My son (4 1/2 years old - mildly autistic) suffers from frequent intestinal yeast infections. I give him herbal supplements whenever he has a yeast overgrowth. I would also like to try the homeopathic route if it is helpful.

Right now he seems to have yet another yeast flare up. Are there any homeopathic remedies for yeast infections? If so, I would be happy to answer more in detail about his symptoms etc.

Thanks a lot
Krish

Dear Krish,

We would need to know his symptoms, which are more important to us than the actual diagnosis.

So, for instance, does he have symptoms like gas and bloating or other kinds of digestive problems?

Tell us about his appetite and what he likes to eat and drink.

Any problems with elimination?

What would you say was his worst time of day?

Is there anything else wrong that you would like help with? Homeopathy has successfully treated autism. Is there anything else?

Snoopy

Dear Snoopy

Thank you so much for your reply.

Let me explain his symptoms during a yeast overgrowth :

1. Gas and bloating sometimes, but these have reduced greatly with the use of digestive enzymes.
2. More important is that he becomes very very picky in eating (this becomes worse if the infection is really bad). This is a major problem right now. He's become extremely selective about what he eats nowadays - limits to rice milk (he's on a gluten,casein, sugar and soy free diet) and rice protein, pancakes, cashewnut spread. He refuses vegetables, eggs and rice. Meal times are a struggle now.
3. His appetite dosent seem bad. It looks as if he really wants to eat but is not able to (dosent feel good in the mouth ?)
4. His stools are a little soft with some undigested particles.
5. He has difficulty going to sleep.
6. Behaviour - gets excited for no reason, lots of pinching, pulling others' hair, rigid.

He's currently taking vitamin, mineral and other supplements.
I got an allergy test (blood) done for him and he was found to be allergic to a lot of foods which I have tried to eliminate as far as possible.

Please let me know if you want further details.

Thanks a lot
Krish

So Krish,

Do you think he has sores in his mouth that make it painful for him to eat?

With regard to the picky eating, is this his idea of what he wants to eat, or do you feed him based on what he's not allergic to. If he had his way, what would he eat and drink?

Regarding the pinching and pulling people's hair, what sets this off? Can you give examples of what you mean by rigid?

What would his symptoms be like without the digestive enzymes and the special diet?

How warm or chilly is he?

Tell us what the sleep problems are like. What position does he sleep in? What does he do with the covers?

Any idea of the possible cause of his problems?

I hope you don't mind answering so many questions.

Thanks,
Snoopy

[ 26. January 2003, 19:20: Message edited by: Snoopy ]

Hi,

I just thought of some more questions.

1. Did the yeast problem come after the autism, before, or at the same time?

2. Was he always autistic or did this develop after a particular event, or illness, or injury, or medicines/injections, etc.?

3. What symptoms would make one suspect autism?

4. Describe his nature.

5. What is he afraid of?

6. What does he like to do?

7. Is there anything he says again and again?

8. Is there anything he does again and again?

9. How independent is he?

10. What makes him angry and how does he express his anger?

Thanks,
Snoopy

Hi Snoopy,

Thanks for your reply. To answer your questions:
I dont think he has sores in his mouth, he dosent give any indication for it. He's picky about certain foods only.

I allow him to eat only those foods that he's not allergic to. He can choose between those.
If he had his way, he would defenitely choose only the ones that he's allergic or intolerant to (he used to crave milk before I stopped it).

The pinching and pulling people's hair is generally a means of escaping from a task - for eg. if you ask him something and if he dosent want to answer he does this. He even does it when he's excited (for no specific reason).
But one thing is that all this crazy behaviour comes only when there's a problem with either yeast or bacterial overgrowth - some kind of a gut dysbiosis. When he's treated for yeast, we have a different child altogether (no such behaviours, very calm, attentive). The problem is that it keeps recurring.

Without digestive enzymesand the special diet he would be a total mess (I think) with all sorts of digestive problems, which are closely related to behavioral problems (from what I've seen in him). If he's not able to effectively digest his food, I see him getting very irritable the next day.

When he was on milk, he would crave for it and would actually get up every 2 or 3 hours at night crying for milk. He would go back to sleep after his doses of milk. It was only after I stopped it that he began to sleep through the night. I also noticed better eye contact, more awareness of surroundings and less crankiness and hyperactivity after I stopped all products containing gluten and casein.

Rigid - insists on doing things the same way like taking a familiar route etc.

He generally has a warm body.

He's not able to calm down at bedtime as he's quite excited and hyper. He generally sleeps in a sideways position. I dont usually cover him as its quite warm as it is. I stopped using the air conditioner as his nose gets blocked if I use it.

Other symptoms (during yeast flare up) that I did not mention in my earlier post -
problems with transition from one activity to another
greater sensory problems (light, sound, touch etc.)
unable to focus (inattentive)

There's a lot more to describe about. I'll continue in my next post.

Thanks
Krish

Dear Krish,

This has been very enlightening! So, he may not be autistic per se, but rather, he may have cerebral allergies caused by certain foods, and without these foods he's quite normal; do I have that right? Also, the autistic behaviors seem to be related to his digestive problems, correct?

So, you're saying that eventhough you have severely altered his diet, he still gets yeast overgrowth and then the bad behaviors come out, is that right?

Krish, we're very interested in the foods he craves that he's not allowed to have, like milk.
Are there others?

Try to not to skip over any of the questions in the previous posts, as the answers will help us find the correct remedy.

Thanks again,
Snoopy

Dear Snoopy,
Yes, most of his autistic behaviours seem to be very much related to digestive/GI issues.

(So, he may not be autistic per se, but rather, he may have cerebral allergies caused by certain foods, and without these foods he's quite normal; do I have that right? )
I wish so! But no, he's not completely normal but his behaviour is quite normal. He has the typical problems with communication, speech, social interaction and imagination which is characterictic of autism.

Even though he's on a restricted diet, his yeast keeps coming back because :
1. I'm not able to strictly follow the anti-yeast diet of less carbs, more protein for him (we are vegetarians and so any form of animal protein is out, I give him eggs though. He's allergic to most other plant proteins.) So his diet consists of rice, vegetables and eggs. Of late he refuses eggs and vegetables.

2. He has a lot of toxic heavy metals (lead,mercury,arsenic, cadmium,bismuth) in his body (we got a hair test done) which are said to attack various systems of the body incl. digestive system causing yeast overgrowth. It has been found that children who have had chelation treatment of heavy metals no longer have such problems like yeast when a substantial amount of heavy metal load has been removed.

3. My son is also on a chelation treatment for heavy metals and the compounds used in this process actually cause yeast overgrowth in the process of pulling the metals out.

Reg. other foods that he craves, he likes all milk products (ice cream, chocolate etc.) Yes, he loves bread very much.

(So, you're saying that eventhough you have severely altered his diet, he still gets yeast overgrowth and then the bad behaviors come out, is that right?)
Yes, thats right.

To answer the questions from your earlier post,
1. Did the yeast problem come after the autism, before, or at the same time?
I'm not sure. He may have had minor problems(yeast) before but never had behaviour problems until a few months back. He did have a lot of bloating, indigestion last year (he was not on enzymes then)

2. Was he always autistic or did this develop after a particular event, or illness, or injury, or medicines/injections, etc.?
He developed normally until about a year (at 11 months he was saying a few words) when I noticed that he was not responding to his name being called. At 14-15 mths of age, he lost all the words and probably lost eye contact (we didn't notice much as he seemed quite normal otherwise).

He was receiving his vaccines regularly so I dont know if anything caused it. (some vaccines contain mercury in them)
He had malaria at 8 months of age. Maybe this triggered it? I dont know either.

3. What symptoms would make one suspect autism?
Autism impairs the ability to communicate, interact and think imaginatively. It may or may not affect speech.
My son talks in about 3 or 4 word combinations now.

4. Describe his nature.
Generally pleasant and lovable boy (when there are no GI issues!) very affectionate towards me. But his communiaction is limited to asking for things he really likes.

5. What is he afraid of?
He's afraid of his father, grandparents sometimes - more when he has a yeast problem!

6. What does he like to do?
likes to play with his toys, listen to music and watch videos.

7. Is there anything he says again and again?
No

8. Is there anything he does again and again?
plays with his lego blocks and climbs (window)

9. How independent is he?
independent at eating (only if he likes his food), partly independent at dressing up.

10. What makes him angry and how does he express his anger?
he gets angry when someone takes away his blocks or disturbs him when he's playing - in general, interrupts what he does. He screams, cries, pinches or pulls hair.

Thanks
Krish

Thanks Krish,

I'll study your answers. Did he receive medicine for Malaria, maybe some quinine preparation? How did he seem after the illness, did he fully recover?

Snoopy

Krish,

Why is he afraid of his father? What about animals, is he afraid of them?

Can you expand on his love of climbing and building with legos? What sorts of things does he build?

Snoopy