Charlotte, North Carolina will always hold a special place in our hearts. It is where we spent close to 15 years of our lives and where our son was born and raised until the age of seven. Here is our list of favorite local resources, restaurants and available practitioners.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): Our AMAZING local farm where we buy into their seasonal crop for an incredible source of weekly produce. This is quite a drive for us but we rotate weeks with one of our friends/neighbors to save travel time.
REID Familiar Personal Chef: Melissa is a fantastic resource and very familiar with REID!
Speech & Sensory Preschool: We fell upon this incredible preschool after looking for more interventions for his speech delay/apraxia. The School is run and taught by SLP’s (speech therapists) and they are constantly working with the children to get them up to speed. In addition to all of their interventions, they also bring in outside therapists (OT, MYGym, Music Therapy, Yoga, social groups, etc) throughout the week. We started off our Speech Garden experience by attending their popular summer camp!
Questions regarding preschool registration, billing, donations, and/or fall and spring internships contact:
- Kelly Reece, [email protected]
Questions regarding summer camp enrollment and summer camp internships contact:
- Tiffany Seigler, [email protected]
MNRI Practitioner: See my post on our experience with Adele and MNRI here.
Vision Therapy:
Speech Therapist: Jamie is a wonderful speech therapist that is not only an SLP, but she has training in MNRI, The Listening Program, Mindfulness, inTime, Pranic Healing, Yoga and Craniosacral!! Jamie takes in-office appointments and also has the ability to work with children while they are on school campus. She incorporates a variety of modalities into her practice, including positive affirmations. We love her!
Occupational & Physical Therapy:
PLAY Autism Early Intervention Therapy: We used Pam very early on to help with sensory input, language development, pretend play and social skills. She was able to come into our home which was a huge time saver for us.
Academic and Behavioral Specialist (School Psychological & Educational Evaluations):
Talk About Curing Autism Now (TACA): Did you know that you can often find a free local autism parent mentor through TACA? I am a mentor as well! Take a look at their website for more info.
Acupuncture and NAET:
Primary Care Functional Pediatrician: While I have not personally visited this practice. I am so excited about the opportunity to have a Functional Pediatrician that we can see for primary care!
Integrative Pediatrician: This is the integrative pediatrician you may have heard me mention in our “Our Story” post. She is a great resource for those just starting out with labs & dietary changes.
Pediatric Neurologist: Dr. Corbier is aware of the glutamate connection and the closest thing we have to a MAPS MD in Charlotte
Holistic Dentist: Dr. Brikina has been incredibly kind and more than willing to work with our needs
Integrative Allergist & Immunologist: I believe she also offers PANDAS support groups
Functional MD- Gynecology: My sweet OB/GYN of over ten years (actually delivered my son) went back to school to become a Functional Medicine Doctor and now has her own practice. Her timing couldn’t be more ideal, as she is helping me overcome some of my own health issues, naturally.
Local Elderberry Syrup: The founder and creator of this company is an incredible local mom. She has made such an effort or her products to be free of free glutamate and I am incredibly grateful for that! If you’re local, give this mom some support!
Local Cupcakes: Karen is an old friend/neighbor of ours that has a side business of making cupcakes. Her cupcakes look very professional and are FREAKING AMAZING!!! She is kind enough to work will a variety of diets-gluten free, dairy-free, REID, etc. In my opinion, she should be charging more for these treats.
Local Accommodating Restaurants:
Burtons Grill: Burtons is REALLY good with food allergies, paleo, and gluten-free options! They have a manager oversee the cooking process and they will personally bring your food to the table. This is the one place where my son has actually had French fries (unseasoned) as they have a dedicated gluten-free fryer. We will typically ask for unseasoned meat or fish with unseasoned veggies and fruit. I would consider this our go-to restaurant.
Bricktops: We discovered that it is often the nicer restaurants that are more accommodating as they don’t batch make meals, Bricktops is a great example of this. While we rarely go, he would typically eat salmon with steamed veggies and a fruit cup.
Juice Bar: When I’ve burned out on making our own smoothies/juice and are looking for a sweeter option, we head to Juice Bar. We LOVE the staff at Park Rd. location! They even have clean paleo muffins and almond butter bites that we stock up on for a treat! We are cautious to sub water for milk alternatives and avoid some of the more processed items.
Berrybrook Farms: Fairly early in our journey, we were making daily visits to Berrybrook for their fresh-pressed juices and smoothies. They also have an incredible homeopathy selection and a variety of natural foods and health supplies. You’re likely to find me in there at least once a week!
Living Kitchen: This is one of my favorite local restaurants but we still need to be cautious with our son here because of commonly used ingredients like nutritional yeast.
Chopt: I’ve been in love with this newer restaurant but have been hesitant to try it with our son, until recently. I’ve now found that I’ve been able to get him a fresh kids salad with chopped kale, apples, cucumbers, tomato, carrots, cabbage, and unseasoned chicken. We will dress it in our homemade dressing or olive oil and lemon at the restaurant.
Chipotle: While their ingredients look to be incredibly clean, I’ve been extremely nervous to try it with our son. That being said, we’ve successfully eaten here twice without any reaction. Looking forward to possibly having this as a quick meal option in the future. His meals have been basic salads with lettuce, chicken, beans, and guacamole.
King of Pops: Until recently, I’ve had that longing for the experience of taking my son to the ice cream shop to let him pick out a treat. Fortunately, we’ve found our version of this at our local King of Pops shop. While not all varieties are clean, I am so thankful he is finally able to have an occasional treat out.
Honeysuckle Gelato: While I haven’t personally been here, I’ve heard great things from other REID moms.