Autism

Autistic Enterocolitis

2008-05-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

After watching a recent video of Dr. Wakefield; I've been thinking a lot about what he said. He calls Autistic Enterocolitis a new disease. He said that digestive distress is not part of Autism. I guess what got him to take a second look was the fact that parents would come to him, because their children's digestive distress was being ignored by other doctors. You know, that attitude, that a kid with autism, is just another crazy person and therefore don't have pain, they are just being autistic.

This holds true for my Mickie, who has gone through periods of not eating and has lost weight to the point of having death reflected on his face and hearing from the doctor who saw me as a teenager, that he can't help him, because he needed an Autism specialist. Every time I hear the words Autism Specialist I want to scream!! Most autism specialist are not specialist at all.

One thing in particular that Dr. Wakefield said, caught my attention; he said that if not treated early on this disease would become Crohn's disease-an inflammatory bowel disease. Crohn’s disease can affect any area of the GI tract, from the mouth to the anus, but it most commonly affects the lower part of the small intestine, called the ileum.

Mickie used to look normal and now he has lost all muscle tone. His extremities are very thin, much like a Crohn's Disease patient. I'm hoping that as time passes, with treatment and the diets, his body will start changing for the better. Someday I hope to be able to take him to Thoughtful House in Austin Texas, where Dr. Wakefield and his collages are helping so many other children like Mickie.

He talked about causation as being the Measles part of the MMR. A multidisciplinary disease needing a multidisciplinary approach.

The last statement he made, was simple, but powerful; he said.....____The child is not defective, he is sick.

~Being Proactive~

2008-04-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

I was very depressed back in September when Mickie turned 10, because of the lack of progress I had seen and on top of that he was becoming anorexic, loosing his hair and was becoming very violent towards himself and others. He had not slept through the night in over nine years.

Turned out that he just needed better nutrition and his hair has grown back with a vengeance and even his sister is jealous of his hair now. His aggressiveness was nothing more than his way to cope with pain in his digestive system.

I took that sadness and I turned it around. I started being more proactive. I went to this website: http://www.generationrescue.org and there I found stories of hope and recovery. They also had a list of rescue angels, which are parents just like us who are recovering their children. They will walk you through it.

I know that you must think it's too late, because your son is not little anymore or maybe you think that the window of opportunity has closed, but I am here to tell you it's not to late!

Mickie said Mama yesterday for the first time in nine years. It can happen to your son or daughter too. With digestive enzymes, Probiotics, multivitamins, multi-minerals and diet modifications most Autistic kids and even older ones can have a better quality of life.

You can reverse many of the worse symptoms. So they are still autistic, but at least they can continue to be who they are, without pain and frustration.

Autistic by Injection

2008-04-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

April is Autism Awareness month and April is International Autism Day.

Low Dose Naltrexone

2007-12-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

FDA-approved naltrexone, used to block opioids in the brain. Used in a low dose, can also boost the immune system.

Naltrexone itself was approved by the FDA in 1984 in a 50mg dose for the purpose of helping heroin or opium addicts, by blocking the effect of such drugs. By blocking opioid receptors, naltrexone also blocks the reception of the opioid hormones that our brain and adrenal glands produce: beta-endorphin and metenkephalin. Many body tissues have receptors for these endorphins and enkephalins, including virtually every cell of the body's immune system.

It is one medication that according to Dr. William Shaw Ph.D should be added to the anti-yeast and free of casein and gluten diet and Nystatin protocol for children with autism. Naltrexone blocks opioids in the brain. The opioids from milk and wheat may slow the brain down.

At low doses, naltrexone may help clear the brain of opioids which have already gotten into the brain. In the past studies of this protocol have been done using doses that were to high and therefore showed that sometimes naltrexone has the opposite effect of what is intended. The doses used were 25 to 50 milligrams per day, which can cause pain. These studies failed to include the combination of the elimination of dairy and wheat products.

In autistic children where immune deficiencies are present, naltrexone can boost the immune system and given in low doses.

Reicheit KI et al. Gluten, milk proteins and autism: Results of dietary intervention on behavior and urinary peptide secretion. J. Applied Nutrition 42: 1-11, 1990.

Bovard, et al. Low-dose naltrexone effects on plasma chemistries and clinical symptoms in autism: a double-blind-placebo controlled study Psychiatry
Research 58: 191-20, 1995

Roy S, Loh HH. Effects of opioids on the immune system. Neurochem Res 1996;21:1375-1386

The SCD Diet-Gut Issues in Autism

2007-12-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

Of the many issues affecting Autistic individuals none is more prevalent then the gut issues. In my son's case it was diagnosed as malabsoption. I was given this diagnosis when he was five and sent home with no information that could help him.

I had an immune panel done and found out he had an Immunoglobin A deficiency and high inmunoglobin E. I took the results to a gastroenterologist who told me that due to his high IgE could not have any dairy and that his immune deficiency made him prone to gastrointestinal infections.

I remember that I took him off milk and cereals. That diet change, stopped the chronic diarrhea,which he had suffered with, since his first birthday. I thought that would be the end of that, but no. He then developed constipation, which caused him a lot of pain.

For eight years my Mickie woke up during the night, giggling, crying screaming or running through the house. During the last three years or so, he has slept very little. He could not lay flat on the bed, but slept sitting up. To me this was the most troublesome part of his issues.

He stimmed constantly and had horrible tantrums or meltdowns.

While networking with other parents I learned about a special diet called SCD diet or Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This diet is described in detail in the book "Breaking The Vicious Cycle" Intestinal Health Through Diet, by Elaine Gottschall. The reason behind this diet is simple. It is supposed to starve the yeast in the stomach, by depriving it of fermentable carbohydrates.

I heard from other parents of the benefits of this diet had brought to their autistic children's health. I decided to implement the diet with Mickie about one month ago. At about two days into the diet, while I was dressing him, he gave me a spontaneous hug. I remember just staying really still. Up to that point this kind of behavior meant that he was going to pull my hair or tug at my clothes and try to hurt me, but his big sister that could see his face said.....___It's Okay mom, he's smiling. I think he just wants a hug. So I hugged him back and proceeded to dress him once more, then he did it again.

The last time Mickie gave me hug was so long ago, I had forgotten how it felt.

A few more days went by and he stopped stimming, seemed more aware of his surroundings, started to notice our pets and even attempted to talk. By the 15Th day he was sleeping through the night. He was no longer sitting up, but was laying flat on the bed.

I have not seen change like this in him since I took him off Casein and Gluten five years ago. Slowly but surely.........

www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info

British Medical Journal, Lancet, The American Journal of Gastroenterology (Wakefield) 95:2285-2295.

Hovarth, K., 1999. Gastrointestinal abnormalities in children with autistic disorder. Journal of Pediatrics 135:559-63

Ashwood, P., S.H. Murch, A. Anthony., A. A. Pellicer, F. Torrente, M.A. Thomson, J.A. Walker-Smith, and AJ. Wakefield. 2003. Intestinal Lymphocyte populations in children with regressive autism: Evidence for extensive mucosal immunopathology. Journal of Clinical immunology 23(6):504-517
Buie, T., G. Winter and R. Kushak. 2002.
J.O. Hunter. 1991.

Mickie's Regression into the World of Autism

2007-12-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

Heavy Metals Toxicity

2007-12-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

There seems to be a large amount of children being diagnosed with Autism, who are in reality suffering from Heavy Metal Toxicity.

When my son Mickie was first diagnosed with Autism, I had no idea that he was actually Mercury Toxic, via-thimerosal containing vaccines. By the time I realized what had happened he was four years old and had been regressing since he was 9 months old.

He is 10 years old now and early intervention through Regional Centers and years of ABA therapy have done nothing for him. He has underlying biomedical issues that culminated in Autism like symptoms. Today I want to write about heavy metal toxicity.

This is what I have learned in the process of helping my son. When he was four I attempted to chelate him. He did make improvements in socialization and his eye contact improved, his language did not improve much, aside from a word here and there every few months he did not talk. He has since lost those few words.

Back then, I did not addressed the digestive issues as recommended by that DAN Protocol and in fact his digestive problems got worse. I had to stop chelation after four months and it has taken years to stabilize him.

Depending on how resent the exposure was, mercury may or may not show up. Just because it doesn't show up, doesn't mean it's not there. The Autism Research Institute reports that chelation works in 73% of the time.

I am not sure when babies develop the blood, brain, barrier, but you are able to find out if he is toxic while the barrier is open, he can have chelation therapy before it closes and he should recover completely. There is always some recovery, but some say that nothing can cross the BBB, and others say that ALA will cross it.

DMSA should be administered with ALA in small doses every three to four hours, preferably round the clock. If you prefer to only chelate during the day, it can be done. Three days on and 11 day off or as many days off as on. You must give the body time to rest. Supplementation with minerals is essential, because DMSA depletes the body of Zinc and other essential minerals.

If it was not too resent mercury most likely has now gone into hiding. Mercury hides in the soft tissues of the body including the brain. Lead accumulates in you bones if is not excreted from the body right away. DMSA is administered prior to an urine test, will bring some of it out then first morning urine is collected.

A note about DMSA.......it is the safest way to chelate heavy metals and it has been tested and approved to use on children, which is more then we can say about childhood vaccines.

Also very important is the fact that chelation is a very slow process. Don't expect drastic changes in a short period of time. You can only administer a small amount, because the body can't excrete so much of the metals at once. 100 rounds is about how much it takes for full recovery.

A hair analysis is very accurate in determining if one is mercury toxic. A good indication of heavy metal toxicity is when your minerals are all out of whack, even if mercury itself is not showing on the first hair test. I will show in time. Mickie's first and second hair analysis did not showed mercury or lead, but showed he was cadmium toxic. His most recent test shows that he is Lead, Aluminum and Cadmium toxic. His mercury level wend from .01 to .10. Heavy metals don't belong in our bodies.

I wanted to share this information, because I am chelating Mickie right now and the information is still fresh in my mind. He has had 6 rounds of DMSA with ALA. He has started to say Da and Dee. He is not talking yet, but he is using his Da's and De's to sing.

Zurama

Low-Funtioning Autism

2007-12-19T19:47:00.001-08:00

Low functioning Autism has got to be the most frustrating thing I have ever had to deal with. Everything in my life revolves around Mickie. I just keep thinking that there will be no place for him in the world if he stays the way he is now. So I keep looking for ways to get him out of himself, so when I'm gone he can fight for himself.

When he was diagnosed at 22 months I thought he would just start learning if he had intensive therapy, but he didn't and in fact got worse. By the age of four he was completely lost in his world. Chelation therapy did help get some of his eye contact back.

On Mickie's 10th birthday I made the decision to start doing something more about my frustration with his slow progress. I had stopped video taping him right after the diagnosis of Autism. The life just kind of went right out of me. I started making videos of him again. I signed on to Youtube and created a channel for Mickie.

The response to Mickie's videos has been interesting to say the least. Most people are very gracious, but some of the others are just plain nasty. Interesting enough some of the most negative comments have come from mothers of Autistic kids. I an not in any way ashamed of him, not by a long shot.

Some have accused me of portraying Autism in a negative way. I just record Mickie being himself or what I like to call, "Mickie in the Raw". I'm guessing Mickie is not what the majority of people with Autism act like. I just got tired of seeing it portrayed as something just perfectly normal. It is what is; and, what is not is a dirty little secret that has to be hidden so that it won't offend the sensibilities of some.

It's a cruel world out there! It's evident when I take him out in public and people do stare and give dirty looks and shush him, because he can get really loud and there just no way to stop him. Perhaps they have never seen anyone like Mickie, because Autism is portrayed as something else.

Autism isolates the entire family, not just the afflicted child. It is difficult to visit and to have visitors. It is very hard and expensive to find appropriate childcare.

It is very tough to describe what it feels like to see your child suffer and not be able to help him. The pain of knowing that no amount of therapy and no amount of money will ever give him back the potential he was born with, can seem at times, unbearable. The love that I feel for this little boy is more than I could imagine, but at the same time I morn every day for the child he once was and might never be again.

Once in a blue moon I get a glance at the precious little person trapped inside his confused body - that person who views the world so different than me. And it's at those moments that I remember why I was meant to be his mother. It's hard to see everyone else's life around you go on as if everything was just fine, yet you know it's not ever going to be the same for you.

Sometimes when I touch bottom and I imagine this little guy as a grown man, and me too old to watch over him, I realize that this is as close as I have ever been to hell.

Am I bitter? Yes! Am I happy? No!! This days happiness is just a word, a front for the rest of world to see, because in the end; I just want my son back.

Zurama