GRAYSON
Grayson is our dynamic, silly and sassy five year old. He's such an amazing combination of sensitive, outgoing, caring, creative and SMART! I'm his mom, I can say that, lol. But truthfully, he is VERY smart! By the age of two, he knew all of his numbers, colors, letters (including phonetic sounds), and shapes, much of which kids are learning now in Kindergarten! By three, he was already teaching himself to read and knew just about every country in the world. His preschool teacher labeled him in his report card as "geographically gifted". He absorbs and he remembers, then he has the sense to apply what he learns. Oddly, he may even appear detached from whatever it is he is in the process of learning, because he is so easily distracted by his surroundings, but amazingly, he can still recite back to you what he just heard and/or saw! Unfortunately though, some of these unique qualities become lost in the maze of symptoms he experiences when his health isn't at it's greatest. And by "health" I am not referring to him having a cold or stomach bug, although they are also triggers for regression. What I mean by health is so complex that there just isn't enough time in my day to place the details here. There are wonderfully written books for that, written by doctors who can explain the technicalities of it all. Simply put, when a child's immune system isn't functioning properly, they are developmentally effected in so many ways. Here is a list of the various different symptoms we have experienced, they are not necessarily still ongoing, however, since we have been doing biomedicine for years.- Sleep disturbances which have mostly resolved and only reappear when his gut flora is imbalanced significantly.
- Colic is a sign of an inability to self-regulate (requires a pacifier or finger-sucking for comfort), can't go from sleeping to awake without distress, needs help falling asleep.
- Chonic Rhinitis practically from birth until we removed food sensitivities.
- Loose stools for most of his early life (using supplements and removing food sensitivities addressed this).
- HATED dirty hands and avoided messy play as long as I can remember and he had an over reaction to it (completely resolved with treatment).
- Frequent rocking that is immediately evident to us when we look back at family videos. We didn't even see it then, but now the rocking speaks volumes.
- He didn't like cuddling and literally pulled away from us since birth, he even arched away from me during nursing (since starting chelation, he's become the biggest cuddlebug ever).
- Weaned himself from nursing by 3 months old (this was a sign that he wasn't tolerating foods in my diet)
- At first, he was NEVER sick and I mean never, then when his immune system was healthy enough to kick in, after months of treatment, he began to catch just about everything that we encountered. Never being sick is a form of hyper-immune and it means that his immune system was so taxed that it literally shut down. After multiple rounds of chelation and proper supplementation, he is now able to appropriately respond to illness, he bounces back quicker than any of us.
- Hand-flapping when excited or upset (completely disappeared, was one of the first things to go with treatment)
- Incessant lining up of cars resulting in inappropriate play, he also freaked, if anyone interrupted his rows. He would put rows of cars all over our couches and floors and we couldn't touch them for fear of an extreme tantrum (also completely disappeared, and almost immediately, with treatment).
- Over stimulated very easily and couldn't calm himself. Play dates or environments with too many people often resulted in horrendous behaviors and I would have to remove him from the environment temporarily or sometimes even leave with him kicking and screaming. Even as an infant, if he got over stimulated, he wouldn't sleep well (not sure when this even resolved, I just know that it has, probably since we did at least 25 rounds of chelation)
- Couldn't handle transitions well (he is fabulous at this now, completely resolved with continued chelation)
- Fascination with ceiling fans (completely resolved with treatment)
- A full 30 days of various reactions to his 12 month vaccinations
- Tics - he has had various tics over time which started with ear and face swatting - looked like he was swatting at a fly and it was literally every couple of seconds while he wasn't fully distracted using both hands, then he had a tic that involved fixing his waistband constantly (although I now think this might have been more sensory related), then he went through phases of tics like head tilting, shoulder shrugging and opening his mouth really wide (we occasionally see recurrence of tics very mildly, but only when he is sick and/or has yeast overgrowth, the two go hand in hand, natural antifungals immediately resolve the tics, literally within 15-30 minutes!)
- Wet dog smell - When his hair is wet, he literally smells like a wet dog! I don't think I can recall a time when he hasn't had this after a bath, no matter what shampoo or soap we use. Still trying to figure out the cause, but I know it has gone away on a few occasions, only to return.
- Self-limiting of foods containing gluten and casein (AKA - food cravings)
- Hypoglycemia
- Food sensitivities to 25+ foods
- Sensory Processing Disorder which first surfaced as sensory seeking, he was crashing and bumping into everything and everyone (didn't always go over well with play dates), he would throw himself on the floor regularly. He was a chair kicker when sitting in a seat. He would press his hands in between cushions in the couch and trace textured surfaces with his fingers, almost incessantly when they were around him. If his yeast is overgrown, I can tell by how he starts to trace our cabinet doors, he can't even focus on a conversation he becomes so engrossed. He was also sensory defensive to sounds (covering ears and crying), sun, wind and textures. Just starting our lawnmower would send him hiding in the house in tears, a motorcycle would scare him so much that he would scale his father's 6 foot 2 body and public toilet flushing made him punch me in the face among other crazy instinctual reactions. He would ask us to talk softer, turn down music, etc. He hated clothing: socks, shoes, tight shirts, tags and putting a winter coat on used to be a battle every time, so we had to leave time for this regular routine of fixing everything under the coat, the sleeves, the collar, the back of the shirt....then getting into the car seat resulted in the same discomforts and we had to fix everything around him or we would have a relentless screaming child on our hands (ALL of his SPD is gone when his gut flora is balanced).
- Appeared ambidextrous and didn't alternate feet going down steps (amazingly, adding his homeopathic constitutional remedy resolved the issue with going down steps, after one dose!)
- OCD which only seemed to be an issue when he had a massive bacterial infection. (getting the bacteria, clostridia specifically, under control addressed these behaviors and let me tell you, this took a long time, probably at least 8 months!)
- Aggression and defiance (resolved also by addressing the bacteria, we occasionally see regression with certain viruses and bacterial overgrowth)
- Low self-esteem even though we were always focused on building him up (his confidence bounced back after getting his health in order)
- Fatigues very easily, we thought he was just a chill kid and liked his stroller, in fact we were glad he liked his stroller, we didn't have the walking struggles, but by 5 years old when he was STILL doing this and fighting us to sit in carriages instead of walking (with wild tantrums) we knew something wasn't right. This is the result of damaged mitochondria function, from heavy metals, specifically mercury (during his first round of chelation, he chose to walk himself!). We no longer see any of this. He rides his bike like a pro (no training wheels), walks beside the cart at all stores and even trotted around NYC on foot for blocks and blocks and BLOCKS with no complaints!
- Random vocal stims that came and went with treatment. Luckily, they were fleeting and always appeared to be part of severe die off.
- Says "What?" frequently
- Wild tantrums - These have become very rare and are most often related to regression associated with pathogen overgrowth and/or illness.
- Mood swings - He is one moody dude, but we are considering Pyroluria and supplementing B6 and high doses of zinc, so far so good, HTH!
- Low threshold for frustration - Can this be genetic? lol I am like this too. More likely, our deficiencies are similar. Working on it though.
- Unnatural fear of bugs and birds - Homeopathy (his constitutional remedy) addresses this.
- Delayed fine and gross motor skills appeared much later than the other symptoms and resolved after a few rounds of chelation with the Andy Cutler protocol, he was literally and suddenly peddling his bike in circles around me during his second round of chelation! Even his preschool teacher noticed a sudden increase in the development of his motor skills.
- Significant bloating (think 6-7 months pregnant looking!) which started from when he was a baby. I recall family members talking about his "cute Buddha belly" well beyond chubby baby days. This is something we still struggle with, because healing the gut takes significant time, although the bloating is not nearly as severe nor is it as frequent. He tends to look Ethiopian though, very thin limbs and bloating, due to malabsorption issues. Since starting camel milk, we are noticing his limbs thickening and developing muscle tone. His belly is much less bloated and is flat more often than it used to be. Once we added in SBOs (soild based organisims) his belly became FLAT as a board!!
- Low muscle tone
- Slow growth since starting his restrictive diet - this has gotten much better since adding camel milk to his diet! In fact, he gained five and a half pounds after two months on the milk. He jumped from 4T clothing to 6T in weeks!
- Yeast and bacteria imbalances as confirmed on stool and organic acid tests. His last stool test with Metemetrix was totally clean, no pathogenic overgrowth or even imbalances, his good bacteria is beginning to colonize at decent amounts too! Woot woot! When adding in the SBOs, mentioned under "significant bloating", we fought these uglies naturally. See the proof with our before and after OATs showing HPHPA going from 413 to 26!! Yeast is normal!!
- Suspected latent viruses based on reaction to olive leaf extract (which is an antiviral), after about ten days of dosing consistently, he broke out in a chicken pox-like rash all over his trunk (front and back), upper arms and neck. It took days to go away. This rash was similar to one of the rashes he developed after his 12 month vaccinations which consisted of the live varicella (AKA - chickenpox). In fact, he received FOUR live viruses in one visit so I wouldn't be surprised if more of them have taken up residence in his gut. Based on his reaction to lauracidin (a proven natural antiviral that targets Rubella), I suspect he could also be battling with live Rubella in his gut too (we use very low doses of the lauracidin for the Rubella and have gotten up to much higher doses of olive leaf extract daily so we are hoping to eradicate these things with time).
- PANDAS - officially diagnosed in 2011 with positive and high titers. It was suspected long before, but having the test results confirmed this monster. We continue to fight it naturally with great success. Part of the picture is homeopathy, but another very large part is addressing parasites that the strep bacteria hitches a ride on. We are seeing impressive improvements WITHOUT the use of any antibiotics and we have been able to drop ALL antimicrobials, even the natural ones. We are moving right along!!
GAVIN
Gavin is our spunky little storm trooper in disguise. He's a fun-loving, good spirited, very sensitive and emotional little guy who senses the mood in the room even before anyone else. He is a sweet looking and small-for-his-age tough cookie! He doesn't miss a beat and goes the distance to make his point heard. He loves to do things himself, like returning the lids to anything I open, going up the stairs at bedtime, "helping" me cook, wiping his own face, and even cleaning up after playing! He's one strong personality, but boy does he like to cuddle and hug!! When he was born, we had just been embarking on biomedicine with Grayson, so we tried to work on prevention with him, as much as our knowledge at the time allowed. One thing I am grateful for is our decision to not vaccinate him! We also never gave him gluten (with the exception of one small and devastating trial with it) or dairy when he started eating solid foods. Foods are a challenge with Gavin, daily, because he feels loved when he is fed foods he loves (ask anyone who is the Cancer sign) and often that means battles with what he wants compared to what is good for him. He used to hate anything green, but is finally enjoying veggies with our persistence. - Low birth weight, born three weeks early.
- Torticollis shortly after birth (resolved when he started walking, but we also did physical therapy with him regularly which was torture for him and us)
- Eczema in reaction to milk or soy even through MY diet during nursing (removal of the food eliminated his eczema completely and only food infractions caused it to return).
- Toenail fungus - He had one very thick and yellow big toe nail until we started treatment with the antimicrobials. Has been gone ever since.
- Failure to thrive - Adding camel milk to his diet has encouraged rapid growth as of the age of 2.75 years old. He gained two pounds in the first two DAYS, then another pound after a week on the milk! He's also gained over an inch in height in the first few weeks on the milk. We watched him grow out of clothing and shoes in this very short time. After 3 months on the milk, he went from 10% in weight to 49% and 2.2% (yes you read that right) in height to 10%!!
- Febrile seizure with one illness, resulted in a two day hospital stay and a slew of tests all resulting in nothing out of the ordinary (scariest moment of my life as I watched my child's life appear to slip away from me, in my arms)!
- Bacterial infections which we learned of when he was given Vancomycin in the hospital (this is an antibiotic that is used very specifically for Clostridia infections by DAN! doctors), because it was the FIRST time his red anal ring ever went away. We thought it was food sensitivities, when in fact, it was GI irritation due to chronic bacterial infections (as long as we keep his antimicrobials consistent, his ring stays away).
- Yeast overgrowth (comes with the bacteria and symptoms are consistent).
- Wet dog smell - When his hair is wet, he literally smells like a wet dog! It has existed as long as he has had hair! This has gone away on multiple occasions and I still don't really know what the reason was. It's not as severe now as it always has been though, so things are changing over time.
- Highly sensitive to touch, says "ouch" to touching him (this resolves when his gut flora is balanced).
- Frequently communicates with screaming.
- Defiant actions, especially with his brother, uses physical force.
- He also suffers from the same severe bloating as Grayson and until we started the low oxalate diet, he had very inconsistent stool consistencies from constipated to loose with a lot of undigested foods (using enzymes eliminates the undigested foods, and the LOD got rid of the stool inconsistencies). Since starting the camel milk, the undigested food has been eliminated, even without enzymes, although we have reintroduced the enzymes for the sake of phenols. After 2 days on Alinia, the bloating and red anal ring disappeared completely.
- Painful joints and eye pains (this also resolved with the LOD).
- Slow speech development (when he is on a chelation round, his speech accelerates impressively!) The camel milk had him suddenly speaking in full sentences, literally immediately! We can't believe his speech and complex thoughts ever since starting the milk.Beyond that, treating for parasites has been the icing on the cake, his speech quickly advanced!
- Confirmed parasite infection with Dientamoeba Fragilis - We did a 32 (35 for him) day Alinia prescription, with the whole family. After three days on the script, he became amazingly calm, flat bellied, and compliant, for a change!
- Significant oxalate and salicylate sensitivities. Oxalate dumping became almost constant, we would literally see teaspoons of crystals in his urine regularly. It wasn't until we began to fight the parasites aggressively that the oxalate dumping let up, in fact, I'm not so sure we see it much at all anymore, although we aren't ready to add higher oxalate foods back in just yet....I see it in our future though!
- He lost two large chunks of his beautiful goldi-locks suddenly one day after starting him on SBOs (soil-based organisms). They literally pulled out in my hands, the way you would picture hair chunks coming out of a chemo patient's scalp. The scalp was smooth, zero hair left about the size of two quarters, side-by-side. I panicked, we brought him to the doctor for a battery of tests, which mostly came back normal, nothing really pointing to the cause of the hair loss. It is very possible the SBOs switched on his immune system and the President of the company thought between that and the eye pains he was experiencing, that the SBOs were addressing a parasite issue, which leads us into the next item...
- More intensive parasite treatments involving products like Quinton water, Rompepiedra, various meds, Neem tea and diatamaceous earth are proving extremely successful. His ATEC score came down from 80 to 29 in just four weeks! We still have a looooong way to go to fight these blasted bugs, as the protocol typically lasts 12 months, but the progress he's made in such a short time has me believing this will be the icing on the cake for him, long-term!
- Tying into the last item, his hair only started to grow back where it fell out, after starting this parasite protocol.
"Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger" -Dr. Francis Collins
