💛 From Overwhelmed to Empowered: The First 30 Days of Holistic Healing for Kids with Autism

By Tarian | The Healing Ground Collective 

When my daughter was first officially diagnosed, I broke.

I didn’t break because I didn’t love her or see how special she was — I broke because I was tired. Tired of not having answers. Tired of people calling her “nonverbal” and acting like that was the end of the story. Tired of the stares, the meltdowns, the appointments, the overwhelm, the guilt, the grief.

She was diagnosed as severely autistic, with a mixed receptive-expressive speech-language disorder, a global developmental delay, and a significant sensory processing issue that made even grocery runs traumatic.

We did everything they told us to do.
We tried ABA therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy.
Some of it helped, sure.
But it was slow. Exhaustingly slow.

She still wasn’t making much eye contact.
Still had days she screamed and screamed and couldn’t be consoled.
Still wasn’t connecting. Still couldn’t tell us what hurt.
Still spent too many moments in shutdown while I stood in the kitchen crying, silently begging for just one breakthrough.

I felt like I had a hundred tabs open in my brain at all times.
Gluten-free? Dairy-free? Detox baths? Therapy schedules? Supplements?
So many diets. So many “don’ts.”

There were times I felt like I was failing her.
Times I wondered if this was how it would always be.
And then, something shifted…

---

🌱 We Took Healing Into Our Own Hands
I stopped relying solely on the 45-minute therapy blocks and started asking:

What would happen if our whole lifestyle was therapy?

I began studying herbs.
I started changing her diet — not perfect overnight, but one swap at a time.
I incorporated Lion’s Mane, vitamin D3, omega-rich foods, and made sure every bite she took was as close to the Earth as I could manage.

We created our own home-based rhythm:
🎶 Music therapy in the living room.
🧠 Speech work during snack time.
🌿 Sensory bins outside on the porch, grounding with her bare feet in the soil.
💛 Slow days. Safe days. Days where she could just be.

My fiancé and I became the therapist team.
Not because we had the degrees — but because we had the devotion.

✨ And Then… We Started to See Her Again

She looked at me longer.
She babbled back.
She tried to sing with me.
She brought me her toys and made eye contact — something she had never done before.

The meltdowns got shorter. Her gut health got better. Her sleep deepened. Her eyes got brighter. And her connection to us… it cracked wide open.

We were witnessing something we were told to let go of: progress.
Not just the kind therapists write in notes — but the kind only a mama can recognize.

That’s why I created The Rooted Child™ Course.
It’s not just information. It’s a lifeline. A map. A way to come back home — to your child and to yourself.

---

🛤️ Why Diet + Detox Was Our Turning Point

So many of our kids are fighting battles we can’t see — gut inflammation, nutrient imbalances, toxic overload, and overstimulation from the inside out.

The moment we began removing triggers and adding nourishment, it was like her nervous system could finally breathe.

We started with:

• Whole foods
• Daily herbal tinctures (like NeuroDetoxCTRL+ FocusCTRL)
• Gut-friendly snacks
• Hydration rituals
• Calming, consistent rhythm
  

Healing started in her body — and then we saw it in her behavior.

---

🚫 Letting Go of the Lies We Were Told

• “It's going to take years of therapy.”
• “This is just who she is — don’t have high expectations.”
• “You’re doing too much.”
  

No. We believed in her. And she believed in us.

You don’t have to do this the traditional way.
You don’t have to wait for permission to start healing your child.

You just have to begin.

🔁 One Change at a Time — Our First 30 Days

Here’s what worked for us in Month One of full consistency:

Week 1:

✨ Switched to spring water, added Lion’s Mane and vitamin D3 drops
✨ Cleaned up breakfast (no dyes, no fake syrups, added more fruit + healthy fats)
✨ Started using NeuroDetoxCTRL daily (1 dropper in juice or smoothie)

Week 2:

✨ Introduced simple, protein-rich lunches
✨ Started FocusCTRL before learning time or sensory play
✨ Nighttime baths with Epsom salt + essential oils

Week 3:

✨ Added SpeechCTRL before music/singing
✨ Reinforced her yes/no with visuals and verbal prompts
✨ Noticed more vocal stims — we celebrated them!

Week 4:

✨ Reduced snack triggers (gluten/dairy)
✨ Created our “calm down kit” and cozy sensory spaces
✨ She started initiating more — and so did I

---

🧺 What Healing Looked Like in Our Home

(Real tools, real rhythms, real love)

🎶 Music Therapy at Home

• We started with call-and-response singing using her name (“Nuni, Nuni, say ‘yeah yeah!’”).
• I sang daily affirmations in melody (e.g., “You are safe, you are loved” to a tune).
• We used instruments like a drum pad, xylophone, and a mini keyboard to make playtime interactive.
• Her favorite playlist included slow, rhythmic songs with repetition — we noticed those supported regulation more than upbeat tracks. (Unless it was a Disney song, of course!)

🗣 Speech Work During Snack Time

• We introduced yes/no visuals with real photos of food to practice choosing snacks.
• Used clear options for every action (Giving two options of total different objects).
• Practiced sign language for “more,” “all done,” “stop,” and “help” while saying the words.
• Before snack, we gave SpeechCTRL drops — we noticed more vocal stimming afterward, and that was a win.

🌿 Sensory Activities & Calming Tools

• Wrapped her in a weighted blanket or her daddy's giant arms and let her wiggle for proprioceptive input.
• Turned on spinning night lights with figurines to help her sit calmly during chill time.
• Created a calm-down basket with:
• • Squish toys
  • Noise-canceling headphones
  • Homemade chia puddy and sand
  • Bubbles + pinwheels for deep breathing

🥗 Whole Foods We Started With

• We didn’t jump into veganism or get super strict — we just upgraded the quality.
• Breakfast: homemade oat cookies + chia and applesauce, almond butter rice cakes, fruit juices & slushees with Lion’s Mane
• Lunch: lentil pasta, bento boxes, chickpea quesadillas, veggie pizzas
• Snacks: date bars, homemade trail-mix cassava crackers, hummus + cucumber, seaweed snacks (her favorite!)
• Fats we used: coconut oil, avocado, nut butter
• Swaps we made first: fruit for candy, maple syrup instead of white sugar, oat milk instead of dairy

💧 Hydration Rituals

• Every morning, we made a hydration tea: spring water + lemon + chlorophyll + ginger, marshmallow root + mango + spring water + lion's  mane, etc.
• Created fun juice blends with beets, carrots, and watermelon — diluted for sensitive tummies
• Added trace minerals to her water (small amounts to avoid taste changes)
• Let her pick her own cup/straw color to encourage drinking more throughout the day
• Occasionally added FocusCTRL or NeuroDetoxCTRL to her juice to support calm + clarity

---

💌 To the Mama Reading This With Tears in Her Eyes

You are not broken.
Your child is not broken.
You are both becoming.

Give yourself grace.
Give yourself 30 days.
And give your child the chance to show you who they are underneath the noise, the diagnosis, and the inflammation.

---

🌟 Ready to Begin? I Made This For You

🔗 Download Your Free Starter Kit Here
Includes:
✓ Grocery Swaps Guide
✓ Weekly Rhythm Template & Example
✓ 30-Day Checklist

🎓 Enroll in The Rooted Child Course
→ A self-paced journey with 9 life-giving modules rooted in real tools, real strategy, and real hope.

🌿 Explore Our Tinctures

NeuroDetoxCTRL – gently clears toxins

FocusCTRL – improves attention, calm, and cognitive presence

SpeechCTRL – supports expressive + receptive language growth

NeuroDetoxCTRL & SpeechCTRL bundled - clears toxins & boosts brain circulation + supports language growth

You don’t need to be perfect to begin. 
You just need to begin.