3 weeks post start of OLE! Impetigo gone, too!

[Stephanie2]

So, here is where we stand:

 

Myself: I was battling a sore throat ever since DS2 tested positive for strep in early sept. after trying HD amox, and then OLE, I went on to treat it with a high dose of grapefruit seed extract, 3x a day and my sore throat is finally gone! I am going to continue with it for a couple more weeks just in case. BTW, for the first few days I gargled with diluted GSE to really get to the tonsils.

 

DS5: As far as pandas is concerned he is still doing fabulous! We had a few setbacks this week, however. Earlier in the week, yeast flared big time so I upped the herbs I am using for yeast and he was better after a couple days. Then it seemed like there was some kind of viral thing going around in our house with both kids and myself. Very mild cold symptoms all around, and some mild upswing of pandas symptoms for both kids (but enough to make my heart stop, you know the feeling!!). Luckily for each child the pandas symptoms went away within 48 hours, with a little help from some ibuprofen in the meantime.

 

DS2: Some major victories in his corner!! His impetigo flared a couple weeks ago. I avoided my usual knee-jerk reaction to get the doc on the phone and get some augmentin on board to stop the agony (of the pandas symptoms that usually go with it). I did lots of research one night and went to whole foods the next day. Here is how I got rid of it: about 10 drops of tea tree oil in his baths, mixed grapefruit seed extract with water and put in a spray bottle - sprayed his whole body about 4 times a day, after that dried I put Calendula Cream on his whole body. There were a couple stubborn lesions under his eyes that I also put a little Altabax oinment on as well. The eyes healed, believe it or not, when we took him to the beach last weekend (salt water). I was so ecstatic to be able to do this without the usual augmentin. Unfortunately, when his skin healed I backed off my protocol and now his eyes are starting to get red/infected again, so I am picking up the pace once again. Since this has been going on since Jan, I am thinking that maybe he is a very susceptible kid and I may have to treat him long term to keep it away.

 

All in all I am still happy with my decision and still think they are doing better than they were on HD abx...

[formedbrds]

T

Edited October 30, 2010 by formedbrds

[Fixit]

Ditto!!!

[JTs-Mom]

What herbs do you use for yeast? How do you give them the herbs... mixed in something? My son is 6 and can't swallow pills, doesn't like applesauce and doesn't want anything in his pudding. I'm already cramming so much stuff in his apple juice, I don't know how I'm going to get anything else down him, but he really needs something for yeast besides just taking probiotics.

 

So, here is where we stand:

 

Myself: I was battling a sore throat ever since DS2 tested positive for strep in early sept. after trying HD amox, and then OLE, I went on to treat it with a high dose of grapefruit seed extract, 3x a day and my sore throat is finally gone! I am going to continue with it for a couple more weeks just in case. BTW, for the first few days I gargled with diluted GSE to really get to the tonsils.

 

DS5: As far as pandas is concerned he is still doing fabulous! We had a few setbacks this week, however. Earlier in the week, yeast flared big time so I upped the herbs I am using for yeast and he was better after a couple days. Then it seemed like there was some kind of viral thing going around in our house with both kids and myself. Very mild cold symptoms all around, and some mild upswing of pandas symptoms for both kids (but enough to make my heart stop, you know the feeling!!). Luckily for each child the pandas symptoms went away within 48 hours, with a little help from some ibuprofen in the meantime.

 

DS2: Some major victories in his corner!! His impetigo flared a couple weeks ago. I avoided my usual knee-jerk reaction to get the doc on the phone and get some augmentin on board to stop the agony (of the pandas symptoms that usually go with it). I did lots of research one night and went to whole foods the next day. Here is how I got rid of it: about 10 drops of tea tree oil in his baths, mixed grapefruit seed extract with water and put in a spray bottle - sprayed his whole body about 4 times a day, after that dried I put Calendula Cream on his whole body. There were a couple stubborn lesions under his eyes that I also put a little Altabax oinment on as well. The eyes healed, believe it or not, when we took him to the beach last weekend (salt water). I was so ecstatic to be able to do this without the usual augmentin. Unfortunately, when his skin healed I backed off my protocol and now his eyes are starting to get red/infected again, so I am picking up the pace once again. Since this has been going on since Jan, I am thinking that maybe he is a very susceptible kid and I may have to treat him long term to keep it away.

 

All in all I am still happy with my decision and still think they are doing better than they were on HD abx...

[matis_mom]

Glad to hear your good news! I was trying to send you a PM but your box is full...

[Stephanie2]

What herbs do you use for yeast? How do you give them the herbs... mixed in something? My son is 6 and can't swallow pills, doesn't like applesauce and doesn't want anything in his pudding. I'm already cramming so much stuff in his apple juice, I don't know how I'm going to get anything else down him, but he really needs something for yeast besides just taking probiotics.

 

So, here is where we stand:

 

Myself: I was battling a sore throat ever since DS2 tested positive for strep in early sept. after trying HD amox, and then OLE, I went on to treat it with a high dose of grapefruit seed extract, 3x a day and my sore throat is finally gone! I am going to continue with it for a couple more weeks just in case. BTW, for the first few days I gargled with diluted GSE to really get to the tonsils.

 

DS5: As far as pandas is concerned he is still doing fabulous! We had a few setbacks this week, however. Earlier in the week, yeast flared big time so I upped the herbs I am using for yeast and he was better after a couple days. Then it seemed like there was some kind of viral thing going around in our house with both kids and myself. Very mild cold symptoms all around, and some mild upswing of pandas symptoms for both kids (but enough to make my heart stop, you know the feeling!!). Luckily for each child the pandas symptoms went away within 48 hours, with a little help from some ibuprofen in the meantime.

 

DS2: Some major victories in his corner!! His impetigo flared a couple weeks ago. I avoided my usual knee-jerk reaction to get the doc on the phone and get some augmentin on board to stop the agony (of the pandas symptoms that usually go with it). I did lots of research one night and went to whole foods the next day. Here is how I got rid of it: about 10 drops of tea tree oil in his baths, mixed grapefruit seed extract with water and put in a spray bottle - sprayed his whole body about 4 times a day, after that dried I put Calendula Cream on his whole body. There were a couple stubborn lesions under his eyes that I also put a little Altabax oinment on as well. The eyes healed, believe it or not, when we took him to the beach last weekend (salt water). I was so ecstatic to be able to do this without the usual augmentin. Unfortunately, when his skin healed I backed off my protocol and now his eyes are starting to get red/infected again, so I am picking up the pace once again. Since this has been going on since Jan, I am thinking that maybe he is a very susceptible kid and I may have to treat him long term to keep it away.

 

All in all I am still happy with my decision and still think they are doing better than they were on HD abx...

I get asked this a lot, I am going to cut and paste my usual response:

 

Anyway, you may want to join some autism message boards on yahoo, specifically ones where the moms do the DAN protocol, or similar treatments. I have learned so much about treating yeast, bacteria, etc. Here are a few groups I recommend: MB12Valtrex, ABMD, beyondgfcf.

 

Here is what many ppl do to control yeast. They rotate 3 antifungal products on a 4 day rotation and then start over again. So each product is used for 4 days then switched to the next product and so forth. Here are some products that ppl use and the brands I recommend (if I have used it):

 

Oil of Oregano (Oreganol)

Olive Leaf Extract (New Beginnings, Thorne, Solaray - make sure it is standardized to 20%)

Advanced Biocidin (herbal blend you get online)

Caprylic Acid

Pau D'arco (Gaia, Brainchild nutritionals)

Oregon Grape Root (Thorne)

Grapefruit Seed Extract (not grapeSEED extract; Nutribiotic)

 

In trying to decide which ones to use, you also may want to take into consideration what else you may want to fight. For example, Dr. R says that many of these kids (on this forum) are suffering from clostridia due to all the ghigh dose abx and that the clostridia looks very much like pandas and therefore everyone thinks that they can't get rid of strep, while really the strep is gone but now the kids have clostridia which you can't really get rid of without a specific abx such as vancomycin or flagyl (or some of the above herbs).

 

Also, you may want your antifungal to give your kid an extra boost in terms of strep (in case they come up against an azith resistant strain, etc... So if you also want to target clostridia or strep (both bacteria) you would want to use herbs that also have antibacterial properties. Those would be all of the above, EXCEPT caprylic acid, pau d'arco and oregon grape root.

 

So here is what I am going to be doing. Since I am using OLE for strep and clostridia prevention, I have bacteria covered. So I am going to be using the following for yeast: pau d'arco, oregon grape and ???? haven't decided on the third yet. OLE actually treats yeast but if used long term the yeast will adapt to it and then OLE will actually CREATE yeast. So if used only in a rotation, you are good, but if used all the time you have to use others to control yeast.

 

As far as dosages, it is so hard and individual! It's not an exact science...I use a combination of other's experience, the label (cut the adult dose in half) and my own mother's instinct. Why don't you decide which ones you want to use and then I can give you some guidance on the dose, otherwise I could write a book on dosage of the above herbs!! Plus, some are less tolerable etc. I will say this, I purposely exclude caprylic acid (which stinks b/c it is the best one on the list) b/c the taste is so unbelievably bad that I just can't get either kid to swallow it, which is very rare.

 

Oh, you should know that grapefruit seed extract is VERY potent for yeast, however, it can elevate liver enzymes (you may have heard that grapefruit juice can interfere with various meds, etc...). My 2yo had very mildly elevated LFT after using GSE, so now I use milk thistle to help the liver and I limit the use of GSE (and I have the LFT's redone every few months). His LFT's came back down to the normal range.

 

 

 

 

Glad to hear your good news! I was trying to send you a PM but your box is full...

 

Thanks for letting me know! I just cleared it out!

[JTs-Mom]

Stephanie - Thanks for the info!