Darryl Born 2000, Dx Autism 2004 - Improved +

His development matched that of his cousin (same age) until he reached 7 months. At this time he started teething and he suffered high temperatures 39.5 degrees and had strange viral rashes that required hospital admission. He was given Calpol and Ibuprofen. The first episode was diagnosed as Roseola Infantum (HHV6 virus) and this pattern was repeated for every tooth that erupted.

Christmas came and went and we didn't suspect any problems other than his speech was delayed and never developed much passed ch mm ttt sh . Darryl has his MMR vaccination on schedule.

We were concerned at 18 months as he had no speech and he started having trouble staying asleep at night was waking frequently for short/long periods of time.

At his 2.5 year check the health visitor referred him to a well trained paediatrician, who shared her suspicions about Autism which was something we had never heard of.

Aged 11 Months

Aged 18 month - the sparkle is fading  

He went for hearing & vision tests which were normal. A psychologist confirmed he had developmental delay. He had no eye contact, which was obvious when pointed out, but it never even crossed my mind before then, he had no speech and behaviour was getting worse.

He was referred to a unit which had a speech therapist/ play therapist for three mornings per week for 2.5 hours. It is October 2002 and Darryl looks very Autistic now. They used PECS in the unit and Darryl seemed to respond positively to this.

A neighbour suggested we take out Dairy and this improved things slightly. He was referred to hospital for NHS tests - Blood, urine and stool samples were taken and predictably, all came back 'normal', no Amino acids disorders, nothing found in stools, not Celiac, nothing in urine, no Fragile X chromosome disorder.

In December 2003, we heard about the GFCF diet and our brief success with removal of dairy, made us think the diet was worth a go. We have never looked back! We had eye contact within a week of removing dairy.

We  kept  a food / behaviour / poop diary to monitor things and joined Allergy Induced Autism and read everything we could find on diet and autism. We quickly established Dairy /Gluten and particularly soya  were the biggest triggers of diarrohea, Monosodium Glutamate, Aspartame, food additives and colourings were the triggers for hyperactivity.

Age 2.5 years at the CDC playgroup

When his poops were good, his behaviour and speech was good. When they were bad........ ........ so was he !

Then we looked at the days when his poops were really bad and worked out that eggs, tomatoes, citrus fruits , grapes, apples, broccoli, corn and refined sugars (any ending in syrup) and vegetable oil were also causing problems.

Aged 3.5 years

In March 2004, Darryl was given a formal diagnosis of Autism.

Diarrohea was kept at bay but kept coming and going for no reason we could think of. Within 6 months his co-ordination has improved  (couldn't jump with both feet or ride a bike before) . Sleep better but still waking up. Hyperactivity reduced.

Progress May 2005

Speech now up to six words in a sentence, can say about 500 words but doesn't see the point. Prior to diet would only say one word if we were lucky. Concentration has improved but still has trouble staying on task. He is still easily distractible. He can focus in on one thing, to the exclusion of everything else.

Not particularly bothered by change to routine. Doesn't have any flicking or stimming.

He likes water and Thomas the Tank Engine but is not obsessed. I think he has a photographic memory, he can remember anything and in the right order. Can appear deaf at times to others talking to him but fine with me. Doesn't like queues and won't wait for anything !!!!!!

We really struggled to find a multivitamin without citrus in, he even reacted to the  BioCare formula.

In May 2005, we went to see DAN!Practitioner,  Jean Muscroft in Chester. We read Children with Starving Brains by Jacqueline McCandless and started attending autism training courses and conferences.

We arranged for repeat blood, urine, stool tests at various well known labs, to try and get to the bottom of why the diarrohea would come for no reason , to find a suitable multi vitamin and to try and sort out his growth which had severely slowed down.

The tests showed he had parasites, bad bacteria in gut, inflammation , occult blood, overly acidic stools, high SigA (secretary IgA) in stool, amino acids all out of sync and deficient in vitamins / minerals. Ferritin very low (iron stores) not picked up NHS who did full blood count. This test is a functional blood chemistry profile.

Age 5 years

He has high triglycerides (poor fat absorption) and needs to eat protein in small amounts often. Also indicated was a 'folate trap' which is trouble processing folic acid. He had high histamine levels (cause of anxiety) and high kryptopyrroles.

When we got these results we were amazed.  The key to the tests is that they are far more comprehensive than the NHS ones.

We started on L-Glutamine to calm and soothe his gut. We treated the parasites with antibiotics , gave him Kirkman's yeast aid to try and stop anything nasty colonising his gut and started probiotics. 

We found recently found a multivitamin he tolerates made by Metabolics which has no additives, colours and has the Folinic Acid instead of folic acid which is important in Darryl's case as he is unable to process regualr Folic Acid.

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We discovered he had to eat protein, little and often. He has grown 4cm in 3 months and went up two shoe sizes in the same period!  Eating this way helped his moods as well. So we are well pleased!