ODD, Allergies, Sensitivities and ALCAT - Page 2

[mamafish9]

For a multi, yeah, try sprinkling some of a capsule in food somewhere (maybe sunbutter sandwiches?). I remember trying chewable C for my son - 1/4 of one cherry flavored tab, and he ran around and hit the walls for 3 HOURS. If she can do a little chocolate, you can often hide quite a few things in chocolate flavored smoothies.

Longer term, companies that make vitamins for kids on the autism spectrum often have: a) more "real" amounts of vitamins - I consider the animal parade ones candy, compared to what my child needs, and b) low sals. Two options to check out, brainchild nutritionals - liquid vitamin & mineral & separate mag - lemon/lime flavor is low sals. The minerals taste good, the mag is "OK", the vites are pretty strong tasting. The other option is giprohealth makes a powder multi (lightly orange flavored, OK for my son though). He didn't like the taste, but he won't drink smoothies and can't have chocolate - I suspect it would taste fine in a bit of chocolate smoothie.

We tried the cream, I can't say as how I think it made a huge difference, but every little bit helps.

In terms of magnesium from whole foods - this can work, IF she has good digestion. If she tends to poop out partially digested foods, or anything like that, she's unlikely to get the magnesium from the foods. People low in zinc often have low stomach acid, which leads to poor digestion, and impaired mag absorption. Since meat is one of the best sources of food zinc, I wouldn't be surprised if she's low. Just one other thing to think about .

[baby-makes-3]

I appreciate the recommendations on vitamins -- I agree the Animal Parade are very candy-like, but I was actually quite proud of myself for moving her away from the gummy-bear variety. Those gummy bears started us down this love for sugar that she did not have previously -- but I digress...

She does eat eggs pretty regularly so hopefully she'll get some zinc from that. I'm not opposed to her eating chicken from strictly organic/natural sources -- I just told DH today that she may be one of those kids who needs lots of protein for proper brain function. I've been pretty paranoid about making sure she does get a variety of sources of protein, including eggs and fish.

But get this -- when this whole bh thing started back in November, I came here in December to post about it: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...879&highlight=.

At the end of the thread, I had taken her off all supplements and she went five days with no meltdowns, but I had an appointment with the naturopath the next day. When I showed him all the supplements I had her on and explained her diet, he said there wasn't anything in them that should affect her and that he'd rather her be on those supplements to get some of the nutrients she was missing. So, I started her back on them.

If salicylates ends up being part of her problem, then I'll be ticked at the naturopath.

[mamafish9]

If she had 5 good days off supps, and better days on sunbutter, then I'd say you have good circumstantial evidence that you're dealing with sals sensitivity and low mag (which increases sals sensitivity). I'm so sorry you've been struggling with it for months - I hope you can go back to having really good days soon!

[baby-makes-3]

Thanks so much for your help, mamafish -- you've been a HUGE help.

I'll post an update in a few days and we'll see how she does!!

[baby-makes-3]

Another thing I was thinking about -- around December, she developed an absessed tooth, with horrible pain and fever. We put her on 2 rounds of antibiotics (with about 10 days in between) before we could get it extracted. (Of course, it was around the holidays and we couldn't get in earlier.)

Both times, her bh spiked down badly within 2 days of starting the antibiotic. I mentioned it to the homeopath and he said that if something else is going on in her body and then you add the medicine, then it "backs up" the liver and then neurotoxins can be released into the system.

However, antibiotics are loaded with artificial everything! I knew that at the time, but didn't have any choice to get dye-free/flavoring-free antibiotics.

It's just more evidence that this might be what's been affecting her all along...

[mamafish9]

Yup, if there was dye or artificial stuff in the antibiotics, that's likely just more evidence for her reacting to those things (they clear through the same liver pathway as sals).

Did you do some good probiotics to help her gut repopulate with good flora?

[baby-makes-3]

Did you do some good probiotics to help her gut repopulate with good flora?

The homeopath had given her a bottle from Mindlinx which he said contained the element that helps process dairy (even though she's off dairy, in case any snuck in...). But when he tested for parasites, etc. (Metametrix 2105 Microbial Ecology Profile) (which was about a week after the final antibiotic dosage), she came back high in Lactobacillus sp. and Bifidobacter, which he said showed that she had been taking the probiotics and they were active in her system.

[baby-makes-3]

Funny, I just came back here this morning to mention salicylates. In particular, many fruits are high in sals - and fruit flavors used in vitamins are particularly condensed, so extremely high sals. This is a huge problem with chewable vitamins (here's the ones you said your DD is taking):

Animal Parade D3 - black cherry flavor
KidGreenz - tropical fruit flavors
Go Fish - orange flavor (probably not awful), rosemary extract (extremely high sals)
multi - don't know which one you're doing, but if it's a chewable, highly likely to be berry/cherry flavored

Any one of these would be enough to turn my easygoing kid, who is not nearly as sals sensitive as he used to be, into a screaming, hitting, wild, sensory overloaded mess. Think of it as the equivalent of giving a sensitive child a tsp of red food coloring .

There are things you can do to improve salicylates tolerance, and alternative, low sals options to the vitamins you give your daughter, if in fact that is a problem. But I'd suggest that for a few days, while you stop calcium and add lots of mag, that you stop these other vitamins. It won't hurt for a few days, and hopefully the combo will make a big difference.

Epsom salts baths are great, but they don't work for everyone - my son needed oral magnesium as well. So doing both is a great idea.

I know this sounds like a lot, but the good news about mag and sals is that you can often make some changes and see profound differences very quickly. Good luck!
__________________
Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. ~Jonathan Kozel

I just wanted to come back here to thank you for your suggestions. The mention of the sals has started us back on the road to sanity.

We ended up joining Feingold and she's been a different kid since being on the program for just a few weeks.

Her sensitivity issues are still there, but they're managable and she loves being on the diet because it makes her feel so much better. I think sometimes we are so caught up in how dealing with these kids makes US feel that we forget how they feel when they are out of control.

Thanks, mamafish!! U did better than the naturopath and the ped for helping me figure out the problem .

[mamafish9]

I'm so glad things are going well - it can be a huge transformation to get them off of what they are sensitive to. And it's sometimes hard to imagine food causing the kinds of behavior challenges you were dealing with. Happy I could help, and thank you so much for reporting back!

[MomToEmerson]

Thank you so much for this thread. I am sitting here just bawling. This is my son - to a T. we have been through so much already, and I am so hopeful this new direction will bring some answers. I also have mountains of supplements I give him, and he is on a GF/DF/EF diet with a bunch of other things also taken out. And still the highs and lows are unpredictable, and there are days where he is nuts and I KNOW he hasn't had any of the taboo allergy foods. But he has had APPLE JUICE. I am reading through the feingold info and there it is - No APPLE JUICE. I don't know what else is on the list, but I am just crying reading through the free first pages they let you read and hoping against all hope that this will finally give me some answers. I don't know what to do about upping magnesium. He was on magnesium supps for 6 months because of a refusal to BM for the past 3 years unless he was on Miralax to the point of uncontrollable diarrhea. I found magnesium and switche dhim to that. But that became such a power struggle after 6 months that he finally chose to potty learn if I'd let him stop taking it. We were spending 6 hours a day trying to get him to take it one way or another. I can't say it improved his issues at all either so maybe that isn't key for him - I hope anyway.

[baby-makes-3]

Hi MomtoEmerson,

I totally get where you are coming from! It's so hard to find just the right combination for our little ones, but SOO much is caused by our diet. Since I've had DD on Feingold, I have realized so much about some of my own issues which are caused by certain foods. It just makes you really aware and be able to pick out cause and effects...

If you do choose to give it a try, there is a super-supportive and helpful forum over there.

Either way, keep up the good investigative work -- he'll thank you one day .