The Beach: from Love to Hate to Love Again

When Jonathan was 17 months, he loved the water. He loved the pool and we had him in swimming lessons. And he loved the beach. We took him to the beach for a weekend and he really liked going to the ocean (picture on the left), playing with water and the sand. He seemed like a completely normal little kid. When he turned 30 months, he had already changed. Going back, I know that everything started at birth when he go the Hepatitis-B shot, then at 4 months when he got the DPT and 3 other shots the same day, later at 10 months when we got the first flu shot (after pneumonia), then at 13 months with the MMR, making things worse at 18 months with the second flu shot and totally losing him at 27 months with the third flu shot. When we went to the beach in August 2004, he was not interested in anything. He would throw very loud and uncontrollable tantrums all the time for anything. He could not understand spoken language. And he hated the beach. He hated the water, the sand, did not want to take his shoes off, or his shirt. We could not stay more than 30 minutes every day. Actually, that trip to the beach is what opened our eyes. We went with our friends B. and L. (the same folks we are spending the week with at Myrtle Beach) and their 2.5 year old understood spoken language and was excited to go to the beach and explore; whereas Jonathan did not understand more than a few words, and hated the beach (plus many other strange behaviors). 3 days into that trip, I spent a few hours Googling Jonathan's behavior and everything pointed back to Autism.

Jonathan at the beach when we was 30 months old.

Now, 3 years later, I was really scared of this trip. Only 2 months ago Jonathan would have meltdowns if we mentioned going to the pool. His 7 year old friend A. had a pool birthday party and he had a meltdown when we arrived and I had to leave the place with him and his grandmother and left Daddy and Vanessa there for a couple of hours. But his improvements since the HBOT have been so dramatic that I wished for the best. And boy am I glad we came. He has really enjoyed this trip like when he was just 17 months old, he has been excited about the beach, the pool, the aquarium, everything. Both Javier and I have really enjoyed this vacation. He is playing with C., N. and Vanessa like we have always wished he had; he is asking tons of questions; he is absorbing everything he sees; and no major meltdowns; and he is very happy.

Enjoy the pictures from yesterday and today.

June 13 - the water was perfect.

Evening at the Aquarium. He loved watching the sharks and touching the sting rays.

Later we walked around a shopping area outside the Aquarium and the kids enjoyed the dinosaurs and other attractions.

June 14 - the day was colder and windy. We played with sand more.

The kids playing "who is the monster" in the resort before we headed out.

In the evening, we went to walk at the Broadway at the Beach shops and they saw a dragon show. Jonathan liked it very much. He made up a story of how that was the daddy dragon and he was looking for his son. It was pretty comical.