Claire

To back up Ortho and Kim...We have lots of info here on enzymes and I am a believer in them. We take Houston Enzymes (Karen Defelice is high on that kind). I do Zyne Prime for milk and my son and husband take AFP Peptizade when they intermittently have wheat. I recommend them for people who can't restrict diets for known sensitivities or for intermittant lapses. Claire

AZ I have an Oster from Target...I think it cost $80 and it was worth every penny. Target has a great retun policy if you don't like it. No way do I have the time or skill to make bread on my own. If your child has issues with corn, then do try Pamela's next. Though I love Gluten Free pantry's bread too and it rose perfectly for me. My huband forgot to add the yeast packet once though and got the brick, ha. You can have other reactions besides tics to foods you are sensitive too. My son never got tics from gluten/wheat but he got diahrea a lot, and excema. Good luck, Claire

AZ I have an Oster from Target...I think it cost $80 and it was worth every penny. Target has a great retun policy if you don't like it. No way do I have the time or skill to make bread on my own. If your child has issues with corn, then do try Pamela's next. Though I love Gluten Free pantry's bread too and it rose perfectly for me. My huband forgot to add the yeast packet once though and got the brick, ha. You can have other reactions besides tics to foods you are sensitive too. My son never got tics from gluten/wheat but he got diahrea a lot, and excema. Good luck, Claire

Good luck rcwang, I hope your visit went well. We just got some of the blood test results back. I am happy to note that my son's zinc is back in the normal range...6 months ago it was above range, so I cut back on the supplements, plus we did MT promotion, which pulls zinc so we needed to continue supplementation It is 117 now, and Pfeiffer likes it above 90. 150 is the upper limit. We give ~50 mg/day of zinc citrate/zinc picolinate. His iron and ferritin were still in range. He had been low, and we are supplementing a lot, so I wanted to make sure that it didn't go high. Good news is that it is in range, even with the higher supplementation for a year now. No mercury found (yeah!) but the lead is still at 2. Pfeiffer says it should be zero. I don't know if it is continuing exposure (which I doubt, he drinks triple filtered water), or it is still in his bones and gradually leaching from them into his system. Everything else, BUN, AST, etc...was in range, EXCEPT glucose, which was low. Last time it was high. Odd, because this was to be a fasting glucose test and he ate something 2 hours before. However, I have always been convinced that blood sugar imbalances occur with him. I have seen raisons 'wake him up' from after school tiredness multiple times. In general, he rarely gets sucrose. I know that sugar issues and yeast issues go hand in hand...and suspect that yeast is still an issue. I had started Threelac and stopped (he won't take the powder and I was too lazy to pack it in capsules), but started again. He does do probiotics. Anyway, in 2 weeks I will retest his yeast. I will try to do the hair test today (to see if he is excreting mercury) and Spectracell (vitamins/antioxidants) next week. Good news, he finally, finally agreed to do the glutathione lotion again a couple of weeks ago. I hope it helps his glutathione level, as it did before. Claire

AZ, By the way, coincidentally I just found a terrific gluten/wheat and corn-free bread mix...FYI just in case you ever determine you need to try wheat/gluten-free again. The others I had had some corn starch. When we went gluten free we got a bread maker and bought wheat-free bread mix from Gluten-free pantry. Man, all his friends choose that bread over any wheat bread. Anyway, Pamela's now has a wheat-free bread mix. It has no wheat/gluten/corn or even milk. It has variations for pizza dough and pie crust...we just did the pizza tonight, it was terrific! I want to learn to make chicken pot pies sometime. As for the triggers, if you are like most of us, they will be tested again and again over time. Not always good, but on the plus side, over time you become a detective and really really become convinced what makes a difference for your own child. I should volunteer one helpful hint: When it came to events out of my control, I tried to have alternatives there. He HATED not participating. If I didn't have an alternative, we had a deal that I would provide him something at home. Over time he didn't want to eat different food from the other kids, so I would bring acceptable treats to offer the others. Claire

Great news AZ! I am betting that the Feingold diet did the trick. I know that is all that was needed for Jeff's daughters, as he has told us. As many here have said, food reactions (including preservatives) are like a bucket. Cleaning them from the child's system raises your child's tolerance, where occasional exposure can be tolerated. Maybe your daughter will get lucky and they will just disappear, but if you do go back to the old ways and a month later they are back please note that the reaction can cumulate over time versus instant. The easy way to find out would be to just remove them again. Yes, we use Heinz organic catsup also. Whole Foods is our place of purchase now, so that I don't have to read labels all the time. They aren't quite as thorough as Feingold, but good enough for our purposes. Very glad to hear that your child can still have gluten/wheat without issues!! Claire

Thanks Chemar. I updated my original post to try to add some tiering of which tests people might consider first. By the way, after 6 months on Pfeiffer's MT promotion therapy, we just redid a number of tests last week. I will let you know how it goes. I really want to do Kim's new mercury urine test, because that is so tough to measure. We are doing a bunch of blood tests, and the doctorsdata hair test, but I am holding off on the organic acid test for a couple of weeks. Claire

azhorsegal Everyone is giving good advice, but now (forgive me!) I feel the need to reclarify what I was trying to clarify for you before... It reinforces what Chemar and others said, but adds testing for delineation. Allergist skin prick tests are more of an IgE 'allergic' reaction. The IgG blood tests that Kim and I were talking about test the food sensitivity, which is more correlated to tics. Immunolabs.com and Elisaact.com offer these tests. The bottom line however is avoidance and the results. The most efficient way to test using an avoidance method is to take away everything for a month, then add one food back in the first week, and if no reaction it is okay, then add the second food and watch for a week. Dorothy Rapp discusses food removal in one of her books. Sensitivities are not always immediate reactions, thus the week is needed to watch. Just your daughters return of tics to me makes this avoidance test worth it. Claire

Hi Kim, Thanks for posting the Immunolab info, I couldn't find it on my old test. In addition to testing for foods (that could contain gluten or casein), Elisa Act 'food 142' tests specifically for IgG reaction specifically to the gluten and casein, meaning the proteins. The food 115 only includes casein, not protein. ElisaAct also told me that the Immunolab test also showed PAST reactions to foods that the person might not still be sensitive too, and does not delineate. I called the Immunolabs doctor to see if this were true and they told me yes that was true. Thus both tests are fine, but my doctors preference now for the ElisaAct one. My son showed fewer sensitivities there, but not sure how much was improvement, or that the ElisaAct test only showed current sensitivities. But I didn't like the idea of overrestricting him. People need to call to verify this...for all I know, Immunolab has changed their test in 2 years. Claire ps Thanks again for the mercury urine info. I will definitely contact them!

I paid $300 for the Immunolabs IgG test ~ 1 year ago. Then our DAN doctor switched to ElisaAct for the IgG test for $300. I liked this one better because it also included gluten/casein for the same price. Plus you could get more...food coloring, etc. Not sure what I paid for the whole package Comprehensive Analyses Block Food Environmental Chemical Mold* Additive/Preservative Food Coloring Toxic Mineral/Metal TOTAL ElisaAct gave me prices over the phone, though clearly a doctor would order it. 800.553.5472 Call them, because depending on how you order the tests (individually versus as a package) I remember they cost a lot more. I doubt fees have doubled. http://www.elisaact.com/pdfs/EAB_Combos_NonHP.pdf Good luck, Claire

Kim, That would be terrific to have a mercury urine test that didn't require chelation. Thanks for posting this. Do you know why the email address was cut off, and do you by chance have it? Or must we call? Do you know if it requires a doctor's signature? Our DAN doctor retired. I have to find my old Metametrix OAT test for my son that I never gave him. I hope it is still okay to send. Once I do and get it back, then I will compare notes with mine and yours (above). I haven't used that test before, so can't analyze it. Also to others... This list should be modified to include www.directlabs.com, a site that Kim pointed us all to, where you can order several blood tests without a doctor's signature, because the doctor there signs the lab slip. I added these to my top post. For me, the ones I use most there (and am about to reorder) are: -DoctorsData hair test for metals (mercury, lead, etc) -Blood test for zinc, copper, calcium, lead, iron/ferritin (some of these aren't listed, you must call and ask Elizabeth to order them). -Blood test for glucose -They also have IgG food allergy tests. -Organic Acid test (alternative to Great Plains OAT test for yeast) Claire

Hi Azhorsegal, Thanks for clearing that up. I thought...well no point in going there because I clearly misunderstood what 'confirming' tests you are doing... I appreciate your not taking offense, since I was worried about writing that clarification for that very reason. Good luck again. Claire

I think Kim's point is that there are multiple tests that go beyond Celiac. You can have food sensitivities and wheat and/or gluten sensitivities without having Celiac. An allergist would understand this more than a general practiotioner. Also, there are blood tests for food allergies (IgE) and tests for food sensitivities/delayed reactions (IgG)--which Kim and I both had done. Tics can be just from food sensitivities, while the eczema can be from IgE. I am less familiar with the IgA test. I think the concern is that celiac is so rare that eliminating it as a diagnosis (and that would be GREAT to eliminate) doesn't mean wheat/gluten aren't issues. They are very common issues, though I think milk is more common on this board, which your child doesn't seem to have. There are blood tests for vitamin deficiencies also. Spectracell has a good one. Labcorp does them for zinc...a very common deficiency in this area. Most MD's would consider your naturopath's test a hoax, so would relatives...On this board we just support what works for people. People don't hesitate to post what worked and didn't work for them. That is how we learn. When enough people seem to find something that works, more people try it. Claire

My long post got deleted...no time to rewrite. Many people here have done this type of allergy testing and were happy with it. We did IgG/IgE blood tests. Xylitol --sugar alcohol derived from bark not corn--is a great sweetener for yeast issues. So is Stevia. Great for yogurt smoothies with low glycemic fruit (e.g. berries) Google AIA + corn-free + wheat-free for the book I got on recipes when my son had both issues. Wheat-free is much much easier than corn and wheat free. Good luck. Claire ps Yeast is not always so easy to get rid of...2 years of work didn't cure my son's...especially if there are metal issues. Ask your doc next time, and please read the intro links I posted.... I do disagree with him re vitamins (no offense to your doctor). Yeast interferes with nutrient absorption...most of these kids have vitamin deficiencies. There are blood tests available to check it out. On the other hand, I think doctor supervision is key for supplementation and would never suggest ignoring a doctor that you like. Just keep your mind open over the next few months as you see how this works out.

Hi Carolyn, It could be the soy (yes, allergic cravings), or it could be the salt. I know that I just craved highly buttered popcorn, and finally accepted that I couldn't keep it in the house. [i should note that I would never eat (or want) more than a bag of microwave popcorn in a day, but it was messing up my quest to lose 3 pounds.] Now when I get that craving, I suck on the peanuts that are roasted and salted in their shells--while they are still in their shells (I can't remember if you are allergic to peanuts). Then I open them and eat the peanut. This worked at the movie theatre recently without any problem. In my case, I think the butter (on the popcorn) was my only real source of concentrated salt. My point is that I wasn't getting enough salt in my system and needed it. If you have other salty foods, then maybe it isn't your issue. We used to use Earth Balance butter, but my son's doctor said the soy is bad for the adrenals. I hope you find a good solution! Best, Claire

Azhorsegal, My feeling is that ABSOLUTELY yes tics and eczema can be related, in that both can be signs of a depressed immune system. My son had terrible eczema, then I googled 3-4 years ago and found out that 80% of childhood eczema is caused by food allergies. (Commonly an IgE reaction, including, but not limited to wheat, peanuts, milk, egg and/or soy) In his case wheat was the culprit and its removal from his diet cleared the eczema. Furthermore, one of the links here shows that among posters here, food allergies and food as a trigger for certain tics is unusually common (for lack of official studies, we can only go by what we see amongst this group). My son has been tic free for 2 years 7 months and eczema-free for about a year. He even has wheat once a week or so now. In case you haven't seen it before, I just bumped a thread for you which discusses a lot of the concepts of the depressed immune system, since I will likely disappear again now... Good luck, and good for you for saying no to drugs (I am soooo biased). Claire

bumped for Azhorsegal. Claire

Satu, My son got horrible fears during strep, and they went away when the strep was treated. They say if you catch it early, it won't be permanent. I have a *temporary* solution for night time fears. Melatonin. We used a 1/4 mg in a tiny bit of water just a few minutes before bed...just enough to take the edge off. It broke his fear cycle...since the night time fears lingered beyond the daytime ones, after a second round of strep throat. Melatonin is a 'hormone' and a powerful antioxidant. Though it is over the counter, you might talk to your doctor to see if they have issues with it for 3-4 nights. We did it for 6 months while we lowered my son's mercury, since it had also affected his ability to sleep. Good job to Chemar for calling out the strep connection right away, and what a good mom you are for being right on top of it!! Claire

Hi Chemar, Yes we had a bad experience with it and like you, I do NOT recommend it for tics...at least at this stage, since maybe years from now someone will have perfected the protocols for tics. Right now I feel the practioners would be experimenting on our kids. I wrote a PM to Irena along those lines. I don't even know if it works for ADD or not. I posted the new games that use it only because I thought it was interesting. At the risk of being alarmist, I personally would never let my son play a game where he was messing with his brain waves to get it to run, since I did see (negative) impact from it. Kind of scary what is being introduced into the game realm without studies on the impact. I hope all is well for you also, we are doing great. Still doing MT promotion...no idea if it is removing metals, but I will test again when summer starts. Cheers, Claire

They are making games with this concept! Article also references its use for ADD. Excerpts below.. Claire http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ss/14415506.htm Gamers may soon control action with thoughts By Dean Takahashi Mercury News Nhat V. Meyer / Mercury News Left to right, Johnny Liu, Koo Hyoung Lee and Greg Hyber all wear different generations off their companies mind-machine interface headsets at NeuroSky in San Jose.Someday soon, video gamers may be able to use their heads, literally, to get better scores in their games. At least two start-ups have developed technology that monitors a player's brain waves and uses the signals to control the action in games. They hope it will enable game creators to immerse players in imaginary worlds that they can control with their thoughts instead of their hands. ... Sensors in the head gear -- whether headbands, headsets or helmets -- measure electrical activity in the brain that scientists have studied for decades. Using NeuroSky's chip technology, the system can distinguish whether a person is calm, stressed, meditative or attentive and alert. Beyond games, the system might be useful for determining whether drivers are so drowsy that they need an alarm to awaken them. The goal is to create game console add-ons costing less than $100. Some of the game play features can be conscious -- such as forcing someone to concentrate in order to drive a car faster or toss something at an enemy. Others can be subconscious. The game could slow down, for instance, if the sensors pick up an increase in anxiety, Lee said. The company hasn't set a timetable for the product launches of its customers. ``It's a very cool idea,'' said Dean Ku, vice president of marketing at Sunnyvale game company RedOctane. ``We are looking at applications for video games, like controlling cars or airplanes. It might take time. But there are possibilities.'' Another company, CyberLearning Technology in San Marcos, has also created a gaming controller system with a helmet that monitors brain waves and can be used to direct a game. The company tapped technology developed by NASA scientists who wanted to train pilots how to focus on their cockpit equipment. It turned the research into Smart BrainGames systems. CyberLearning also uses electrodes that attach to a player's scalp and monitor brain activity. In a fashion similar to NeuroSky, it monitors the relative stress or calmness in a person's neural patterns and links those signals to game controls. In a racing game, for instance, players can drive at faster speeds if they concentrate on being calm. If the players becomes too nervous, the game can send feedback such as vibrations to the game controller that make it harder to drive a car. ``It's fun because it adds a new element to game play,'' says Domenic Greco, chief executive of CyberLearning and a psychologist. ``What you are thinking affects the game.'' Greco's 5-year-old company has distributed the system to doctors around the country in order to test its impact on patients with concentration disorders such as attention deficit disorder. ... Aside from any medical uses, both companies hope their tools could one day be used to create true ``Jedi'' effects in games set in a Star Wars universe. The player could use mind control to lift objects in video games and toss them at enemies in ways that resemble the action in the George Lucas films.

Ditto what Chemar said! Your conclusion about Easter sounds correct to me. Re the LCD screen, they don't flicker. The smaller the screen the better...15" is great, and remember about the well-lit room. What folks here (including me) did was to test it out a little at a time, to see what their child could tolerate. My 2 cents: We know that with ASD (autism spectrum disorders), the earlier the treatment, the more chance of cure. Tics aren't accepted as an ASD, however, our DAN doctor still thinks that the earlier you treat them the more the chance of healing. We 'wasted' 2 years of no screens, with no tics, but no improvement in his photosensitivity before I found a DAN doctor to help us (notice I say help, because I still had to do research on my own). Within 6-9 months there was great improvement in his sensitivity. Others here have found the same thing. So...while eliminating triggers, whether it is screens or sugar or whatever, is good, testing and treating things like metals and/or yeast etc etc (lots of discussion on everything on this board), is the key to maximizing his health so he isn't so sensitive. Believe me, in middle school it is harder to control--in fact it can be virtually infeasible without alienating your child and creating other problems, so you want to do this now. I really recommend the testing discussed here, and I believe in Sheila's book. Too much to discuss in a post, so you can view various threads on it. Pyroluria, Mercury, and Vitamin B2 deficiencies are some examples. I believe that yeast is also, but no direct evidence there. The other evidence points to photo or light sensitivity, not necessarily tics. Claire ps When my own son would get occasional tics over those 1st 2 years with no screens, I would always find out that he was exposed somewhere...either at school or at a friends.

Beverly, Is he still playing the game? If you have read my threads on this discussion (and it sounds like you have), my son's tics were 100% correlated to his video/computer game (and later CRT TV activity). They got worse and worse until I stopped it completely, then they went away COMPLETELY. Their brains are still developing, if he is reacting poorly, I hope you can stop. THis is probably the ONE time that I think a white lie is okay to avoid world war III in the home (as others here have done), and to have it conveniently 'break' and not be able to fix it for whatever reason. You may not agree, I can respect that. Spring is right...metals such as mercury can cause the photosensitivity. Other things can too...read on this site how to build up his immune system. However, I don't think video games are necessary for happy children. If it truly triggers tics, and I know it can for some, then I believe that his life is better with more time on other (less addictive) things. I know some think it is the stress (and for some it maybe)...for my son it was the photosensitivity to the flicker and rapid action. No other stress EVER triggered tics, before, during or after. I got my son Harry Potter book tapes to keep him occupied, along with construction toys like Knex. But that is just the start, as he gets older, computer and computer games are harder to keep away. I believe that the earlier you start healing whatever is causing the photosensivity, the better the chance of full recovery. My son has been tic-free for 2.5 years now, and he plays video game again...just on an LCD screen. If you can't get away from it entirely, get a small LCD screen, turn down the brightness, keep a well-lit room and get him games like rollercoaster tycoon and the Sims, that don't have the rapid action/flicker. Good luck. Claire

simonzl, I use a compounding pharmacy. I think the biggest advantage of Bonnie's vitamins is that they are compounded, so there is less filler than buying all the vitamins separately. We needed a doctor's note initially with the list. I just gave the list to our doctor (from his recommendations from past visits) and he faxed it to the pharmacy. For us, compounding the vitamins had 3 advantages: 1. Fewer pills. No filler, thus it came to only 6 pills/day rather than 16. We didn't include the cal/mag in the compound, because they have good combos without fillers anyway, and they are quite bulky. Nor the EFA and probiotic. 2. We customized the vitamin plan to his specific needs. 3. Surprisingly, it was cheaper than buying them separately. If I find out the price/day, I will post it. I use Village Green pharmacy and they mail it to us--we get a 4 month supply for convenience. Nicely, if you send them your list, they will tell you if they have it plus tell you the price. Maybe you can give them Bonnie's list and compare! Their # is 800-869-9160) , 0 Claire

Hi Irena, Unfortunately, the yeast used to make breads rise is indeed forbidden in anti-yeast's diet. It is just that since Threelac is specifically for yeast control, so their Brewer's Yeast with the probiotics in it is not an issue. They say it just feeds the probiotics on the way down the digestive track. We never cut out yeast entirely, it was just too hard. So we did as little as possible. We went for what was liveable over the long term. Heck, we already had to take out corn, milk, wheat, peanuts, bananas, almonds...etc due to allergies. Fortunately he is down to just avoiding wheat and peanut now. Actually though, for whatever reason, my son's yeast has been the hardest thing for us to control--though I haven't tested it in almost a year I think, so maybe it has improved a bit. But we did 3 months of nystatin twice and it was still bad. Even diflucan--which we were scared to do and stopped after a couple of weeks due to severe abdominal pain...I will never do that again. I did it for myself and lost my sense of taste...I stopped after 1 month and it took another month or two to come back, it was very unnerving as I feared it might be permanent. So I am now in the anti-diflucan camp, with so many others. But obviously it has worked for some. Do check those metals! You may never heal the yeast if metals are an issue. The hair tests aren't so painful, though I am sure you have read they can give false negatives. As for the eczema healing, it took us months after removal for it to clear. My fingers are crossed about the milk. But it could be the yeast overgrowth. Also, a friend of mine says that having yeasty breads definitely gives her a rash. I never heard issues with tomatoes from a yeast standpoint. (Some people have issues with the salycilates in tomatoes, but that is another matter). Also, we never stopped giving him cheese--he never seemed to have issues with it. We make a wheat free pizza with tomato sauce and mozerella. I have 8 books on yeast control and yeast diets, ha. **In the end I think with yeast control, the key thing is to reduce carbs and sugar, Plus probiotics and natural anti-fungals.** The other restrictions never made a difference for us and they made life too tough for him. e.g. We only eat things with sugar alcohols now (e.g. xylitol, and sorbitol). (A week on nystatin wouldn't make a big dent by the way), and he has more protein and less carbs with meals than he used to. I really do plan to do Threelac for 6 weeks and retest my son to see what difference it made. Be careful with Bonnie's vitamins. Apparently, for some they are helpful, for some, there is something in them that their child reacts to. So try not to introduce other factors when you start them so that you know if they help or make things worse. I personally didn't agree with some of her balances, and I don't feel that one size fits all. I generally don't get into specific vitamin discussions for that very reason. I realize that your choices are restricted in Poland, so I hope Bonnie's works for you. In an ideal world, you would try one vitamin at a time to make sure there wasn't a reaction. We did individual vitamin deficiency testing, but I don't know if they are available there. We now compound the vitamins at a pharmacy...for us it is cheaper than buying them individually, and the compounding pharmacy doesn't use fillers. I would see if you can have your child get some zinc/copper blood serum test (this is a commonly accepted lab test, your normal doctor should be able to order it). Finally, if metals are an issue, then antioxidants are important. I am glad you are learning from this site. I do come then go for long periods, so please don't be offended if I don't respond...I have had my work situation really shift into overdrive this past year. That's why I put together the summary links of everyone's great contributions. But there are always new questions and insights as we all learn. I am looking forward to your success and your sharing what you learn as you go! Good luck again, Claire

Welcome Irena. When my son had bad eczema, I read that 80% of childhood eczema was caused by either wheat, peanuts, milk, egg, soy (and one other thing...corn?) Though your tests didn't come back positive, you might try removing them even for 2-3 days to see if there is a change in his itching, even though that is too little time to heal the eczema. For example, with my son I noticed the difference in itching within 24 hours when we took wheat away. Yes, Threelac has Brewer's Yeast in it. Unless your child is allergic to Brewer's Yeast (mine was for a while!) it has no impact at all. I think Threelac has a good reputation, if only anecdotal, and worth trying. It isn't cheap though. My son hates the taste, so I put it in a capsule, which may not be ideal. Your journey is 'young' but sounds like you are off to a great start. Good luck to you! Claire