Jennifer

efgh, www.909shot.com has some excellent information. The vaccine issue is quite complex and yes they do contain mercury unless you specifically request thimerisol-free, but then mercury is not the only issue. The book "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Your Child's Immunizations" is an excellent book as well. Before immunizing your child any further research the matter so that your decision can be a fully informed one. Jennifer

Claire, I have mini-trampoline, but the novelty has wore off for the kids...need to get thenm to do it again. A friend lent me a tape on rebounding and the info was absolutely amazing. Being that there there are no blood vessels in the lymphatic system it needs some help to get the toxins moving and like you stated rebounding is a great way to go about it. Mini trampolines are a minimal investment and certainly worth trying! Jennifer

Claire/NancyE, Thank you for your replies. Our son's moods have been much worse and am not sure if it is due to the primer or the enzymes we are using (as there may be some withdrawls or perhaps a combination of both). I guess we still have a while to wait for the test results. In the mean time we are trying to eliminate gluten again....what a chore!! Jennifer

Just wondering how your children are doing on the primer? You can e-mail me if you feel more comfortable. Thanks in advance. Jennifer

Hi Hume, Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Initially we had some good results with the doctor, but as more issues surfaced he did not show himself to be very competent and strung us along rather than being honest..things kind of turned into a power struggle. So long story short I wouldn't feel comfortable referring him. There are many good homeopaths, it is a matter of finding the right one. Sorry I wasn't more help. Jennifer

That is interesting about food colors and zinc. I think another reason to stay away from artificial stuff is to not burden the body any further with unnecessary toxins. I believe also that food colors are either high in phenols or salicylates ( can't remember which). My Feingold handbook talks about it, but it is packed away at the moment. Jennifer

Claire, Our son was never tested for pyroluria prior to going to Pfeiffer, so the only B-6 he is getting is in the primer we were given. According to Michael Lang who spoke at last spring's DAN conference (he had two autiistic children of his own that have since lost their diagnosis and are doing wonderfully) you can tell if you are giving too much b-6 because an excess amount can cause excitability. In excess amounts it can be neuro-toxic. He recommends starting gradually. That is about all I know. Pfeiffer didn't ever mention anything about b-6 and enzymes to me. Sorry I'm not more help. Jennifer

Claire and Chemar, Great discussion!!! There are so many similarities that I feel it is worth exploring the biochemical factors w/o applying a diagnosis. I think this all started with Pfeiffer's stand that they have not had success with treating Tic Disorder's and discourage treatment from their center for this issue. I believe the labeling is unfortunate because it may discourage parents who trust their doctor's diagnosis to seek treatment from their facility when infact they could receive a great deal of benefit. I have come to beleive that the best way to restore our children's health is through trial and error (as long as everything we use and do is safe)...we can't fit their symptoms into one neat fitting little category and call it good. The issues are obviously very complex and overlap. Zeroing in on a diagnosis may cause us to miss out on therapy that could be vital to their healing. Jennifer

The Pfeiffer doc mentioned a glutathione IV push as a good way to lower heavy metal bureden. I've heard of this method before and it is supposed to be side-effect free as well as non-toxic, however, it does need to take place under medical supervision and not all states allow it. Jennifer

Claire, I just read your post, we just got back home last night. Our visit went very well. The nurse that interviewed us said that she had really high hopes for our son, he was the "classic" child the clinic was even started for. I know what they say about tics, but in my 3 year journey with our son I have come to the conclusion that tics can be caused by so many different factors and another thing to consider as well is if they are "true" tics or OCD or self stimulatory behaviors? It was very easy for the neurologist to label our son with Tourett's Syndrome-his diagnosis couldn't have ben farther from what has been really going on. At this point in time tics are a complete non-issue with our son I have to say that our big break came with the fatty acid and liquid mineral supplementation. We are still struggeling with moods and melt-downs, heavy metal overload, sulfation issues, yeast and the list goes on. I agree that it is expensive, I think alot of it may be lab? Claire, I really hope that the test results shed some more light for your son. Also, the doctor mentioned that parents have been having great success with Houston Enzymes for casein/gluten breakdown. Some parents are not even following the GF/CF diet anymore with these enzymes. Keep us posted on the test results. Jennifer

NancyE, So glad to read your post. As a parent you probably feel a sense of relief that your child's test results reflected the issues Pfeiffer talks about. If you feel comfortable I would be very interested in hearing more of the specifics when you have your next appointment. Also, give yourself a big pat on the back for allready being on such a good supplement routine!! Hope from here on out it is just a matter of fine tuning and that you get some awesome results!!! Jennifer

Kimberly, In addition to the good info. from NancyE. something to consider is that a diagnosis may not always be correct. Our son was diagnosed with TS by a neurologist about 2 years ago, but I have since realized that his tics were part of a much bigger picture, I personally feel that he is on the spectrum. When interviewing doctors a few months ago from the DAN list I had more than one doctor tell me that many children on the spectrum suffer from tics, but do not have TS and that it was important to have the proper diagnosis. Many of the stories on this forum are so similar, we don't just deal with tics with our kids, but moods, some OCD, fears, meltdowns and allergies etc. I think that Pfeiffer is definately worth a try. Also, you mentioned that your child was worse on supplements. When we first started all the suplements 2 years ago our son got much worse too. It was explained to me that the nervous system is in such an excited state that any new supplement can aggravate things at first and as the body corrects the imbalances things can actually get worse before they get better. As far as fish oil goes we found that if we use it along with flax oil he does great, infact Dr.'s are realizing that some children don't do well with straight omega 3's they need to be given with a combo of omega 6. A word of caution about flax oil it needs to be cold pressed and processed in an oxygen free environment or the oil becomes rancid destroying the fatty acid chain. We order our oil from Body Bio. It is only good for 6 weeks, that is how fresh it is. God Luck!! Jennifer

Claire, The Pfeiffer institute offers outreach clinics, we will be taking our son to the one in Northern California in October. They have several ones throughout the year to accomodate those that don't live so close to their clinic. You can call the clinic and get a complete info packet and see if they still have any openings for the one this fall. The next one in in Anaheim CA, in February. Keep us posted. Jennifer

Robin, I'm not sure about where you can find a list of foods high in copper, perhaps you can try typing "high copper foods" in the computer search engine. I just had a hunch about molasses and typed in copper levels of molasses. Did your son have a hair analysis done? If his copper level was low in his hair that may actually mean that his body is not excreting it as it should and is hanging on to too much copper. Our son's hair analysis showed normal zinc and low copper, but the zinc in his blood was low..... this may indicate that his zinc is being displaced by copper. We won't know for sure until we test his blood copper level. Jennifer

Nancy, Thanks so much for the update, I am very excited to hear about the test results!!! I really think the MT promotion therapy is the key for our son, he fits too many of the symptoms Dr. Walsh discusses in the tape I ordered. I am pretty positive that his copper level is too high, he gets quite hyper after having chocolate (chocolate is high in copper) and just recently I bought some cereal he used to eat all the time (while he was on it his melt-downs were just awful, but I never made the connection between the cereal and his behavior) and the old meltdown behavior was back so I started wondering about the cereal...as it turns out molasses is the sweetner used and molasses is very high in copper....I don't think that this is a coincidence. I hope you get some good answers and progress with their clinic!! Good luck to you. Jennifer