I have an 8 year old son who is developmentally delayed. I have worked with a homeopath previously. I believe it was the early remedies that caused his major problem to finally surface. This resulted in brain surgery about 18 months ago. His progress since the surgery has been pretty miraculous, but some behaviors have been returning (and some never went away), and there are some things I would like to see improve. The ONLY treatment that has truly helped him has been homeopathy and I know the right remedy/remedies will help him reach more of his potential. I am not expecting perfection - I just don't think his delays and problems will allow that, but you never know...
Here is Brandon’s history: he is my 4th child. Pregnancy was uneventful physically; he was a surprise though. My husband and I weren’t married at the time. During my pregnancy things got very stressful. My oldest son, then 16, was making life hell – he didn’t want my husband in our lives. My son finally forced our hand to the point of being removed from our home – undoubtedly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Incredible emotional stress! Brandon was just a week early. Contractions started but didn’t get stronger so pitocin was given. Normal delivery, no painkillers. He was over 8 pounds at birth and seemed to be healthy. Lots of dark hair on his head and spine. Had trouble latching on for nursing even in the hospital. I had nursed my second and third child and was looking very forward to nursing this one. After a month I had to give up because he had so much trouble nursing. He was almost at a point of being dehydrated – looked like a little old man. Started formula, tried several. Seemed like everything caused gastric upset. Vomiting after every feeding, constipation. Soy formula was tolerated the best, but only tolerated. His growth slowed and he kept dropping on the growth charts. Had his first cold/ear infection when put in day care at 6 weeks, ears became a chronic problem. Immunizations caused severe reactions and I firmly believe they have been the cause of a lot of his problems. If only I had known about homeopathy then! Had chickenpox at a young age – about 6 months, due to exposure from day care. We moved him into a home day care and he did much better but still seemed to catch every germ around. His development was not up to par and although I mentioned this to his pediatrician, she just kept telling me to wait. By nine months when he still wasn’t crawling, she thought tests were in order. Of course nothing showed up. Brandon had CT scans and an MRI at almost 10 months. The neurologist saw a Chiari I malformation but dismissed it as clinically insignificant. Brandon did not walk until 22 months. He did not like table food, especially disliked meat. Loved yogurt, ice cream and milk, but they did not like him. Every time he would take a bite of something he would have to take a drink of water as if to wash it down. There wasn’t a problem with saliva – he drooled all the time. During all this time, Brandon was cheerful for the most part. He smiled a lot and although he went through a colicky stage, was a pretty happy little boy. He didn’t sleep through the night until he was over 2 years old and had tubes put in his ears and tonsils and adenoids removed. Since that was done his health improved. At about 5 years he started getting pretty aggressive. He would hit people, destroy everything he could – sometimes in anger, sometimes in devilish glee, he would hit his head on the floor, wall, table, anything he could. He displayed a lot of autistic characteristics. He also vomited almost every time he ate. The aggression got so bad that we scheduled an appointment with his doctor. (We moved from Montana to Kentucky in 1995 and found a pretty good pediatrician) She agreed with me that perhaps another MRI was in order. The day the MRI was done, Brandon was admitted to pediatric intensive care and remained hospitalized for a week. The MRI showed the Chiari I again, but it now extended to the 4th cervical vertebrae. This caused migraine-intensity headaches, the vomiting, gagging, muscle weakness and sleep apnea. He was a pretty miserable little boy. I always felt as though something was ‘short-circuiting’ with Brandon and I found out that was indeed the case. The Chiari was so severe that his spinal cord and brain stem were compressed until they were completely flattened. It is truly a testament to his strength that he was able to learn and be happy during all of this. There really was no choice but to have the surgery. It was during the time when he began to get so aggressive that we consulted a homeopath. Again, I believe it was due to this that the main problem was brought to the surface.
Since surgery Brandon’s progress has been wonderful. He started to interact with peers, learning was greatly enhanced, balance improved, disposition improved. He has had a 40% increase in body weight just since March of this year! He eats many more foods than before but still craves dairy and sweets, and will now eat meat. I have limited the dairy as much as possible because of the way it affects him. His behavior is what drives me the craziest, though. He will not take no for an answer and will ask the same question a million times. He loves to tear paper – books, etc. He cannot stand anything to be neat but instead prefers chaos. He still loves to destroy things – now mostly because he knows it gets a rise out of someone. If you tell him no he will do just the opposite. If he gets angry he will hit people or kick our dog. For the most part he is afraid of dogs. He dislikes water and bathing in a new bathtub when we travel is a nightmare. He loves to travel and will often ask to go for a ride. He is afraid of the dark and is scared to sleep in his room by himself even with a night light on. He prefers going to bed with me. I can hardly leave a room that he isn’t right after me as if he fears losing me. He is warm-blooded and prefers no shoes and socks. His sleep is very restless and wild and he sweats a lot at night. He also likes to play with himself a lot. We have to put shorts or pants with a drawstring on his because he will pull his pants down to play with himself. Frequently he will get erections. And for the longest time, he would get an erection looking at elephants! On one hand he can be very loving and affectionate, but then hit you in the face. He can be a real Jekyll and Hyde at times. He still is not toilet trained. He has gained more control since the surgery but still not much success in that department. I believe his control is stronger than he lets us believe – he will hold a bowel movement until he gets home from school. He always goes to a quiet place – a closet or his room. His stools are rather loose and smell pretty awful. Brandon is not on any medications. The doctors have tried but I refuse. What good is something that treats symptoms instead of getting to the root of the problem? He does have some allergies to grass and weeds and late spring is terrible for him. I know there is probably a lot of information I have omitted, but perhaps this will give someone a place to start. From what I have read, I lean toward Tuberculinum. It is interesting to note that this remedy was the first one the homeopath gave him. Limited to no results were noted. Thank you in advance for your input.