Hi there
I am looking for any help or advice you can offer my for my four year old son. We have been dealing with health problems with him for about a year now. He has been treated by a classical homeopath since feb, and I have come to believe in homeopathy, but he is still sick, just as sick as he was when we began (tho he has had ups in the course of the treatment)
For his first three years my son was the picture of health, extremely active, exuberant, intense, very happy, verbal, silly, loving, and quite the center of attention. Until his problems began I had no idea how sensitive and complicated he was as well.
The birth of my second child, just a few days before Joshua's third birthday seemed in retrospect to send him downhill fast. I believe he felt betrayed and abandoned both by the circumstances surrounding the birth and first month, as well as the mere existance of his sibling.
About 2 months after the birth we noticed he seemed to be crossing his eyes...we had noticed this every once in a while before the second baby, but it seemed to dramatically increase. Doc diagnosed him with strabismus (accomodative) , amblyopia in right eye, and extreme farsightedness. Glasses right away. This was a big shock to me. Then the same month we realized he had no appetite...was losing weight and looking skinny, pale and sickly. He went from 37 lbs, to 32 lbs. At this point he began to spit up on random occasions...walking through a book store, at night when falling asleep. On these occasions he would reflux up about a handful of vomit. Then we noticed he seemed to get these fits where he would be unable to stand straight...he would jacknife at the waist, or bend his neck to the front, side , bend over at the waist almost constantly. He developed fluid in his ears and a sinus infection, both of these for the first time ever. He had his first (and only ) dose of antibiotics. He began to have episodes where he would be overcome with excruciating pain...his body would stiffen, toes would curl, head thrown back, neck tendons jutting out, mouth agape, and he would just scream...usually for about 7 seconds, then his body would relax, almost limp or spent.
We took him to childrens hospital in january to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. He diagnosed him with reflux, and sandifer's syndrome (all the head tipping and bending over all the time) which is a nerological response to the acid on the esophagus for some children. He was put on zantac, prilosec, prevacid etc....nothing helped at all. He was given an endoscopy...the doc said it was one of the worst cases of esophagitis he had seen ..his esophagus was litterally bloody!!...yet my son had only been having the painful episodes for about 2-3 months at this point. the doc recommened surgery...fundoplication to create a new valve from his stomach. We said no(due to research we did on this surgery) and sought out alternative meds. He began NAET treatment...we began to see the symptoms had some connection to what he was eating...food allergy.(and lots of them)
Then we began homeopathy. The months from feb till now have been a roller coaster. His symptoms, emotions etc have changed so many times!!! But we are in a bad way now, and our homeopath is stummped.
Here are his current physical symptoms;
When he wakes in the morning he is fine, just like a healthy child. As soon as he eats his first food, or drinks water, the problems begin. He complains of stomach pain, or feeling naseous, or just begins to do the weird sandifer's posturing.If he eats a food he is allergic to , which is like 90% of foods, then he may get a painful screaming episode. We try to feed him only food that seems non allergenic to him , and in this way hope for just the milderr symptoms. He also gets physical symptoms almost every time he is buckled into his carseat, also when he hears his brother cry. He also gets symptoms when he has an emotional upset. He gets gradually worse and more reactive as the day goes on, so by evening he might react very badly to a food that eaten in morning would just make him feel yucky or naseous.
His personality has gone through a roller coaster....the last time he was joyful and exuberant was right before the birth a year ago. He has had periods of depression since then. The last few months his usual mood is serious, pessemistic, drawn, negative, somber....though he does display other more positive emotions, these ones are sort of a theme. He seems really sad. He sees himself as a sick child...he says so all the time. He sees himself as a victim. He has lost his confidence...before this, he had so much confidence in his body..he was a daredevil....now he is scared to try much of anything athletic.
There are so many other aspects to his picture I just dont know where to start...things change all the time. I will try to use the questionaire as a guide
Joshua is caucasian , blond hair, very blue eyes,slender build,very beautiful face
1) I think you got a picture of the physical problems...to add...his color is terrible....pale face with greenish yellow in the face and sometimes a blue look...esp forehead. strabismus due to farsightedness. Loss of appetite currently still at 32 lbs (I have done my best to give him max calories and food and he cannot gain a pound!!) bloodwork revealed iron deficiency anemia (hg aprox 10) stool revealed candida, clostridia, klebsiella...diminished pancreatic enzyme activity resulting in poor digestion.
His stool activity is good...he poops 1-3 times per day, perfectly formed, nice color, large amounts. He sometimes has to poop right after a particularly painful episode. HIs thirst was enormous before the birth last year, now he is almost never thirsty. He is irritable often, currently argumentative, distrustful of my "doing right by him" worried about germs, poorly affected by strong smells, loud noises, fireworks, thunder, and untill his latest remedy-water as in pools,showers, and washing his hair (that seems better now)
He doesnt like to wear clothes, always naked at home, sleeps naked and kicks covers off. Body feels normal temp ...he gets cold easily though but wont get dressed. Wants me to cuddle him to warm him.
2) I think the displacement caused by his brother (sibling jealousy) caused this. He and I and his father were extremely close..I thought this would give him a good "foundation" in life...but I think he got used to it and assumed that this was how life would always be.
3) aggravated by eating, emotional upsets, riding in carseat, towards end of day, ingesting allergic foods, baby crying, strong smells, and to some degree when he want attention
what makes better? anything that takes his mind off it...sweets, yummy food, spotting something interesting out car window...cuddling him...these dont work when he is in extreme pain, but during the naseous stage only.
4) worse starting in afternoon progressing till bedtime around 8-9pm
5)??
6)doesnt like super hot temps indoors, nor cold air conditioning blowing on him, doesnt like thunder/lightning...otherwise seems fine in most weather...we live in temperate ocean setting so not many other weather to observe him in...before problems just loved the ocean..mad for it really...now he is more indiferent.
7)bad position is buckled into carseat
8) I guess now he tends to feel cool on outside, tho when having a reaction to food his heat races and his body gets hot...He prefers to be naked all the time...sometimes he will get sweaty at night upon falling alseep...this seems to come and go depending on the remedy he is taking.

going straight to food
He loves loves loves sweets. His diet is so restricted that I truly dont know what he craves, but for sure he loves sugar, esp chocolate...carbs, bread, cake, cookies, jams etc.
likes butter, milk..ok with meat..ham, chicken, pork, loves loves bacon and sausage.
used to (before illness) love veggies and beans...now claims to not want. he will eat eggs and fruit.
doesnt drink much..prefers sweet drinks..lately been asking for ice in drinks, tho he also asks for tea (made with hot water and a pau d'arco capusle and a few drops of stevia)made warm.

sleep...He falls asleep quickly. No sandifers in sleep. on some occasions he refluxes or tummy make loud sounds. sometimes falls alseep in fetal position...I find him often flat on back with head jutting back (like cpr position) probably due to esophagus pain...sometimes on belly, sometimes on forehead and knees...I think he has lots of different sleeping positions.

he is currently taking no meds...he got first cold at 1 1/2, maybe 3 colds per year since then...in this last 8 months he has had one cold (he was hypersensative about it, but it was not severe)
he is not really vaccinated, tho he had 2 HIB shots at 4 mos and 6 mos, and one tetanus only shot (not DP) at age two to which he reacted very badly (emotionally freaked out and cried for a week till a NAET treatment for tetanus vaccine)
he is completely freaked out now over doctors, ivs, hospitals, blood draws etc
gets phlemmy during eating sometimes...this freaks him out...no discharges

seems very sensitive to homeopathic remedies.......

family hist...mom fine health, dad good health (melanoma age 26) m.grandmother poor health(lots of digestive problems...crohns, celiac, ibs , etc emotions are trigger for her stomach issues) history on maternal side of major cancer, on paternal side of cancer, alcohol, heart problems, back disc problems.

birth-now......pregnancy, not so stressful, but I was not the happiest of people. Birth ok, but shoulder dystocia so kinda scary there. Cried a fair amount as babe, seemed"high needs" then mellowed when I cut out dairy. Breastfed till 3 1/2 (down to one nursing at night only by age 3) potty trained day by 2 1/2, night by 3.
HIs relationship with his dad is easier than that with me...we are very close, but in the past he used to push my buttons and I would lose it and yell at him...his only spanking came in the month after the birth of the baby...he was hurting the baby seriously and constantly. Only other thing was that he was part of a playgroup of kids since birth, and although very well liked by other kids, often got the brunt of physical stuff, including severe bites from another boy on many occasions..this seemed to traumatize him so I broke with this group.

Ok now on to his remedies. Ok when he was about 1 1/2 he did see a different homeopath who gave him sulphur 200c ...this did not resolve his dairy allergy, so she tried something else (calc sulph or something like that) didnt work
now currently starting in feb here were his remedies (his homeopath thought after initial intake (3 hour appt) that he would need just one remedy before his constitutional remedy which she believed to be carcinosin)
so he took cina200c as that initial remedy in feb...noticed returning of old behaviors right away..lots of little changes...he began to prove the remedy though and insessantly drill and bore his nose and pick his lips raw (something he had never done before) i think he had one 200c dose, then a week later began a 4lm potency daily for about 2 weeks.
Then I think we tried sulphur 200c. Thats when the amazing poops started. Before then he would poop every other day, not 2-3x per day. not really other changes tho./
Then carcinosin 200c....no effect
then argentum nitr. 1LM this put him into a tailspin, but took about 2 weeks to figure out that it was the remedy to blame..I only gave about 5 doses...everything got so much worse, esp emotionally....he wanted me or my husband to hold him for hours at a time....so homeopath prescribed phosphorus..we had 30x on hand at home so we started right away ...Amazing!! within 3 doses not only had the weird state that came about after the argent.nitr. gone away, but for 2 days I had my real joshua back!!!!...his old personality was back so strong I couldnt believe it! Even the neighbors noticed it. His physical symptoms were better, but not gone. His homepath presricibed phosphorus 200c. This seemed to cause a progressively worsening aggrevation, after a week he was so bad that he couldnt even open presents at his birthday party (he got sick from raw carrots and the smell of someones bbq) So the homeopath said that if phos were the exact remedy he would be getting progressively better after an initial worsening, so maybe there was one other remedy he needed before phos...so she consulted with 2 other homeopaths at an event, and they all came up with hyoscyanthis. He took this , 30c two weeks ago. I gave him 3 doses over three days (she left the dosing up to my discretion with a few guidelines) he had returning of old symtoms...this was the exact day that his appetite dissapeared again (after about 4 months of normal appetite-tho no weight gain)along with his thirst (btw, after taking the phos 30x he got his old thirst back, only to lose it when he took the hyoscyanthis.)
so he had all these negative things again, including aggression towards his brother, and I was hopeful that this was a healing crises or something, but they just got steadily worse. He came up with something new...a worry about germs and a sort of increase in the suspicious nature.
After 12 days of this, homeopath said she was concerned about the not eating, and prescribed pulsatilla30c (she said partly to treat the current state which seemed like pulsatilla, and partly because it was in a group of remedies she had her eye on (phos, pulsatilla, hyscyanthis, ignacia, nat mur (I think I got this last one right, just from memeory maybe it was something else)
I know she is really looking under the angle 'illness caused by jealousy..emotional betrayal etc)
So he takes the Pulsatilla yesterday, one dose today as well. HIs thirst comes back , but he is in pain all afternoon, then tonight after dinner, gets violently ill and projectile vomits.

I am at such a loss. I had my hopes bouyed by how well and dramatically he reacted on an emotional level to the phosphorus, then I put my hopes on the hyoscyanthis...there is just so much in that remedy that fits (or seems to in the reading that I had access to )
Now I am feeling hopeless. My homeopath is too, and she feels she may need to refer his case on since she is sort of stumped now.
Could anyone offer me any ideas, anything to explore, try , think about etc...anything at all?
It breaks my heart to see the kind of pain my son has had to live with for this year.

Thank you so much in advance
Lisa