RETAINED REFLEXES, LEARNING AND HAPPINESS

baby crawling on a floorMy older son with sensory processing disorder (SPD) benefited greatly from going to a land-based occupational therapist (OT) for six months.  I asked her what we should do about him learning to swim, given that he had such a bad experience with it when he was 2 years old.

You might remember that he was so overwhelmed by the lights, sounds, the way the water felt, and his gravitational insecurity in the water that one day after class he came home and wiped down half the kitchen to relieve his stress.  That’s a pretty strong reaction from a toddler.  [Read more…]

Angelfish Therapy: Aquatic Therapy for Developmental Delays

Angelfish Therapy: Aquatic Therapy for Developmental DelaysWARNING:  I am a huge, biased fan of Cindy Freedman and Ailene Tisser of Angelfish Therapy aquatic therapy.

Angelfish Therapy is aquatic occupational therapy for children with developmental delays, gross motor delays and sensory issues, especially those concerning water.  This can include kids with sensory processing disorder, learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, PDD-NOS, speech delays, apraxia and dyspraxia.

I began taking my older son to aquatic therapy at Angelfish 4 years ago; Cindy Freedman worked with him for 1-1/2 years.

Retained Reflexes

It was there, sitting on the side of the pool during weekly therapy sessions, that I learned about about retained reflexes.  Retained reflexes are ones that a child has kept rather than integrating as a normal part of development.  They are typically seen in the types of children listed above.

Cindy told me that my son had a retained Moro reflex, which was the reason for his constant state of “fight or flight”, which for him, meant a lot of anxiety and being upset at the drop of a hat, which made swimming difficult for him.

Before my son had any kind of OT at all, I used to take him for Mommy & Me baby swimming classes at the local YMCA.  He would get so upset at being in the water that he wouldn’t be able to learn much at all.  One time he got so upset that he came home and wiped down half the cabinets in the kitchen for half an hour just to soothe himself.

Now that I had learned about his retained Moro reflex, his reactions began making more sense to me.

Is It ADHD or Is It a Retained Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex?

Cindy also told me that he had a retained Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR), which, if it’s not integrated, according to Rhythmic Movement Training International, can lead to:

  • Poor, hunched posture
  • Headaches from muscle tension in the neck
  • Difficulty writing and reading
  • Difficulty sitting still
  • “W” sitting
  • Difficulty copying from blackboard
  • Ape-like walking
  • Vision disorders
  • Find it difficult to stay on task

A lot (75%!) of kids with a retained STNR have ADHD, writes Sally Goddard, author of “Reflexes, Learning & Behavior:  A Window into the Child’s Mind: A Non-Invasive Approach to Solving Learning & Behavior Problems.”

And a lot of times, a retained STNR can look like ADHD simply because of the retained reflex.  In addition, many times Sensory Processing Disorder can look like ADHD.  So don’t put your kids on Ritalin just yet!

The STNR separates the body’s movements from the top half to the bottom half.  It’s used to help a baby push off the floor learning to cross crawl.  If it’s integrated, a baby will uncouple the head’s movement from the movement of the arms and legs.

Sounds like just a minor point, but it’s not.  Many kids, like my son, with a retained STNR never cross-crawled or did so for just a short period of time.  My son slithered backwards for a couple of months when he first started to move, then he army crawled from 8 to 18 months.  He cross-crawled for about a month and only began to walk at 20 months, which is REALLY late.

Cross-crawling helps wire the brain’s visual processing, which in turn affects learning ability.  Think about it:  A cross-crawling baby who can bend his neck to look down at the floor then up at his mom mimics the same motion that a child in school does who bends his neck to look at his schoolwork then up to the blackboard.

Teachers:  How many “ADHD” kids that you see in your classroom have poor posture and lack the ability to sit up straight and focus?  Could it be they have a retained STNR?

Because my son had a retained STNR, swimming was difficult for him because kids (and it seems to be mostly boys) with it can’t uncouple their head movements from the rest of their bodies, so they swim with their heads back and can’t put them down into the water without the back half of their bodies falling down.

So not only does aquatic therapy help with overcoming developmental delays, but it also helps with learning, and, most importantly, helps with water safety for these children.  Do you know that drowning is the leading cause of death for autistic children?

If you’re not fortunate enough to live in Fairfield County, CT, the New York City area, the Boston area, or Asheville, NC, you can purchase their videos for your own education.  If you’re a PT, OT, etc., you can attend their workshops and get certified as an Angelfish instructor.

In closing, you can see Ailene working with a boy to help correct his balance in this YouTube video:

P.S.  My son actually swims now!

 

How I Finally Got Help for Sensory Processing Disorder

seesawHere’s how I finally got help for Sensory Processing Disorder.

For my older son, I had a litany of signs for 3-1/2 years that told me something was wrong, despite reassurances to the contrary of his doctors.

The Tipping Point

It all hit the fan when our nanny left to have her own baby shortly after my oldest son turned 3.  Yes, I was extremely fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom with a nanny; but, looking back, I really needed the help.

My older son had been used to having either me or the nanny completely to himself.  All of a sudden when she left, he was forced to share me with his baby brother.  So what did he do?

He cried.  And cried.  And cried.  And cried.  And cried.  Over EVERY little thing.  [Read more…]

HEALING ECZEMA WITH THE GAPS DIET

My sons have had eczema their whole lives.  It has ranged from cradle cap (did you know that was a form of eczema?) to itchy bumps in the creases of the knees and elbows to full-blown bloody red rashes on the arms and legs.

Pediatricians, as usual (sorry!), were useless in treating eczema.  Their standard advice was to “put a little cortisone cream on it”.  I did try that a few times at first with my older son, but I quickly grew worried about the effects of it on his already-poor immune system.  [Read more…]

IS IT FATIGUE OR MITOCHONDRIAL DYSFUNCTION?

mitochondrionBecause of my son’s failure to thrive, our pediatrician sent us to see Vicki Kobliner, a holistic nutritionist, who’s also on the board of Epidemic Answers with me.

Given that Crane Man has constant fatigue and stomach pain, poor growth, mild sensory issues and developmental delays, Vicki suggested having preliminary tests for mitochondrial dysfunction done.  [Read more…]

Lyme Disease Symptoms in Children

A few months ago, my then-6-year-old son had a definite change in his typically sweet personality for the worst.

Given that he already been recovered from sensory processing disorder, I was confused.

This time, instead of crying at loud sounds, bright lights, fast motions, etc., he was ANGRY.  In fact, every time I would ask him to do something, he would yell back at me and say that I hated him and that I was yelling, when in fact I wasn’t yelling at all.

Almost every day he would look at me with total hatred and anger, stomp out the front door and tell me he was running away from home.

I was really confused because these are supposed to be the “golden” years of childhood when there’s not so much hands-on work to do with children this age and they are happy to be with their family.

I kept thinking “If he’s like this as a child, what the heck is he going to be like as a teenager?”

Could It Be Lyme?

This went on for a few months until I remembered about Lyme disease; this blog is about Lyme disease symptoms in children..  Lyme disease can cause sudden changes in behavior, and we live in tick-ridden Connecticut, so this wasn’t a far-out hypothesis.

Lymedisease.org lists the following common symptoms of children with Lyme:

  • “severe fatigue unrelieved by rest
  • insomnia
  • headaches
  • nausea, abdominal pain
  • impaired concentration
  • poor short-term memory
  • inability to sustain attention
  • difficulty thinking and expressing thoughts
  • difficulty reading and writing
  • being overwhelmed by schoolwork
  • difficulty making decisions
  • confusion
  • uncharacteristic behavior
  • outbursts and mood swings
  • fevers/chills
  • joint pain
  • dizziness
  • noise and light sensitivity”

Here a few other symptoms in children:

  • Low tone
  • Clumsiness
  • Learning disabilities
  • Vision problems
  • Fear of heights
  • Rages
  • OCD
  • Heartburn
  • Achiness, especially in the knees

Uncharacteristic Behavior

It was the uncharacteristic behavior, outbursts and mood swings that really made me suspect that it might be Lyme.

I did more research on it, especially about Dr. Charles Ray Jones, a Lyme pediatric specialist who practices near my town.  I had heard him speak before at Dietrich Klinghardt’s Klinghardt Academy in New York City a few months prior; Dr. Klinghardt also specializes in difficult-to-treat disorders, like Lyme, autism and autoimmune diseases.

I had brought a friend who suffers from possible Lyme disease with me to the Academy’s workshops, and she knew of Dr. Jones and his amazing work.

Dr. Jones is fairly famous in the Lyme disease community for recovering children from what is thought to be autism, ADHD, SPD, OCD, ODD and other neurodevelopmental disorders.  It turns out that in MANY of these cases, these children actually had Lyme disease. 

Dr. Jones has recovered over 10,000 children from these disorders.  He prescribes various antibiotics for a course of many years, whereas if you were to go to a typical doctor for treatment of Lyme, he or she would prescribe antibiotics for a few weeks or months.

Personally, I wouldn’t want to subject myself or my children to antibiotics for any amount of time these days, knowing what I know about how they destroy the immune system.  But, hey, the man gets results, and the results show that many of these disorders are, in fact, from Lyme infections.

In his presentation, he gave a few examples of children.  One of them was a young boy who at a very young age (5 or 6) had already been in and out of juvenile detention for things like harming animals, which is a known sign of a child or person on the road to becoming a hardened criminal.  After a few months of treatment from Dr. Jones, this same boy had become the sweetest, most likeable child.

Dr. Jones typically suspects Lyme if the child has any of the following conditions:

  • “frequent fevers
  • increased incidence of ear and throat infections
  • increased incidence of pneumonia
  • irritability
  • joint and body pain
  • poor muscle tone
  • gastroesophageal reflux
  • small windpipe (tracheomalacia)
  • cataracts and other eye problems
  • developmental delay
  • learning disabilities
  • psychiatric problems”

What’s interesting is that 50% of Dr. Jones’ patients have no known history of being bitten by a deer tick and fewer than 10% have a history the classic Lyme bull’s-eye rash (erythema migrans).  In fact, many times the mother unknowingly passes the infection on to the child during pregnancy or childbirth.

Lyme Co-Infections

Lyme disease isn’t just infection from the Lyme spirochete bacterium.  There are also co-infections (bartanella, babesia and erlichia) that typically occur at the same time.  Or someone could just get one of the co-infections without having any of the other co-infections of Lyme.

Lyme disease and its co-infections are difficult to test for.  One reason is due to the corkscrew shape of the bacteria, which allows them to burrow in without being easily detected.

Spirochetes (see the word “spiral” in there?) are one of the most ancient forms of life on this Earth, and they know to survive and adapt to rapidly changing environments.

The Great Masquerader

Lyme can masquerade not only as autism and development delays but also as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis and neurological damage.  In my mind, it should be one of the first things tested for when an autoimmune disease or neurological dysfunction has a sudden onset.  It’s becoming a hidden epidemic, as not a lot of doctors know to test for it.

There’s an excellent documentary about Lyme called, “Under Our Skin”.  I specifically remember a beautiful woman documented in the film who became increasingly contorted.  She gradually lost control of many of her muscles, and doctors, of course, thought she had multiple sclerosis (MS).

The reason that we know it wasn’t MS is that she regained her strength and control after a very long course of antibiotics, so it was obviously an infection.  How many people that have MS, RA, fibromyalgia, autism or developmental delays simply have Lyme?  It’s a real shame they’re not getting proper treatment.

Lyme is not just limited to the Northeastern U.S. anymore; it’s now spreading west to places where you wouldn’t think deer ticks are.  Deer ticks are not the only means of transmission:  mosquitoes, fleas and ticks can also carry the infection.

Given that there is an increasing number of people with gut dysbiosis and toxicity, and thus, a compromised immune system, it’s not surprising that their weakened state allows for such an infection.

Testing for Lyme

Most doctors will run a Western blot test, but it’s not always accurate.  An IgG test would show elevated levels when fighting an infection for a long time, and an IgM test shows if an illness has been reactivated.

Given the confusion surrounding the issue of detecting Lyme, I asked our naturopath to test my son for Lyme with his ASYRA (yes, it’s a little “woo woo”).  Sure enough, my son was infected with bartonella, also known as cat-scratch fever.

Rather than going the antibiotic route, our naturopath prescribed a super-strong herbal remedy.  Ever since treatment began a couple of months, my son hasn’t been hateful or hurtful and is now the super-sweet boy I remember.  His favorite words now are, “I’m so happy I could cry.”  Me, too!

 

C SECTIONS AND BABY FORMULA

infant formulaYet another study shows that C sections and feeding your baby formula instead of breastmilk can change your baby’s gut flora for the worse, leading to gut dysbiosis.

The study’s lead author, Meghan Azad, says that, “Infants born by cesarean delivery are at increased risk of asthma, obesity and type 1 diabetes, whereas breastfeeding is variably protective against these and other disorders.”

I would go further and explain to you that many neurological disorders (autism, PDD-NOS, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Lyme, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis, etc.), digestive disorders (acid reflux, colic, colitis, Crohn’s, celiac, etc.) and/or autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, lupus, etc.) have gut dysbiosis as a core, underlying future.

 

CAN KIDS BE RECOVERED FROM AUTISM?


We at Epidemic Answers know that children can be recovered from autism, as well as PDD-NOS, Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, allergies, asthma, autoimmune diseases, neurological disorders and digestive issues.

In fact, we’re making a film about recovering 14 kids in 5 cities from 7 disorders:  autism, ADHD, asthma, atopic dermatitis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, mood disorders and type 2 diabetes/obesity.

Dr. Rusell Jaffe, developer of the ELISA/ACT test, and Dr. Martha Herbert, Harvard pediatric neurologist and author of “The Autism Revolution”, are heading up the film’s medical advisory board.

Something is happening to our children.

Over the last two decades:
* Asthma has increased 300%
* ADHD has increased 400%
* Allergies have increased 400%
* And autism has increased 1500%

We can help.

Many say it is not possible.

But we are doing the impossible.

14 children.  18 months.  1 goal.

Recovery.

Help us help them.  We need your help.  Even $5 can help us get this important film made.  Many people, even many doctors, don’t know that kids can recover from these conditions.

www.EpidemicAnswers.org/donate

METHYLATION: THE HIDDEN LINK AMONG ALCOHOLISM, AUTISM, CANCER AND MORE

diseaseMethylation is a subject that keeps coming up again and again for my sons and myself.  It’s one of those all-encompassing issues like toxicity or gut dysbiosis because so many diseases and conditions are linked, directly or indirectly, to it or rather, a lack of it.

What is methylation?  It’s the chemical process of donating a methyl group (CH3) to a molecule or compound.  This doesn’t sound like much, but this little group is very important to how our bodies function, as I’m finding out.

It not only helps with energy production and builds immune cells and neurotransmitters, but it also processes hormones, detoxifies our bodies, puts protective myelin sheath on our nerves, and can be responsible for epigenetic gene regulation.

Because of its association with all of these essential processes, an inability to methylate is linked to a whole host of diseases and conditions.  Methylation defects are linked to: [Read more…]

TRICLOSAN LINKED TO MUSCLE WEAKNESS

hand sanitizerGreat.  Not only is triclosan, the drug in many anti-bacterial hand sanitizers and soaps, an endocrine disruptor (it damages your thyroid and hormonal system) and a pesticide (it kills your good gut flora), but now researchers are finding out it leads to muscle weakness, including cardiac weakness.

So not only is triclosan linked to allergies and any other chronic conditions with a gut dysbiosis component (like autism, ADHD, allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases, but now it might be linked to Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and heart disease.

Please pass the word.  This is a product no one should be using!