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Meet Matthew M.

by Laura M., Matthew’s mom:

“Before I start with our families story, I would like to tell you that God was preparing me and our family for our son Matthew. I’ve worked with adults and kids that are Autistic for over 20 years and when my son was showing signs I never once thought for a second that it was Autism. I guess I’ve been around it for so long, I dismissed all the signs as delayed. When Matthew was born he weighed 4 pounds. We are unsure as to why he was so little. My pregnancy was great and doctors never once gave us reasons as to be concerned about babies weight. We never did find out why he was so little at birth. So many tests ran, all of the tests always came back good, with nothing to be concerned about. After spending a week in the hospital, we got to bring Matthew home. 

Matthew was gaining a lot of weight fast as I was supplementing him to catch up to a good weight. One thing I did notice is Matthew always had aggressive spit up, it was so bad that it would come out of his nose and he would be so scared and just cry. We went through that for a year. Matthew milestones were all late as he was catching up. I was concerned when Matthew was not walking at a year so I made an appt with the family doctor who scheduled us with a Physical Therapist who gave us a lot of exercises to use at home. Matthew started walking at 18 months and it was on his tippy toes . . . again,  I was in denial and thought maybe if I got him real good shoes maybe he will walk flat footed but I couldn’t get any shoes on him I was so worried that my son was going to hurt himself walking on his tippy toes. Through out the Physical Therapist visits we also had SPL and OT therapy for Matthew. I remember one time when we went to a appt and they had told us that they believed Matthew could have Autism and that maybe we should have him tested. I was mad, hurt and in denial. I said no that can’t be the case, Matthew was showing a few major signs from flapping of his hands to tippy toe walking and putting cars in lines on the floor.  I needed time to take this all in.

I thought to myself I have been in training for over 20 years, I can do this! I have been very devoted in helping my son. After several visits with Physical Therapist for Matthews tippy toe walking she referred us to an orthopedic surgeon. She wanted to cast Matthews legs to straighter his feet to be flat footed. It is a very painful process. Matthew was casted three times and each time his foot would be stretched to straighter position. Once the casting was finished weeks later Matthews foot was flat and it was amazing to see. We were not out of the woods yet. We did stretches everyday to keep Matthews foot flat as well. Matthew lost the ability to walk as his muscles all went limp from being casted and we had to start all over to walk. One day he just started walking and we were amazed again. So many trips to the city from Humboldt to help our little boy was now finally paying off. To see him walking running was just surreal, Matthew wore Afos for over a year to help him with his flat foot and to maintain it.  Matthew started kindergarten with no Afos and wearing shoes something he never got to wear before. Matthew was diagnosed by OT, PT and Social worker on June 3 2020 through video as our city was shut down due to Covid.”

Laura M.