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I found this new research interesting: http://www.iflscience.com/brain/adhdrelated-brain-abnormalities-found-in-children-as-young-as-four/

Hi- this is my first post on this forum though I've been reading and following to try to figure out the puzzle of my my son's behaviors. He's 9 and was diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety, and sensory processing disorder with a neuopsych when he was 6 though behaviors had been around for many years starting around age 2. He was also diagnosed with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder at age 6 after a sleep study. Recently he has shown new "tic" behaviors like repeating swear words words over and over (under his breath) and making repetitive sounds. We are seeing a new doctor and he ordered a test for PANDAS. His strep titters came back as 382. He took a five day course of amoxicillin -the tics do seem lower but his frequent rage issues continue to increase by the day, as well as extreme irritability and defiance, temper tantrum and emotional reactions. On top of this is a craving for and or /refusal to eat many foods and chronic constipation. We tried a two week trial of gluten free followed by 2 weeks of dairy free. Dairy free seemed better but very difficult because milk is what he craves. He has poor weight gain and has fallen off the growth chart. His sensory behavior has increased and he can only have very soft materials touching his skin (takes off clothes and wraps himself in a blanket whenever he is at home.) He is taking foculin xr, Kapvay and Prozac. We are stopping Prozac in 10 days to see if that helps. He also takes Zyrtec for seasonal allergies and miralax. We just restarted iron supplements for PLMD as his serum ferritin levels are at 30 (way below the 70 his doctor would like to see.) I'm wondering about the connection between ADHD, PLMD, anxiety, SPD, PANDAS and digestive/growth issues. Does anyone have a child with a similar profile? Thank you for your help!

Hi, I'm a 19 year old man, kid, idk I'm sorta in between man and kid. Anyway I've always been a sort of weird kid, but very intelligent and high functioning. I always had some tics and weird mood behaviors, social awkwardness, etc. but was more or less a functioning member of society so my parents never saw any reason to investigate further. Over the summer I met with a therapist for the first time to help sort out attention/studying issues that I was having my first year of college and I ended up being diagnosed with ADD and Autism, I also used to be a major strep carrier, as an infant I had a severe case of scarlett fever and frequent cases of strep throughout my childhood, like multiple instances a year. Needless to say, PANDAs instantly came to mind, but I can't seem to find any info about how PANDAs affects people in adulthood. All these disorders are all new news to me, and while they explain a lot of my quirkiness, I'd really like to learn more about them and how they affect me, ya know? Any input from you guys would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, bentushar

Hi everyone! My son suffers from ADHD, Tourettes and OCD. He is on a low dose of stimulant medication (which makes his OCD and Tics worse, but he is unable to function in school without it). We have just started exploring dietary intervention along with supplements (we are researching both now). We know he is sensitive to gluten and dairy, but have been pretty lazy about adhering to a diet. In the past year or so, we have seen a sharp rise in his symptoms so we are motivated to modify his diet. I wanted to get a baseline of his symptoms before the elimination diet. My husband and I have long noticed that his pupils are often very dialated. Much more so than ours in all types of light. Has anyone else experienced that? I thought it might be worth noting in the diet/behavior log. Thanks! This is a fabulous site and has helped us tremendously!

The research below, done in Australia shows the dangers of our food supply and why there is an epidemic of diseases with the onset of GMO food both in our meat supply and corn, soy and sugar beets. My mom always wondered why I, and so many of my friends had to have bed rest pregnancies. She use to be a labor and delivery nurse in the 50's and saw miscarriages but mostly early on. Glyphosates were introduced in the 70's and tripled or more in amounts sprayed with GMO foods. Now I have my answer. I met the farmer personally 2 years ago at a lecture. He is 3rd generation and has seen changes first hand in the field and slaughter house. He is passionate about what he has discovered because as he puts it, "I don't know who my kids will marry and I want healthy grandchildren". He presented his findings to the FDA and was ignored. Fortunately he has not given up which led to this extensive research. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/18/gmo-foods-inflammation.aspx?e_cid=20140518Z1_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20140518Z1&et_cid=DM45056&et_rid=524687028 Visit the Mercola Video Library By Dr. Mercola If you're like me, you've probably been asked by many of your friends and relatives why you believe genetically engineered (GE) foods are unsafe. Dr. Judy Carman, one of the few researchers in the world who has carefully and independently evaluated this question, can help you provide answers to your friends and family. Dr. Carman has degrees in both epidemiology and medicine, specifically in the field of nutritional biochemistry in metabolic regulation in relation to cancer, and her research into GE foods provides compelling evidence for avoiding such foods if you value your health, and want to protect the health of your children as they grow older. Her background involves both cancer research, and work as a senior epidemiologist in Australian government, investigating outbreaks of disease. She's currently an adjunct associate professor at Flinders University in South Australia, as well as the director of the Institute of Health and Environmental Research (IHER). Independent GMO Researchers Face Many Challenging Hurdles As one of the few researchers looking into the effects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Dr. Carman is no stranger to the many challenges that this kind of research entails. The biotechnology industry has devised a rather clever and sophisticated control system that largely prevents independent research of their products. "Yes, there are a number of problems for anyone doing research," she notes. "They usually center around getting the money to be able to do the research... But you also need to get the materials to test. In this case, it's the seeds from the genetically modified (GM) plants... But it's very difficult to get GM seeds to test. If a farmer wants to buy seeds to plant in the field, the farmer has to sign a technology user agreement, which means [he]... is not allowed to do any research on those seeds, and is not allowed to give them to anyone else to do research on either. You basically have to find some way around that that's legal and we did, but it took us quite some time. Otherwise, you need to go to the industry to ask, 'Pretty please, can we have some seeds?' We did that as well. The conditions placed upon us getting those seeds were such that we couldn't legitimately try and get the seeds from most companies." Besides the hurdle of obtaining the GE seeds in question, protected as they are by rigid patent laws, researchers who venture into GMO research must also be prepared to survive the personal and professional discrediting and abuse that comes with the territory. Truly, anyone who does this kind of research must be close to sainthood, as those who reveal negative findings are figuratively speaking "tarred and feathered" for their efforts. Most must endure being personally attacked and vilified, and many have had their entire career stripped from them in the process. In the last six years, Dr. Carman has survived six different attempts to have her removed from her various university positions, for example. As she notes later in this interview, she was largely "protected" by the fact that she knew this going into the research, and chose to stop receiving a salary and getting paid for her work. Funding is another major barrier, of course. Because most of the agricultural universitiesthe ones that would conduct these studiesobtain their funding from the very companies that make the seeds, they're not interested in research that might jeopardize this lucrative relationship with the industry. In Dr. Carman's case, her team was fortunate enough to obtain the funding for their research from the government of Western Australia. Why Industry Safety Assessments Rarely Reveal the Truth Most pigs raised in American piggeries are fed a GE diet these days; typically, a mixture of GE soy and corn. Howard Vlieger, who is the second co-author of the study, had noticed differences in pigs fed a GE diet compared to those given non-GE feed, and he was one of the primary instigators of the investigation. Dr. Carman explains what got them started: "The two main things he was seeing was an increase in intestinal problems in pigs fed GM feed, particularly an increase in stomach inflammation. He was also seeing things such as a thinning of intestinal walls, and hemorrhagic bowel disease, where a pig can... bleed out from its bowel within 15 or so minutes. The other thing he was seeing was a reduced ability to conceive in the sows (female pigs) and higher rates of miscarriage in female pigs fed GM crops. [in] communities in the United States that still use boars to inseminate their sows... he was also seeing a reduction in the number of piglets born." They decided to take a proper look at these phenomena. Dr. Carman has been an outspoken critic of the protocols used by the genetically modified food industry for their safety assessments, so she was careful about the design of her own study. Generally, industry safety protocols fall into two main camps: What the industry calls a "safety assessment" is really nothing more than an animal production study, Dr. Carman notes. Using significant numbers of animals, they feed some the GE crop, and another group gets non-GE feed. But the outcomes industry researchers look for are typically irrelevant to human health. These studies are basically done to reassure primary livestock producers that if you feed this GM feed to your animals, they will live long enough to get to market and produce a good yield. The second type of studies done are animal studies to determine if a product is going to harm human health. These are quite rare within the GE industry. Here, a very small number of animals are typically used, who are then given GE feed. Sometimes, however, they may not even feed the animals with the GE crop in question. Instead, they might just use the "active ingredient" or in this case the particular plant protein that has been inserted into the plant. For example, a small number of animals might receive a GE protein, and the effects of a singular dose are then noted over the course of seven to 14 days. If the animal (usually a rat) doesn't die, all is presumed to be well. Crazy as it seems, this is sometimes the main safety assessment performed by the industry. Even more remarkable, sometimes, the protein tested doesn't even come from the actual GE plant, but rather from the bacteria they genetically engineer to produce what they hope is the same protein. As Dr. Carman notes, this kind of testing is not going to reveal the long-term health outcomes associated with eating the GE food over the course of years, or an entire lifetime. In Search of Statistical Significance Dr. Carman's team decided to use pigs instead of rats. Adverse effects have already been observed in pigs raised on GE feed, and the digestive organs in pigs are very similar to those in humans. They also decided to feed them long enough for adverse effects to actually be found. As soon as the piglets were weaned, they were randomly assigned to receive either GE or non-GE feed, and they were fed the same feed for their entire commercial lifespan, which is about five months. At that point, the now fully mature (and very large) animals were slaughtered according to industry standards. All personnel involved in the study were blinded, including the veterinarians who performed the autopsies at the end of the study, meaning no one knew beforehand which animals were receiving which feed. Two years ago, the first-ever lifetime animal feeding study involving GE corn revealed major health problems, including massive mammary tumors, kidney and liver damage, and early death. That study, led by Gilles-Eric Séralini, also attempted to separate out the effects of glyphosate. To do so, some rats were given GE corn that had not been sprayed with glyphosate, while others were given conventional GE corn that had been sprayed. Yet another group received glyphosate in water, but no GE feed. All suffered serious health consequences, although the combination of glyphosate and GE corn was the worst. "In my view, he needed to have more animals to be able to find statistical significance," Dr. Carman says. "That's what we did in the pig study. We made sure that we had large numbers of pigs, so that if there was anything biologically significant happening, we would pick it up in the statistics. We had 168 just-weaned pigs. We split them into two groups: one fed GM feed and the other fed non-GM feed. We had 84 pigs per group. That made quite a lot of difference. We were able to do some more elaborate statistics and actually hunt down some hypotheses within the statistics that we used." Pig Study Reveals Significant Stomach Inflammation The sad reality though is that pigs are not just fed one GE crop at a time. As mentioned earlier, they're fed combinations of GE crops, typically GE soy and corn. Dr. Carman used Roundup-ready soy designed to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup, so that the herbicide will only kill surrounding weedsalong with a couple of different GE corn varieties. "We were in effect feeding three GM genes and their protein products to these pigs at the same time," she explains. This was also done in order to simulate the diet of a typical American who, just like pigs raised in a conventional piggery, will eat a variety of different GE corn crops, not just one specific one at a time.Besides the fact that there are different kinds of GE crops, such as Roundup Ready and Bt, more than 37 percent of the GE crops grown in the US are "stacked" gene crops, meaning they're not just resistant to Roundup, they also have one or two Bt genes in it. So eating foods that have two or more genetically modified genes in it is pretty standard in terms of what you'll find in the typical American diet. "These pigs were eating the Roundup-ready gene, its protein product, two Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins, and the proteins from the two Bt genes, which are designed to produce insecticidal proteins. I suspect that the reason why we got such strong stomach inflammation was the interaction between the proteins that the animals were eating," she says. At the end of the study, Dr. Carman's team discovered a significant increase in stomach inflammation in the pigs fed a GE diet. Overall, inflammation levels were 2.6 times higher in GE-fed pigs than those fed a non-GE diet, and male pigs fared worse than the females. While sows were 2.2 times more likely to have severe stomach inflammation on a GE diet, male pigs were four times more likely to get severe stomach inflammation. "And when I say 'severe,' I'm talking about a stomach that is swollen and cherry red in color over almost the entire surface of the stomach. This is not the sort of stomach that you or I would want to have at all," she says. To see the results for yourself, visit GMOJudyCarman.org. The uterus was also 25 percent heavier in sows fed GE feed. Both of these findings were biologically and statistically significant. In their paper, Dr. Carman et.al. discuss the disease states this kind of uterine enlargement might represent. "The two main things that we were looking at here and the two main things that Howard Vlieger flagged as a problemas things that he was seeing in livestock, particularly in pigswere both things we found statistical significance for: (1) digestive health problems, particularly inflammation in the stomach, and also (2) reproductive issues. In this case, we've found this increased uterus weight," she says. Can We Put the Genie Back in the Bottle? I sincerely believe that if you expose people to genetically engineered foods for a long enough time, we're going to see dramatic increases in disease. My own efforts are all geared toward reducing the number of people affected. And my recommendation is clear: avoid GE foods, and for as long as such foods are not required to be labeled, avoid them by purchasing organic foods. Without labeling, that's the only real workaround at your disposal. As noted by Dr. Carman, the chemical technology industry is NOT doing a good enough job ensuring safety before putting their genetically altered products into the food system. Unfortunately, hundreds of millions have already been exposed. And without knowing it, they've fed GE foods of highly questionable safety to their children, day in and day out, perhaps for years already. Have GE crops contributed to the increased chronic disease burden in the US, especially in children? While the industry says "no way," I believe the evidence suggests otherwise. We have to remember that humans live around 80 years, and this gigantic GE food experiment only began in earnest less than 20 years old agoeven less if you start counting from when GMOs became really prevalent in processed foods. Hence, we may be decades away from tabulating the human casualties. This is why long-term safety studies on animals are so critical, as rats and pigs have far shorter lifespans than humans. Silencing Scientific Dissent Dr. Carman's research, as well as Seralini's, really suggests we need to exercise the precautionary principle and avoid these foods. Needless to say, however, the chemical technology companies that created these crops are in the business of protecting and expanding business, not voluntarily shutting themselves down, and they've proven they're willing to go to great lengths to protect profits. Ruining a researcher's reputation and livelihood is nothing in the big scheme of things to a multinational giant like Monsanto. The Corbett Report above discusses some of the less-than-honorable methods used by industry to silence dissentersespecially scientists whose research doesn't jibe with preconceived industry decisions. The list of victimsresearchers who published research detrimental to the industry's bottom lineis long, and growing. As mentioned earlier, the findings from Séralini's lifetime feeding study, which was published in Elsevier's peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, were an absolute bombshell. The study was, and still is, among the best evidence of the toxic effects of GE foods. Of utmost importance, Séralini's study showed that the major onslaught of diseases really set in during the 13th month of the experiment, strongly suggesting that industry-funded studies have simply been too short for problems to be detected. Consider this: if 24 months of a rat's life equates to about 80 years of your child's, the 13-month mark would be somewhere in your child's early to mid-40s. The industry immediately went on the offensive. Then, in what appears to have been a last ditch effort to get rid of this stubbornly incriminating study, the publisher (Elsevier) simply retracted it, for no other reason than its findings were deemed to be inconclusive. The thing is, inconclusiveness of findings is not a valid ground for retraction... Elsevier's actions caused a major backlash, and has undoubtedly opened more than a few eyes to the reality of censorship of "unwanted" research. Even the National Institutes for Health (NIH) scolded Elsevier in an editorial titled: "Inconclusive Findings: Now You See Them, Now You Don't!" Harassment, Par for the Course Another poster child for researchers harassed to their wits' end is Tyrone Hayes, whose Atrazine research turned his life into a paranoid nightmare. Rachael Aviv told his story in a February 10 article in The New Yorker. In the late 1990s, Hayes conducted experiments on the herbicide for its maker, Syngenta. As reported by Aviv: "...when Hayes discovered that Atrazine might impede the sexual development of frogs, his dealings with Syngenta became strained, and, in November, 2000, he ended his relationship with the company. Hayes continued studying Atrazine on his own, and soon he became convinced that Syngenta representatives were following him to conferences around the world. He worried that the company was orchestrating a campaign to destroy his reputation." Two years ago, his work on Atrazine provided the scientific basis for two class-action lawsuits brought against Syngenta by 23 US municipalities, accusing the chemical technology company of contaminating drinking water and "concealing Atrazine's true dangerous nature." Documents unearthed during these legal proceedings revealed that Hayes' suspicions were trueSyngenta had indeed been studying him as deeply as he'd been studying their toxic herbicide for the past 15 years. What follows reaches a level of creepy that no one should ever have to endureleast of all a scientist who's working to learn and share the truth about a widely used agricultural chemical that has the power to affect all of us, and our ecology. Aviv writes: "Syngenta's public-relations team had drafted a list of four goals. The first was 'discredit Hayes.' In a spiral-bound notebook, Syngenta's communications manager, Sherry Ford, who referred to Hayes by his initials, wrote that the company could 'prevent citing of TH data by revealing him as noncredible...' Syngenta looked for ways to 'exploit Hayes' faults/problems.' 'If TH involved in scandal, enviros will drop him,' Ford wrote. She observed that Hayes 'grew up in world (S.C.) that wouldn't accept him,' 'needs adulation,' 'doesn't sleep,' was 'scarred for life.' She wrote, 'What's motivating Hayes?basic question.'" Who Will You Listen to: Big Money, or a Researcher Working Next to Free? Indeed, what could possibly motivate anyone to undertake work that is bound to alienate them from their peers, smear their personal and professional reputation, and perhaps even ruin their financial future? In Dr. Carman's case, it was a passion for the truth. And a deep concern for her fellow manyour children and unborn grandchildren included. She is a magnificent role model for all of us as she sacrificed her income and endured professional abuse for the sake of the truth. She was savvy enough to understand the risks of such an undertaking. She knew that people in this field tend to be fired from their jobs once they publish negative findings. Publicly shamed and out of work, many of these scientists are prevented from doing any further research. To circumvent this possibility, Dr. Carman took some proactive steps to ensure that backlash wouldn't force her to discontinue her work. "Early on, it became obvious that there was really no money. You couldn't go to a funding organization and ask for money to be able to do research in this area. I was concerned about the possibility of bad health effects occurring in people. I decided that I needed to go looking. I needed to do some proper animal studies to see if there were any adverse effects occurring in animals that might translate into people. I realized I needed to leave paid employment to be able to do it. I'm actually unfunded in this work. At the age of 45, I had enough investment income to be able to do work on this area basically for free, and on very little money. I've been poor now for quite a few years. But it became imperative for me to look; I had a burning question about whether it was safe for people to eat GMO's or not... Most people would probably choose to look after their families [rather] than to continue on with the research. Not only is it very hard to get money to be able to do the research, but you have to be able to survive the abuse you get afterwards, and the threats to your livelihood afterwards. In fact, a lot of people who work in this area are people who are retired from paid employment, because once again, they can't be threatened with losing their livelihood." Follow the Money... Ever since the introduction of genetically engineered seeds about 20 years ago, the market for these chemical-dependent crops have spawned a multibillion dollar industry. Funding for the development of more varieties of GE crop varieties has come primarily from the privately-owned pesticide industry itself. Over the last 15 years, conflicts of interest within science have exponentially increased, and at this point, it's blatantly obvious that financial conflicts of interest play a major role when it comes to what research is done; what gets published, and what doesn't. Virtually all of the research done on GMOs is performed by the industry itself or scientists funded by them either directly or indirectly through grants to the agricultural universities. The results, therefore, are predictable. Few are those who have both the right qualifications and the willingness to "bear the cross," as it were, that seems to come standard when you're investigating GMOs as an independent researcher. My sincere gratitude goes to Dr. Carman for her personal sacrifices to get this all-important work done. Without such research, we'd remain clueless as to what these foods might be doing to us in the long term. With it, we can make far more educated guesses about the real ramifications of this massive, unannounced human experiment, and decide for ourselves if we really want to partake in it or not. My recommendation? Avoid it, as best as you can. Vote with Your Pocketbook, Every Day The food companies on the left of this graphic spent tens of millions of dollars in the last two labeling campaignsin California and Washington Stateto prevent you from knowing whats in your food. You can even the score by switching to the brands on the right; all of whom stood behind the I-522 Right to Know campaign. Voting with your pocketbook, at every meal, matters. It makes a huge difference. By boycotting GMA member Traitor Brands, you can help level the playing field, and help take back control of our food supply. I-522 poster I encourage you to continue educating yourself about genetically engineered foods, and to share what youve learned with family and friends. Remember, unless a food is certified organic, you can assume it contains GMO ingredients if it contains sugar from sugar beets, soy, or corn, or any of their derivatives.

Ill try to be brief.... DD8 referred by regular MD to CAMHS at age 7.5 for anxiety and other behaviours- fears, auditory hallucination About 3 times in 3 years), separation anxiety - mild. emotional lability {sp?} Most of the time seemed sad- worries of the = world. Behav = need to be bearhugged, skin itchiness ( no excema), hanging upside down off the sofa / bed. climbing the kitchen cupboards looking for treats- a need to be ' up' high - hence the climbing. fear of someone outside at night, fear of the house alarm being set off by younger siblings wandering to toilet in middle of night. fear of getting locked into a toilet -never has done- fear of going anywhere in an aeroplane - last trip was 3 years ago. nightmare - sore ears. silly goofy behaviour at times. social anxiety . cannot enjoy parties where there may be dancing- self conscious. fear of Santa and def fear of the tooth fairy. Writing lists - Names, car registrations - all the names of moshi monsters Xmas 2013. I always reckoned these issues were worse when she was sick - on an antibiotic or fever med - actually i put it down to colours in the antibiotic - yellow - amocicillin usual one .She has had tonsillitis frequently as a young child - def around the time of our first family holoday - she was about 3 year old. Def worse behaviour during breaks from school - much more anxiety, so much so I could not wait for school to return - ( DD8 had antibio at 3 weeks for excema on face) Enough said. DD6 is showing similar symptoms- JAn 13 - cough sniff tic - lasted about 3 weeks - i think - I forgot about it. wasnt overly concerned. Gran was dying during this time and i think I attributed it to stress in the family. I think at some point during that year OCT ?? I saw an increase in adhd type behaviours- - aggressive to younger dd3- out of character and my immmediate reaction was - someone must be bullying you - sure enough - a little boy was doing some minor things - making faces etc. spoke to teacher - moved the little boy and i thought things resolved. ( by the way dd6 had excema - 90% clear since last NOV. However has had a chronic cough since then and always gets same between NOV and April on and off. has been on steroids once and anti bio once but didnt really help - Ps DD6 had antibiotic at2 weeks for cough. Roll on Feb 12th - I was off with tonsillitis - DD6 began tic around week later? sniff cough comes back - a full year later - with hyper behaviour- and a constant looking for sweet stuff, biscuits, anything with sugar- Im thinking she has diabetes ?? While watching her one day recently I noticed - lots of twirling, shoulder shrugging, fiddling with her hair - knotting it ( fear of getting nits- big campaign recently in school re nits) writing a list of what way she would tie up her hair on a daily basis- constant need to hug me when im leaving or she's leaving. hoarding - lots of stuff under her pillow - which she refuses to remove - she lost a tooth on dec 24th 2013 and another beginning FEB- She has had about a full month of having trouble passing faeces -constipated ON DEC 31st spent one hour in the toilet , crying and trying to go - eventually did - but the fear has not gone - and had many accidents during JAnuary as a result of leaving it too late. Now she goes but requires me to be present in case she has trouble - dont know about her having infections - or strep - was called to school in Dec as she had a high temp but nothing materialised. DD3 had tonsillitis of very bad throat on DEc 7th - My DH had history of tonsillitis as a child - I never got tonsillitis until I was 21 - my twin did tho- But I was always a worrier - unlike my sister - so I UP UNTIL NOW JUST THOUGHT I AM REARING DIFFICULT ANXIOUS KIDS _ am I though? I am a teacher and pretty au fait with kids behaviours but feel I am failing with my own - sometimes I dread the thought of going home - what behaviours dd8 would be displaying- on sat night she said - I wish i wasnt in this world - now she did not really understand the concept of what she said - but it was a reaction she had to a hard day she had had at a a friends party - she cannot deal with rejection - even minor falling out with friends - takes it so much to heart - Im never going to speak to her again - shes so mean". Please advise - should I be looking for help ? I know others have more difficult cases- I feel I am just about managing these behaviours - but should I be - just about managing - My close family reckon - they are attention seeking kids- they have me wrapped around their little fingers- and manipulate situations to get what they want. There is probably an element of truth there.. Any advice appreciated - PS I am in UK/ IRELAND

My daughter, Jessica, suffered with tics, ADHD and trouble sleeping for 5 years. There were disabling, but the OCD behaviors were most troubling. She would pull teeth out by the root, force her finger down her throat causing vomiting and injuring the inside of her mouth, hit those next to her, etc. We tried supplements, diets and other therapies. After years of research, trial and error, I found that the COMPLETE ELIMINATION OF GMOs from her diet effected a 95% improvement in symptoms. Why are kids of this generation suffering more than in previous generations? It could be the vaccination schedule, it could be the toxins in our environment, and/or it could be the consumption of food that looks, smells and tastes like the food we ate as children, but is in fact genetically foreign. www.SafePlate.net is informational, safe and without anything for sale. My hope is that if we can help another family, it will bring meaning to the years Jessica suffered. Please contact us through the website if you need any support with a GMO-free diet or to share your GMO-free success story. Best wishes.

My ds 15 had a bad bout with Flu B last week --- very high fever, body aches, etc. Took Tamiflu, and is now left with a chesty cough. Oddly enough, his Pandas symptoms were not bad during the flu week...tics decreased, OCD, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms were all surprisingly decreased. Two days ago, however, the Pandas symptoms came back with a vengeance. Tics, OCD, anxiety, hyperactivity are worse than they've been in a long time. He also has a red, dotted rash on his face (we think this rash--which we've seen on his trunk before-- is yeast related). AND, he is finding it hard to make eye contact-- he has never mentioned this symptom to me before. He has consistently been on antibiotics, and he has ongoing mycoplasma. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

This is the most IMPORTANT INFO I have learned in the last 7 years! MIT PhD Stephanie Seneff talks about the pathways that works with our genes creating Autism, learning disabilities, Alzheimer's, autoimmune disorders, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and our epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. Only available today. Make time to listen.... For yourself and those you love. Peggy http://gmosummit.org/broadcasts/

Some things will change our lives temporarily, while other things will change our lives forever. As a child I was an active little boy who played sports and loved having fun with friends. Since the third grade though, I’ve battled various illnesses and issues. They may not have made a lot of sense at the time, but they were the beginning of a journey into a much unplanned lifestyle. It all begins with one simple, yet very complicated diagnosis. On Mother’s Day of my third grade year of elementary school I vomited before I went to church. My mom, who is a nurse didn’t think much of it. As any nurse would most likely think she thought I probably just had a stomach bug. Well this vomiting did not stop. As a little kid, I did not know how serious this really was. But I was soon to find out. See if this was a stomach bug it would have lasted maybe a week at the most. After days of still vomiting, with the amount of time vomiting each day increasing, we decided it was time to see my practitioner. The weird part about this was I felt fine one moment, and the next I would just randomly vomit. My doctor also thought I was fine, that it was just a stomach bug, so he instructed me to go on a bland diet. Not too difficult sounding really is it? I followed this bland diet for days, only the vomiting just got worse. I was losing weight, I couldn’t keep anything down, and I got to the point where I was throwing up twelve or more times a day. My mom would tell the doctor, “I was a normal little boy who loved to play and be active but in the middle of activity on frequent occasions I would have to stop to throw up.” Now that the vomiting wasn’t stopping, we knew it was time to start investigating. Doctors started normal testing first such as checking blood work and common allergy testing. Then I had a MRI to make sure nothing too serious was going on. I even had cancer testing done for different types of cancers. All the tests came back negative. At this point I was extremely drained so I started some calcium and other type of nutrient pills/shakes to try to build myself back up and maintain my weight. The doctors weren’t figuring anything out so they tried me on all kinds of medications and steroids. I even saw a specialist from a hospital that re-tested me for allergies. This time there was a diagnosis. They decided I was allergic to wheat, eggs, and dairy. This new diet was very tough. My mom would have to go to special grocery stores and buy expensive foods that didn’t contain any of these products. My food was so expensive that my mom was spending on average about $175 every week just on my food. After a whole year on this diet, I wasn’t getting any better. Still sick and vomiting, I was in fourth grade and weighed less than most second grade girls. Nothing much changed that year. I had special permission to leave the classroom without asking whenever I had to vomit. Fifth grade came and my mom decided to find a GI specialist. She contacted Dr. Miya, a specialist in three fields- Gastroenterology, Allergies, and Autoimmune Disorder. (Thank the Lord Dr. Miya really knew what she was doing). Immediately she started testing. I swallowed a camera pills to see how my stomach was breaking down food. One test I remember I had to have a tube go down my nose and have a balloon open in my stomach for a day, but was allowed to leave the hospital. This I remember was terrible. I walked around with a tube down my nose and a computer on my belt, and remember thinking when people looked at me in public, “I wonder what’s wrong with that little boy”? I had asthma testing done, and even a bone marrow test done which was my first surgery. Dr. Miya also decided to do some more extensive blood work to rule out the rare possibilities and she checked out my eosinophil’s, white blood cells. A proper eosinophilia range is 0 to 100. When she got mine back, they were over 5000. This was bad news to me, but very good news to her. Now she knew what was wrong. I had Hypereosinophila, my first autoimmune disorder. It would cause my white blood cells to skyrocket in number and they were attacking different parts of my body. It was the answer to what was causing me to throw up. Now Dr. Miya had to check out what kind of damage was done to my stomach. She did an endoscopy and found 4 ulcers. With a combination of a few meds, the condition was under control so I could eat and keep food down. Doing better by the end of fifth grade and that summer, I went into sixth grade thinking, “It’s a fresh start, no more worries”. Not long into the year I came down with pneumonia. I got put on antibiotics and felt better, but the pneumonia came back. It ended coming back five times just during my sixth grade year. To make matters worse, I started having psychiatric issues. After getting tested to see if my body could fight off pneumonia naturally, my specialist found out that I don’t produce antibodies to fight pneumonia, my second autoimmune disorder. From here on things got very intense very fast. One night I went to bed feeling great and upon wakening, I had overnight onset of multiple psychiatric issues. I went a long time not telling anyone about all this as I was embarrassed. In 9th grade I finally “came out of the closet” to get help. One psychiatrist (that I don’t see anymore) diagnosed me with five mental illnesses with various subtypes. My psychiatrists knew that this didn’t make any sense. No person can possibly have so many psychiatric diagnoses I was told by multiple psychologists. But I wasn’t responding properly to medications. They weren’t working on me the way they should and they didn’t last over an extended period of time. I would go through the same cycle with each new medication. I would do ok starting a med, but it never did enough, and never lasted. The medication may have helped initially, but I ended up feeling worse than I did before I started it. My episodes lasted from Sixth grade till now. After being told of “crazy true stories” like kids with PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal Infections), my docs are pretty sure that I must have a neurological- caused mental illness. I am going to Dent Neurology on the 4th of October. They agree now that my illness might be from having my autoimmune disorders. Plus I may have other autoimmune troubles that haven’t been diagnosed yet. This is great news to me for it’s the beginning of a new road to recovery for me. There is hope for a complete cure, for my mental health to be restored. Although the throwing up, pneumonia, and psychiatric issues would never have happened if it weren’t for the fact that my body cannot naturally fight off some pathogens. My diagnosis of an autoimmune disorder started me on a quest for the truth. I knew what they were telling me wasn’t true for me. I had to seek out the truth about the origins of my psychiatric issues by my own research. My constant research led me to make a connection between the autoimmune disorders and my mental health, a connection I had to point out to my doctors. Back when I was young, before I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder someone could have told me “your life can instantly change from the simple to the complicated overnight.” To this day I still cannot completely grasp the concept of it. But it’s true everything from doctor appointments, to testing, to improper diagnosis, to improper medications, to crappy diets, I’ve experienced it all. I will not give up though. We never know what might cause our lives to change or how may change. As for me, though my life changed “The Day I Was Diagnosed With An Autoimmune Disorder”.

Hello, We are hoping to find a doctor in the Midwest area who can offer extensive testing to treat our son’s symptoms. We would like a doctor not afraid to try a long course of antibiotics, as we suspect it may be related to a case of strep. A brief history; two years ago our, then, 13 year old son suddenly started showing symptoms such as “soft” ticks (not jerking, but squirming, repetitive body movements such as turning his head with his eyes rolled up numerous times. When he sees us looking at him, he “snaps” out of it), he frequently reaches several times to grab things before actually getting hold of it or trying to get up out of a chair step a few times before actually going, and also a real struggle with homework. Up until then, he’s been an excellent student. He’s also had some instances of ‘brain fog’, and some more. Since then the symptoms have cycled up and down, and for periods of time he has sometimes shown no symptoms. We’ve gotten blood & strep tests, MRI & psych testing. One dr. says tics (and says if they don’t disrupt his life, don’t worry about them), another Dr. says ADHD, & another mentioned OCD. The strep test showed slightly elevated Dnase titers, but were back in the normal range when tested 3 months later so the Dr. advised no treatment. There are no cases of anything like this in our family [history]. Nor did our son ever have a diagnosis of strep throat. The symptoms are on the rise again & the “soft” tics & periods of brain fog. Needless to say we are very concerned ... Thank you …

A good friend has recently brought to my attention that our ds presents with ADHD. She's researching it because her son has been diagnosed and they are trying to go the medication route. We are planning to have ds evaluated specifically for ADHD because I've begun to wonder if a) this issue and all its consequences are contributing to his school refusal and it is just becoming more obvious now because his workload and other responsibilities are increasing significantly now that he's nearing the end of 6th grade. I've always been more focused on the underlying cause than symptoms, and we are continuing to work with a LLMD/DAN doc, but the school refusal has us on the brink of pulling him out of regular school, something neither he nor we want. I'm just wondering if others who've dealt with school refusal ever felt there was an ADHD connection - as in they are anxious about being at school because they have trouble doing their work while other kids seem to have no problem and get in trouble for talking, getting up during class, impulsive behavior, etc. I've heard most people talk about OCD as the primary problem that prevented kids from getting to school, but now that we're looking at this closely, I (as well as my friend and two of our teachers) feel that the ADHD issues could be causing some (possibly most?) of the anxiety around going to/being at school. Other things that make me wonder if ADHD is the primary problem contributing to school refusal are 1) his separation anxiety, which was severe at the beginning of PANS isn't much of an issue any more. He stays home alone, goes on overnights, and has no problem saying goodbye to me in most situations. 2) We tried Zoloft last Fall for the anxiety and it had no effect, except to cause intrusive thoughts once we upped it past 6mg. Thoughts/experiences would be much appreciated!

The Sunday NY Times had an article on cases where there is a misdiagnosis of ADHD when the underlying problem is a sleep disorder. Article here. Letters to the editor in response are here.