their own child.

I accepted Tyler for who he is but always worked to improve his health. My son is happy now,  and that’s the best gift.