Bancroft Family: Colton’s 4th Birthday

Let me tell you a bit about this “little man”. Colton has definitely kept us on our toes, as I’m sure you’ve seen in past posts. He is certainly an enigma. We are constantly trying to figure out what’s going on with this kid, and I don’t know if we are getting any closer to an answer. We thought he was deaf because he didn’t have eye contact and played in his own little world, but got his hearing checked and it was fine. He constantly had ear infections, so we got him tubes. He couldn’t stick out his tongue, so we thought a tongue tie was the only thing holding him back from talking. 2 ENT’s said it wasn’t bad enough to clip, the 3rd one agreed to do surgery and once in there found his muscle pulled so tight that it was one of the worst tongue-ties he had seen. He still wasn’t talking and was severely developmentally delayed. Early intervention which included speech, occupational therapists and horseback riding therapy, helped us teach him how to chew, drink from a cup, eat with a fork and spoon, and teach him to follow one-step directions. He had the most foul diapers I have ever seen. I talked Justin into getting Colton’s blood tested, and we discovered he had Celiac’s disease (gluten allergy). So we put him on a gluten-free diet. We got him tested for Special Education, and he tested in the 1st percentile in all 5 areas of testing. He went to 2 specialists at the University of Utah, and each came out with a separate opinion, which got us no closer to figuring out what was wrong.

We recently took him to a 3rd evaluation to see if we could get an Autism diagnosis. After 2 observations, multiple tests and a large fee to get this all done, he has currently stumped the doctor/psychologist and we are still awaiting an answer. We thought he might have had a seizure, so our next step is an MRI and many other tests to see if he has Seizure Disorder. We don’t understand the spinning, fascination with lights and fans, the repetitive motion or the rocking. His brain is functioning at a very low IQ which is why he learns at an alarming slow rate. If he is taught something, his brain can’t access the information he has learned, and nobody knows why. All we want to do is help him learn, grow, progress and develop normally. It is beyond frustrating.

I had no idea when I married Justin the obstacles we would be facing with Colton. It has not been an easy road. It has caused sadness, contention, frustration and strife. But one thing is for sure. This boy is a special spirit. Even though he has been crying a lot lately (I call it “CNAR”, Crying for No Apparent Reason), he has always had a sweet disposition. He is never mean. He is a good traveler in the car. He is loving, and he loves to give hugs when you ask him to do something, and he doesn’t want to do it (he especially does that to his teacher at school). The kids love him and life would be boring and dull without him. I guess 5 other kids weren’t enough to teach the 2 most impatient people in the world (Justin and me) patience. We love you, Colton. Happy 4th Birthday!