tics and mold

[Guest Guest_arthur]

My son developed tics this september at the start of school. He is 7 yrs. old. Hes been to his doctor who did blood work, hes been tested for allergies. Weve been to the neuroligist.

What we have done to this point:

He complained about not being able to sleep so i bought him a Dormia mattress which is similar to Tempur-pedic. This seems to have helped with sleeping.

We are trying to purchase as many natural foods as we can, mainly staying away from things that contain high fructose, and artificial sweeteners. Since tics can be caused by enviromental triggers i gave my house a thorough exam. I discovered black mold in my basement. The mold was wide spread over the surface of the paneling on the walls. It was dificult to see and resembled smudge marks. I have since cleaned the walls twice once with ammonia, and once with lysol containing bleach. The lysol i think has done the trick. My sons tics have been reduced quite a bit, to the point where i have to ask him if his arms are still bothering him (i dont call it tics). He says he still tics but not as bad and he tells me its because of chocolate.

Im pretty sure that cleaning the mold has played a big part in his tic reduction. If not then at least were living in a healthier enviroment. I thought i would share our findings in case it might be helpful to someone else.

[Claire]

Thanks for the post Arthur.

 

Our doctor believes that molds in the home are a big cause of much neurological and/or mood issues. I can imagine the impact on tics, but it is good for people here to hear your testimonial on it.

 

We had lumber mold on new beams that were put in (I thought it was water damage, didn't know it was mold). We tried diluted bleach and it helped but came back. Then we did 100% concentrated bleach and it completely got rid of it. A mold expert advised us to do bleach.

 

Sounds like you are doing a lot of great things, thanks for sharing! You might check out what others here are doing--in case any of them make sense to you.

 

Claire

[Guest Guest_arthur]

The reason I think the two are related is because, my wife and son always coughed alot in the winter. My son has had a lot of sinus conditions, and was on a nebulizer in the past. Since cleaning the walls the majority of the coughing seems to have gone away. The heat was turned off in this house prior to us moving in because it was a forecloser. We cleaned the walls before we moved in but did not use bleach. I think the 2 hepa filters ive been using for the last couple of years have been moving the spores from one level to another. There a 4 levels that we use. I found black mold in the shower area, and around the refridgerator gasket.

Ive cleaned just about every flat surface in this house to make sure the dust and spores are gone. Ive increased the setting on the dehumidfier from 50% to 75% and cleaned the catch can for it with bleach. We noticed a reduction in my sons tics with the change and elimination of some foods so i do not want to discount the importance of quality food. We are now buying his snacks and cereals from Trader Joes. Im wondering if this mold has hurt his immune system. Ive noticed that if my son is caughing he is most likely ticking.

[ropeterson]

Arthur,

My wife has written a lot on this forum (ntbowen) about our son who is 3.5 and has ticks. He also has cockroach, dust mite, and corn allergies along with wheat/dairy sensitivity. He also HAD asthma. I say had because when we (mostly my wife) removed the corn, wheat, dairy and took all precautions possible against dust mites his coughing attacks went away along with his asthma attacks (so far). In the past, every minor illness became an asthma attack that was treated with a nebulizer. For the past two winters he was on steroids to prevent the attacks. This winter, several illnesses, no asthma coughs, no steroids.

 

I guess what I am saying is that you might want to address dust/dust mites/food allergies as well.

 

Good luck

 

Chuck

[Guest Guest_arthur]

I have read and gotten alot of info of this sight. I dont post much because my typing skills arent the greatest. I know about dust and food sensitivitys and have taken that into account. We are only using our central vac system now whereas before we used an upright in conjuction with the central vac. I posted the info about the mold because when i ran a search for this sight nothing came up. Everyones circumstance is different and i think nothing should be overlooked. Sensativities to food and dust can be a result of something that is hurting the immune system. If you remove the harmful conditions whether it be mold, laundry detergent, shampoo the body may be able to tolerate these things better. I myself have sensativities to Beer, Soda, and sugar. I applied my sensitivities to my sons condition and we seem to be making progress. My son has never had soda and has been taking vitamins all his life. Theoretically his immune system should be ok unless there is something in our enviroment which is hurting him. Thats why i posted about the mold. Im trying to give back to a sight that has given me hope.

[Claire]

Hi Arthur,

 

If you do a google search on Latitudes, there are actually many posts here on mold. The site search engines are not nearly as good as Google--they miss a lot. Even so, the posts are buried, and it is ALWAYS important to hear from more people on it.

 

Our doctor says yes mold can hurt the immune system. I believe that he ran the Great Smokey's CDSA (stool test) on our son to determine this, but he was okay.

 

Thanks for the info on shampoos--I was just about to buy some more and will now get it from Whole Foods instead of the drugstore.

 

Claire

 

ps Our doctor says that mold is a big source of lawsuits these days, because of its toxicity.