Hope for Cody

Our beautiful son, Cody David, was born June 16, 2004.  We were thrilled and as proud as new parents can possibly be.  He was perfect in every way.  He met his developmental milestones right on time and even early.  I was the faithful mommy getting my baby in right on time for his shots.  When Cody was around 18 months old, everything changed.  It was hard to get him to respond to his name and get him to look at us when we called him.  His tantrums began taking the place of his collection of first words... "Duck" "tiger" "mama" "dada" "ball"  He started losing his words.  We were confused.  When my pediatrician mentioned having him checked for autism, I freaked out.  There was no way my perfect little boy had anything that terrible!  The first "specialist" who checked him out said that she thought he was far too social to have autism, but suggested that we begin the therapy anyway... just to be safe.  Cody began speech and play therapy and made many gains.

On April 23, 2007, Cody was diagnosed with autism.  It was the day after my husband's birthday and neither of us will ever forget the day.  Although we were somewhat prepared for the diagnosis, it was still a huge blow. We began researching programs and trying to figure out what to do to help save our baby.  Autism has been described by some as a "wall around your child" that you have to break down.  Cody had been receiving wonderful therapy from people we trusted and loved.  However, at the age of 3, the school system is required to take over therapy costs and our only option was to enroll him in preschool and let the school take over his therapy.  When we tried this, Cody regressed.  We started seeing behavior that he had never shown before- violent tantrums, head-banging and drooling.  We were scared and upset.  We pulled Cody out of preschool and I began a home program with him and also put him on the Gluten Free Casein Free diet.

We have seen some amazing changes since beginning the diet.  We have seen even MORE amazing changes since beginning our own in-home therapy program, Sonrise, which we started in February 2008.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH OUR HOPE FOR CODY VIDEO! 

Hope For Cody

    We heard about the Sonrise Program through our good friend, Lourie Tumino.  She attended the start-up program in December, and we witnessed amazing changes in her 3 year old son within weeks!  This inspired us to look into the program ourselves.  Through the help and support of truly wonderful friends and family, we were able to attend February Sonrise start-up at the Autism Treatment Center in Sheffield, Massachusetts.  The week changed our lives and we have ALREADY seen changes in Cody since we've started it with him. 

 We are looking for volunteers who are open-minded & have ENERGY, EXCITEMENT & ENTHUSIASM to come work with Cody.  This program will change your life & you will be helping an amazing little boy in the process.

Please contact us by email or phone if you are interested in helping!  There is NO experience required and we will train! 

PRINCIPLES OF THE SONRISE PROGRAM:

• Your child's potential is limitless.
• Motivation, not repetition, hold the key to all learning.
• Autism is not a behavioral disorder.
• Your child's "stimming" behaviors have important meaning and value.
• The parent is the child's best resource.
• Your child can progress in the right environment.
• Parents and professionals are most effective when they feel comfortable with their child, optimistic about their child's capabilities and hopeful about their child's future.

We would LOVE to receive continued education and support from the Sonrise program & are brain-storming fund-raising ideas. Our goal is to attend the Maximum Impact & New Frontiers programs, which will take us even further in implementing and expanding Cody's program.  We would also love to enroll Cody in the Intensive Program, which is a week long session in Massachusetts where the Sonrise staff will work one on one with Cody and show us even more techniques and strategies we can implement.  After our Outreach with Drea (on June 2nd) we would love to plan future outreaches to help our program. 

THANKYOU to EVERYONE who has helped us and continues to help us with this program.  We could never express how truly grateful we are!  Cody is proof that this program DOES work!

 If you'd like to help Cody:

OR: you can contact us by phone (530-221-4198)

or email (eagleton4@sbcglobal.net)