simplygina

In Healing the New Childhood Epidemics by Dr. Bock he talks about vision issues with what he calls spectrum disorders (he has a very broad definition of what is on the spectrum, including PANDAS) and mentions a Vitamin A deficiency. Here's a quote from the book, "Vitamin A deficiency affects they eyes' cones and rod, and contributes to the tendency...to rely upon their peripheral vision. This reliance-the classic autistic sideways glaze- often results in poor eye contact." Maybe his center vision is impaired? He recommends cod liver oil, 1-3 t. per day. I have had what is called an "aural" migraine. No headache, it just started with a spot in my vision that I couldn't see, like I had looked at the sun for a minute. Within 15 minutes I was in my car and realized that I couldn't see a whole spot in front of me and pulled over and called my mom. Now and again I get floaters and realize that I might be headed toward a migraine and take an extra dose of magnesium. That seems to do the trick for me. My son, on the other hand would get another form of migraine, which would manifest in a nauseous feeling. Then his head would hurt, he'd puke and feel better. Other people on the board have talked about "the headaches" that seem to accompany this whole thing. So my thinking is maybe he is having some sort of migraine? Is it all the time? I would definitely try documenting what leads up to the spot episodes if they aren't all the time. By doing that we finally figured out that the stomach migraines were triggered by foods with nitrates, or too much TV, or a movie that had a lot of action. Since we started the magnesium in the Fall he's only had one which was after going to see Avatar in 3D. Another thought I had was that on occasion my son will go through a phase where one of his OCD/tic things is to look at the sun for a minute. After reading a post by Chemar I realized it was one of those tics that they seem to do to cause a little pain which then stimulates a feel good chemical. I guess L-phenylalanine also produces the same chemical, reducing the need to do the tic. My son isn't doing that right now, but if he starts again I will certainly give that a shot so he doesn't wreck his eyes. Maybe your son is actually looking at the sun for a minute or a bright light, causing a blind spot in his vision for a minute? My son goes through periods of reassurance seeking. Now that he is older he is more clever about the way he words it and sometimes it will take me awhile to realize that is what he is doing. And now it usually only takes one confession or checking to make sure what he did was OK or normal or whatever, instead of the over and over and over he did when he was younger. I think this may have been his first symptom but I didn't realize it was one until after he started having contamination issues. And people still tell me they have noticed the tics or OCD. It's not uncommon for them to hold it and then explode when they get home. I'm always amazed at how similar these kids OCD issues are. You would think that each person would come up with their own unique issues because we are all so different. That is another reason I don't think it is a psychological issue. All these kids do and think the same things. It reminds me of the experiments where surgeons touch one part of the brain and the subject cries, then another and the subject laughs. It's like an imaginary brain surgeon going, "we touch here and we get worry that we told a lie, we touch here and we get worry that we didn't get all the pee out, we touch here and we get the need to even things up..." It's bizarre.

i forgot to add ibuprofen to my list (poor kid takes so many darn pills). i searched long and hard to find one without any dyes and finally decided to go with the softgels since they are blue over the tablets because they all had red dye. anyone know of a chain store that sells plain white ibuprofen?

I've always been fascinated by nutrition and have been ever so slowly working towards getting my master's in nutrition. Hoping to be a Registered Dietitian someday. So I guess one of my hobbies is reading and learning about nutrition. I'm a geek! I go to the library often and troll the nutrition aisle. I've had to write papers on specific nutrients and their effects as well as papers on specific conditions and how nutrients play a part. The last one a wrote was on Omega 3 fatty acids, so that really led me down the road of how inflammation is implicated in so many conditions. I read Inflammation Nation about 6 months ago and thought it was really helpful. Dr. Bock's book is my new favorite right now because it is so applicable to my life. I have ADD so there is a lot in there that has helped me! Magnesium is related to so many processes on the body. When magnesium levels fall, C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation, goes up. Here's a link to an article that summarizing a study done that was published in The Journal of American College of Nutrition in 2003. http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/M...ce-inflammation

I haven't tried a specific diet per se but inflammation is what I am focusing on most. We're still not sure my son has PANDAS because we haven't been able to document the relationship between strep and his symptoms starting and/or worsening, though he definitely had strep several times within the year his symptoms started and any illness, including strep makes it worse. While his dr. and I sort out what is going on, I figure inflammation seems to be the root of most illnesses and the things that make his symptoms worse, so it can't hurt to keep it low. And we all know that it all gets worse with stressors like illness, being tired, exposure to allergens and toxins etc. which all inflammation in the body. He's done really well I think and I credit most of that to keeping the inflammation low. We've done our best to cut out dietary inflammatories like msg, aspartame, artificial dyes (esp. #40) and flavorings, exposure to pesticides and herbicides and too much sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup). We haven't cut out wheat or milk yet, but I'm toying with it. We eat more salmon than before and i try to make sure there are several fruits and vegetables at every meal. Of course he's a normal kid and eats crap sometimes and we definitely notice an increase in symptoms. I would love to afford to be able to eat entirely organic and natural, we do as much as we can with the things that I think are the most important. We supplement with several things known to reduce inflammation. He takes fish oil for the essential fatty acids, vitamin c (ester-c), vitamin e (mixed tycopherols), chromium picolinate (he tends to be hympoglycemic), vitamin D3, melatonin (for sleep but it does have anti-inflammatory properties as well), magnesium, tumeric, & probiotics. i just bought some quercitin to add as well. He takes some other things as well but for other purposes. The one I notice an immediate effect with is magnesium. His tics are much worse if we forget. I make sure he gets enough exercise, sleep, and we try to keep life pretty simple to avoid much stress. Even good stress increases his symptoms, so we try to keep it all in balance. He's definitely worse with tics and emotions when he's tired. Exercise seems to increase his tics for about an hour, but then reduces them a lot. I clean with baking soda and vinegar mostly, along with essential oils. I have been using HEPA filters in our furnace this year and I have a vacuum with a HEPA filter as well. He's really sensitive to strong smells, especially perfume-y stuff. Exposure to things like gas and diesel fumes brings an instant increase. I've also notice an increase with smog. I change his bedding often. I want to have him tested for food and environmental allergies as well so I know for sure what affects him. The way I see it, at the center of all the things that make things worse for him, including illness, is inflammation. Basically anything I can connect to reducing inflammation I am open to. If it doesn't help the OCD and tics, which I'm certain it does, it helps with a whole lot of other health issues, so we can't lose. And since all these things affect the health of the whole family, I'm noticing all of our health improving.

Super interesting! Thanks!

My nonPANDAS son has had trouble with eurinesis (sp?) in the past. He suffers from severe constipation and starts to wet himself a little here and there if he hasn't had a BM in 2 days or so. He has bowel motility issues and in the past he had a lot of problems with encopresis as well due to the constipation, so I have to make sure he goes every couple of days so we don't head back down that road. If he can't go on his own I give him a glycerin suppository and it works every time. As long as he is having regular BMs, the wetting stops.

Well, here's my two cents. We did Zoloft for a little over a year for DS, starting when he had just turned 9. We started at 25 mg, bumped to 50 within a few months, 100 a few months later and up to 150 mg by 9 months. At 150 mg there was zero doubt in my mind that it was making everything worse. He was manic, couldn't sit still like he had ants in his pants, talked a mile a minute non-stop, and couldn't sleep. Within 2 days of the 150 mg dose I asked my husband if he thought the Zoloft had changed anything except causing him to gain 15 lbs in under a year, most of it within a 4 months period. We realized that the improvements we had attributed to the zoloft were the improvements we had seen in previous years as we came out of winter and headed into Spring and Summer. Things always get worse when school starts and they did again even on the Zoloft. So we dropped him back down to 100 for a month, then slowly have weaned him down to 25 mg. We tried to get him off completely over the holidays, but the withdrawals were pretty severe (flu like symptoms that abated within a few hours of us giving him the drug again) and we decided to wait until we were back to a normal schedule.. We tried again just before we started abx, but withdrawal again was a factor and I wanted to be able to know if the abx were helping without interference so he's still on the 25mg. He has stopped gaining weight thankfully. After seeing how hard it is to get off an SSRI, I would use caution. That said, my son was never depressed. I have taken Wellbutrin in the past and felt it did help me. It's not an SSRI though, so I don't know how it affects OCD or PANDAS, but it does help depression. It also doesn't cause weight gain or have sexual side effects (which may not be an issue at 15, but if he stays on it for any length of time, it could be in the future). It isn't FDA approved for anxiety but I felt like it did make me feel a lot less anxious. Getting off wasn't too hard, I just felt really tired for about a week. You do have to wean off as well because there is an increased risk of seizures. When my sister came of Zoloft she said she has never felt more depressed and overwhelmed with sadness. She had to will herself through each day because she kept thinking she couldn't go on like that. It lasted about two weeks, but it was a brutal two weeks. If it were my son I would try giving him tryptophan or 5-HTP first. They actually create more seratonin in the brain. Getting enough sleep, sunshine and exercise make a huge difference, but they seem to be the hardest to get when you are depressed. St. John's Wort also seems to work like an SSRI, but with fewer side effects for most people, though if and SSRI were going to make the PANDAS worse I imagine St. John's Wort would too. If none of those worked, I would consider Wellbutrin first. But if the choice is between a teeneage boy with PANDAS and depression vs. mild side effects of an anti-depressant that worked, I'd probably go with the SSRI.

Good to know! We're heading back next Thursday. I'm actually excited to see if the Omnicef makes any big changes. I've read so many other people say, "we switched from x abx to y abx and within 5 days we noticed a huge improvement". I soooo want to be one of those stories!

Well, as expected the swab was negative but he will culture it as well. No thrush either, which is good news that the probiotics are doing their job. DS does have a raging ear infection which the Augmentin wasn't touching so for that fact alone he switched us to Omnicef. I asked about Zith but he felt it wouldn't get the ear infection as well as omnicef would. I'm OK with that because DS did really well with Omnicef before his tonsillectomy, when he had strep, both ears infected and a sinus infection. Personally I think he has strep as well, but we will have to wait to see what the culture shows. He wanted to run titers again so we threw the mycoplasma and lyme in there for good measure. I think the fact that DS had an ear infection even on abx, and was visibly ticcing like crazy helped our cause because the doctor seemed far more responsive today. He said he had called his infectious diseases doc that morning but hadn't heard back. So here we go again!

I'm taking him into to see his dr. this morning. He woke up with ear pain as well as sinus congestion. Totally reminds me of the day we went to see the ENT to discuss a tonsillectomy and he informed me that not only did he have strep again , but a double ear infection and a sinus infection. And all DS said then was, my throat feels kind of weird. I seriously hope it is strep because then I will at least have proof that his symptoms do get much worse with strep. And if it's not I guess we also know they get worse with a virus. I hope it isn't thrush because I'm afraid his doctor will pull him off the abx. I guess we'll know soon enough.

Cindy, Your situation is so similar to mine. My son's tonsils were taken out Nov. 2008 and I don't think we've had strep since. Prior to that he had strep over and over, along with some sinus infections and a bajillion ear infections. His OCD/tic showed up noticeably in Dec. 2007, though looking back I'm thinking it started earlier than that. He started Zoloft a month or so after his tonsillectomy and we attributed his improvements to that. But his OCD and tics do get better and worse and they usually improve as we head into Spring. They definitely got much much worse when his brother had strep in September 2009. He's never had great handwriting, though it also gets better and worse. It really deteriorated. His math abilities also diminished after being something he always had an A in. He also added a bunch of new vocal and head/shoulder tics, started having trouble sleeping again and wet the bed a few times. I mentioned all this to his doctor in October, so he swabbed him and it came back negative. I wasn't surprised because he was doing pretty good again by then (it's never been REALLY horrible). I didn't know enough then to ask for him to do the blood tests. The dr. wanted to increase his zoloft, which we did for a few days but I realized it was making him quite manic. We also realized that he had gained 15 pounds in the past 6 months and figured it was the zoloft. We decided to slowly wean him off and see if we noticed a difference. By Christmas he was down to 25 mg (he was up to 150 mg at his highest manic dose) aside from a few days of emotional volatility, which we expected because withdrawal from zoloft is very hard, it hasn't changed anything except his weight is no longer increasing. I read Saving Sammy about a month and a half ago and something inside me just knew that that is what we're dealing with. I decided we needed to talk with his doctor about PANDAS. 3 weeks ago we took him in to let the dr. know we were taking him off the zoloft and to talk about PANDAS. We weren't in an exacerbation, but he always has some OCD and some tics and emotional lability. We've always said he was an intense child. Now I knew that he was like all these other kids dealing with this disorder. We had his blood tests done then and started Augmentin. Both his ASO and Anti-DNAase came back normal. Now his doctor really doesn't think it is PANDAS based on that alone, though he will admit he fits the diagnostic criteria. He did agree to talk with an infectious disease dr. he knows and admires and said he would look up Dr. T and his work. He also gave us another 10 days of Augmentin after I told him it helped and my son agreed, but said that without a current GABHs infection or elevated titers he really didn't see why it would help. I told him I didn't know either, but it was helping some. I'd like to see a more dramatic improvement, but I understand that recovery comes in small doses over a long period of time. I just wonder if we should be using Zith? I would have them run, but I would make sure to make it clear to your doctor that he isn't at his worst and you wouldn't be surprised if his titers are normal and that you are just trying to get a baseline to compare the next exacerbation to. I would also make sure you run mycoplasma and lyme as well. We didn't, and still haven't, but plan to when we see the doctor again in a week and a half to discuss what he has learned. So many of the kids here have elevated titers I just want to know. Plus then I would know that Augmentin isn't the right abx. Please keep us posted because I'm learning so much from what works or doesn't for others.

During the presentation Dr. Swedo gave at the autism conference (2006?) she said that the tics, ocd and adhd all went together but the symptoms of one over the other would depend on where they saw the lesion on the basal ganglia. At least I think that is where I heard that.

I've been giving him 2. I give him a Culturelle after school and an Natrol Probiotic Acidopholus beads. Both are supposed to have 1 billion+ cells. But over the weekend we weren't as good as we have been. I guess it makes sense to take him in and have him tested. I realize that I'm beginning to worry that they think I'm nuts. I had my other son tested twice because his throat was red and he sounded weird. It turned out to be allergies, but the instacare doc acted like i was a wacko for bringing him in twice in two weeks. I think I'll take him to a different instacare I'm actually leaning toward thrush though. Either way, it needs to be treated, so I'm taking him in.

I give my son, who is 10 a tumeric caplet that is 450 mg extract and 50 mg root. I read in Dr. Bock's Healing the New Childhood Epidemics that a good daily dose is between 500 & 1500 mg per day. I would imagine at 4 she would be at the 500 mg dose. We just started about a week ago but for my son I plan to add another 500 mg. It shouldn't interact with the antibiotics. It's a pretty big pill. I know iherb.com has a tincture form as well, but it has a different dosing formula.

I think the abx got him back to functional and finally back to baseline. I think most people become less susceptible to strep by 19 or so, which has helped. It will be interesting to see if he continues to need abx when exposed to strep as he ages. I used to get strep quite a bit as a kid. I haven't ever caught it from my kids, so I do think age helps as well. The boy in Against Medical Advice also grew out of it (mostly, unless he is under a lot of stress) by college but he went through years (tics started at 5, OCD soon after) of pure ###### first. He wasn't diagnosed PANDAS, but I kind of think he probably was. Poor kid was put on so many meds and they all seemed to make it worse. He also self medicated with alcohol and ended up in rehab at 15. Whether the abx "cure" them, or just help them function until their body adjusts, I would certainly rather go the Sammy route.

My son is on day 4 of a second round of 10 day Augmentin. He was off for 4 days in between until we could see the doctor again last Thursday. Saturday morning and afternoon he had zero tics and no OCD (from my own observation as well as his). Around 5 pm we went up to a cabin with my son's friend's family. To get there we had to go in a snowcat, which was really exciting to the kids. Inside the cab you could definitely smell gas fumes and within a few minutes I started to notice some tics (craning, head shaking and finger smelling). At the cabin everything got worse. He was emotional, he was touching and evening things up constantly, he wasn't very social, and extremely touchy. The cabin is really old and has super old shag carpet and furniture. As they were talking about the flooding problems they've had over the years I began to wonder if there was mold in the carpet. I'm sure there were tons of dust mites. The next day his tics and OCD continued to get worse. As we went back down to our car in the the cat his head shaking tic showed up again. He told me he sees lines and has to even them up by shaking them into place. As the evening went on his mood improved but he was tired. Before bed he told me his throat feels weird. That is what he always used to say when he had strep before we took his tonsils out. Not that it hurts, it just feels weird and swollen and hard to swallow. He hasn't had strep, as far as I know, since his tonsil were removed about a year and a half ago. His strep titer tests from 3 weeks ago were all normal so I don't think he has had it in awhile. This morning his throat was definitely swollen and had some white spots where his tonsils used to be and a bunch of small red dots all over the back of his throat. His tongue was also coated with white slime. So now I'm wondering if he has strep, or if his throat is inflamed because of environmental exposure to fumes and allergens, or if he has thrush from the abx. I see how he could have either, or both of the last two, but could he have strep on abx? Should I take him in regardless? His doctor can't see him today but I could take him to the Express Clinic for a culture. If it is thrush we would want something to clear that up wouldn't we?

My son's is also blue-green. His favorite number is 8.

In Healing the New Childhood Epidemics by Dr. Bock he states the following: "Curcumin This is a powerful anti-oxidant, but its most effective action is as a natural anti-inflammatory. It also has nerve protectant properties, and can aid in colon health. A reasonable daily dosage is in the range of 500 to 1500 mg., depending upon the patient and circumstances". He doesn't mention any side-effects or contraindications with other meds or supps, which he does for some of the other supplements he recommends in his book, so my guess is it is fine to take with just about anything. And since he mentions a "daily" dosage I figure that means you can take it all the time. We've recently added this to my son's regimen but it has only been about 5 days so I think it is too soon to tell if it has helped. Another herb I am considering is Quercitin. He says it is good for allergies because it blocks the production of histimine and reduces inflammation. He recommends 600-1800 mg per day.

i do wonder sometimes if the PANDAS started earlier than I know. i'm assuming it started just before his 7th birthday when the OCD became very pronounced but he started to show signs of aggression, sensory integration issues and sleep problems (among other things) at about 2 1/2. He's one of those kids that pretty much had an ear infection brewing constantly until we had tubes put in at 20 months. It seems like he always had a cold from about 9 months on. So maybe the PANDAS does create the sensitivity. Like I mentioned in another post, he's been pretty intense for so long I almost don't know what is him and what is OCD/TS/anxiety/PANDAS///.

I think PANDAS time has come. It won't be long before this "rare" disease turns out to not be so rare after all. I just hope it is sooner than later!

My son seems to have out grown this. From the time he was about 3 he couldn't take loud noises. Fireworks would literally shut him down. He would bury his head in my shoulder and go perfectly still. I would think he had fallen asleep, but when they were over he would snap his head up and get right back too life. Around 6 he seemed to get over it. Now it's smells that he is extra sensitive about. I don't think it is the PANDAS that causes it. I think it is part of the phenotype of PANDAS susceptible kids. Totally my opinion though.

Always good to have the science behind what we observe. What I think is interesting is what my son finds disgusting and what he doesn't. He can't even be near a plate that has been used or see half eaten food, but he sleeps with the dog, which I find gross. He can't do the dishes, but he can drink out of the carton. He can clean the catbox, but he can't take out the garbage. He can happily eat at a buffet, but not sit at the dinner table if it has any crumbs or dried gunk on it. I can see that food contamination is an issue, but the things that might worry me some (like a buffet or drinking out of a carton) don't seem to affect him at all. Maybe it has to do experience.

Thanks everybody! It really helps to know that other families have dealt with this and there really isn't a clear cut PANDAS case to go off of. I do worry that we've been lucky so far and that the next time could be the big one. We have had a few periods where the "cloud" seems to have lifted and he is such a funny, witty, charming boy. I guess we've been dealing with this long enough that I forget that I'm not dealing with the "real" him most of the time. Heartbreaking when I think about it. I do think it is PANDAS. The fact that the abx pre and post tonsillectomy gave us 6 weeks of normalcy says something to me. And the exposure to his brother's strep in September brought on a whole slew of new tics we hadn't seen before. By Christmas most of them were gone except for a few of his more persistent ones. Also, the last few times he had strep he was asymptomatic. I just thought his voice sounded "streppy". His brother has also been asymptomatic both times he's been dx for strep. He too just sounded "streppy". I imagine that there have been a number of times I've missed it. In the past I've been a very "wait and see" parent, giving things a few days to see if it resolved itself. Now I'm wondering if some of our bad times were strep and I missed it. This past round also came with many improvements to the tics, the OCD and to his mood. I was hoping his pediatrician would be willing to give us the abx, there would be improvement and that would be confirmation enough. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. I would like to run more tests. I'd like to at least know his lyme and mycoplasma and run the Cunningham test. The pediatrician had never heard of it, so I'm sure I will have to bring all the info to him if I want it. If he does have colonized strep, how would find it? His throat culture was negative. He's had a number of sinus infections in the past, it could be there. How do they test for strep in the sinuses or gut or anywhere else? I also think I will get a copy of his entire medical history. There were so many ear infections and strep infections I can't even remember when they all were. It would be interesting to match them up with what I remember his OCD and tic history to be. I wish I knew of a specialist in Utah. Maybe there is one, but I don't know how to find one. It seems like most of the PANDAS docs are concentrated on the coasts. I did give our doc Dr. T's and Dr. K's contact info. He's a fabulous pediatrician and definitely wants to do the right thing. He's on the older side and has a very busy practice. I don't think he has the time, or the burning desire to learn all about PANDAS. My experience with him has been he will learn enough to refer me to someone he thinks can help. I think the more info I have in hand, the more likely it is he will point us toward someone who actually can. Well, I guess we'll just see how the next 10 days go and at least we'll have some more information! Thanks again for your experiences and advice!

Just got back from our 2 week follow up with his doctor. I told him that the abx definitely helped and that every day he's been off of them more symptoms are returning, but his mood is definitely improved. Then he told me his tests all came back within normal range. He told me the numbers and they were at the high end of normal. This didn't really surprise me because we didn't go in because of an exacerbation, i just wanted to get the titers run and discuss the possibility of PANDAS. He does meet the criteria for the most part. Unfortunately we didn't run lyme or mycoplasma. I'm always stumped at the "sudden onset" descriptor. How sudden is sudden? I noticed in December 2006 that he couldn't be around garbage, was pushing his stomach in and out and was totally obsessed with poop and pee getting into his mouth. Do I remember the day? No. I just remember the first time I realized he was bringing his garbage out of the room thinking "uh oh" and watching him more closely after that. When my mom mentioned to me a few weeks later that she thought he had germ issues I told her that I was beginning to suspect OCD. Is that sudden enough? Can I link it to a strep infection? Well he was getting it all the time around then. I can't pinpoint it to the exact infection. Does it get worse with strep infections. Well it did, but he hasn't had strep throat since he had his tonsils out a year ago. But it still gets worse with lots of other things. Stress, allergies, fatigue, excitement, crappy food, any illness, certain seasons (possible allergy trigger indicator I think). I did notice the absence of symptoms during the time he was on antibiotics before and after his tonsillectomy. I also noticed he was much worse during the time his brother had strep in September. Does that count as worsening during exposure to strep? But wouldn't his titers rise then? How long do they stay elevated? Did it get better with an SSRI? No. Has therapy helped? Some. I think it has helped him as a person over all. It has helped our family deal with it. It has given him some tools and given him the insight that thoughts don't have to control him. So that is helpful stuff for anyone I think. Some specific ERP approaches helped with individual issues at certain times but not generally overall. So now his doctor wants to know why give him antibiotics if he isn't producing antibodies. Ummm, cause it helps? Not a very convincing answer I'm afraid. He gave us another 10 days of Augmentin 875 mg 2x day, wants to see us again in 2 weeks and will talk to his favorite Infectious Diseases doctor. I asked if he would do a month but he wouldn't. He also gave me the, "let's not get too stuck on one diagnosis. let's keep our minds open", which I think means he doesn't think it is PANDAS. I told him some kids don't have elevated titers. He wanted to know how they knew it was PANDAS then. Ummm, I know there is some logic behind that but I can't exactly remember? So I'm going to use Buster's charting system for this round. I'm hoping for a pretty major improvement. I'm also going to get all my research papers compiled with important info high-lighted so I can go in the next time sounding educated. The thing is, my son has never gotten REALLY bad. He waxes and wanes, and his bad times aren't great, but they aren't debilitating in the sense that he can't function. He goes to school, he participates in the family, he does his school work, he has friends, he has extracurricular activities, he isn't depressed. He is really open and up front about it and so far it hasn't been a problem socially. So it isn't THAT bad. I've always treated it as an inflammation/auto-immune response anyway (seems logical when you see them deteriorate around things that tax their immune system) which is why I think it hasn't been so bad for him. But he is also pre-Jr. High where kids can be really mean. He is just starting to show signs of puberty, which I've heard will make it worse. He can be very volatile, moody, and so pissy that we definitely walk on eggshells and work around him a lot, but I wouldn't say he rages. When he gets really rotten we just tell him he needs to go to his room until he can participate according to the family rules and he does. But he is oppositional. Simple requests can cause some serious reaction if he doesn't like your tone. Plus he can be really rotten to his brother, which breaks my heart. And like so many of our kids, he's really smart, he just isn't even coming close to his potential. He gets into some trouble with one of his teachers for repeating what she says and other misunderstanding. His teacher's complain about his handwriting being pretty good sometimes and horrible sometimes. He does really well in math for awhile, then it all falls apart. During the bad times he doesn't sleep well, so I don't sleep well. It is so draining on me emotionally to worry about him and constantly be assessing where he is at and what we need to do to optimize his health. And I worry that so much immune dysfunction so early in life can't be good for his health long term. So yeah, it isn't as bad as it could be, but if I could possibly make it easier for him to function at a normal level, I want to. For him and me and the whole family. But not if it is going to make him go to a bunch of different doctors and have a bunch of tests and give him the feeling that he is defective and I think he needs to be fixed and bankrupting our family in the process. So, How hard would you push if your child was doing pretty well considering how bad it ?could be?

nomoz have you had her tested for allergies? dark circles under the eyes are often called "allergy shiners" are a pretty big indication of an allergic reaction to something.