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DAN doctos and OCD


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A question to all of you who have had experience with DAN Dr's. I am going to make phone calls next week to 4 DAN Dr's in my state. I am wanting to get a number of test done on my son. The food sensitivity test,yeast and amino acids are the ones that come to mind.

 

I am wondering if they may be able to help with my sons OCD/anxiety symptons as well as his tics and ADHD.

 

As I have posted in the past weeks my sons has had a sudden increase in tics but his OCD has also been bothering him. In the past the OCD was always a scary thought or picture he saw which he could not get out of his mind and it would then cause anxiety. The current problem is just constant worry about saying the wrong thing to someone. For example he told me yesterday he wanted to ask one of my friends if she was chubby when she was a little girl. He worried about this all day and could not get it out of his mind. He had to keep telling me about it and I had to assure him it was O.K. but by the 20th time I was about to scream. :)

 

I am also wondering If the Lexapro he is taking for the OCD is making the tics and OCD worse. I really want to get him off the Lexapro but his OCD was terrible and I dont want a major setback before school starts. Its always something.

 

 

I need to find a Dr. that can help me with all of the above issues.

 

He is still on Bonnie G's vitamins/ Mag Taurate/EPA/DHA and L-Carnitine.

 

Its just so discouraging. He was doing so good, his tics were very mild and the OCD was under control and then it all fell apart. I know without the vitamins etc things would probably be alot worse. Something else such as food, yeast etc must be upsetting his system. Robin

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Is your son sick at the moment? I find illness really flared up my sons tics. Whilst there is a correlation with pandas and strep, I find any illness, even just a cold makes a huge difference. Even just a headache makes them worse.

 

I dont know how long you son has been on lexapro, and I done even really know of this med, but for my son, when he first started orap, I thought it was a miracle, but then over time, the tics came back worse than what they were before we started treating with orap. I think the body becomes "used to" these medications and they loose their effectiveness. For us, the dr kept upping the dose to make it effective, and the side effects were terrible, 20kg in 6 months weight gain.

 

We personally have not seen a Dan Dr, as we dont have any here in Perth, West Australia, but we have seen an orthomolecular dr who uses nutrients and does hair analysis, and other testing, and this has made a huge difference, as we have been able to customize the nutrients to our kids own needs, rather than to a generic plan.

 

Good luck with finding a dr to do the testing, I dont think you will regret it.

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Caz,Spring My son is not sick at all. He is very healthy. He says its from all the vitamins I give him!

 

He is 10 years old and I know this can be a period where TS tics can increase but I was hoping that with the supplements and diet control we could keep things mild.

 

I dont think its his age though because everything changed very suddenly.

 

It all started 3 days after school was out. Its crazy. Usually he does so good during the summer when he does not have the stress of school, homework etc.

 

I Thought maybe it was the swimming pool but I kept him out for 5 days and there is not any difference at all.

 

The Lexapro is an SSRI and I believe he is taking the highest dose he can (10 mg)

 

My heart tells me that this may be the problem. His OCD always bothers him more then his increase in tics.

 

What do you do? The OCD was horrible without meds and its getting out of control with meds!

 

Please pray that my search today for a DR. to help with all this leads us to a great person who can help my son get some relief. Robin

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Jeff, We dont allow him to eat/drink stuff with artificial flavor food color etc. We tried the Feingold Diet for 6 months a saw a big improvement with his hyperness but no help with his attention problems, tics and OCD.

 

It did help us find a connection to a corn and milk sensitivity.

 

Now thinking about it we have allowed him to have a few more "treats then usual but in the past during school breaks when we allowed this we never show such an increase in symptons. Maybe his system is just overloaded and this time its really showing up more.

 

I need to be more careful this week in what I give him and see if it helps. I try to stay away from Corn syrup. That is a tough one--its in so much stuff.

 

Thanks for the tip. Robin

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Robin,

 

You mentioned the chlorine. I too am keeping an eye on this. I have read with caisen sensitivities, that it can take up to 6 months for it to leave your system. Is this a possibility with other things too? If our kids do react, maybe it's possible that it takes longer for the effects of exposure to go away, than we'd expect.

 

Last year someone had told me how their whole family used those floating, I think they are ioinizers? to sanitize their pools. This person was really impressed with the way they worked. He said he will add a little chlorine after heavy use, once in a while, but had been using it for about 6 years. My understanding is, it works with the sun somehow. I was thinking it could be removed when the boys were in the pool, and for now, am trying to keep the chlorine on the light side, and adding it a few hours before they swim . We also had to add a lot of stabilizer this year. I'm not liking these chemical, but what do you do?

 

If anyone has used the ionizer, would really like to hear your opinion.

 

Kim

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Robin,

 

Just a couple other thoughts. Are you up to full recommended dose on Bonnies vitamins? I ask because, as I have said before I am only giving my 12 year old 10 of the vits. 1 fish oil and an occasional mag. taurate, which is only 1/2 for his age/weight. When he did the head shake the other day, I told him to take a mag. taurate. He said he didn't want to because they made him sleepy. Is that possible? I have read where mag. has a calming effect, but that remark surpised me. You know, these are my uneducated remarks, and I have had no physician guidance, but from what I have read, if you become high in magnesium, you will get the big D. I have never seen this with either of the boys with the vitamins. If oldest does flair, my plan is to increase the vitamins by 2, bringing him to 12, and give a mag taurate maybe once every 3rd day for a short time and give him 2 fish oils instead of one. I have given him a little extra calcium when he has taken the mag taurate. Bonnies vitamins have a 1:1 ratio of mag to cal. I have read here and other places where a 2:1 ratio with calcium/mag is not a bad idea. Also have given a little extra zinc, as at the level I use of the vits, he's not getting even as much as in a regular multi vitamin.

It will be really wonderful to be able to run these things by the DO in July. I have been trying to educate myself, but saftey is always the primary issue, and I will welcome the guidance so much. I guess my impression right now is that magnesium can be depleted so easily due to many factors, I'm wondering if this maybe key in controling symptoms? Since your using the vitamins too, would really like your input.

 

Kim

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Kim, My son weights 83 pounds and I give him 13 of the TS plus control. 2 of the EPA/DHA per day and 2-3 extra mag/Taurate everyday. I also give 500 mg of L-Carnitine he has been on the above for almost 2 years. The only change has been an increase in the amount of TS plus as he has gained weight. I have given higher doses of the the fish oil and Mag when he had waxing times and it seemed to help. (He does not take the recommended amount of the TS product but 22+ pills a day is all he can take)

 

 

 

I have ordered some "organic all natural" pool products we just put them in a few days ago. Before that we were only useing bromine.

 

I have also been wondering about the bromine/chlorine and how long it could effect his system. My sons head shaking last night and today is constant. He had a headache last night from the shaking. As soon as his feet hit the floor in the morning the shaking starts :)

 

As soon as my 2 year old takes his nap I am going to start making phone calls to DAN Dr's I will let you all know how it goes. Robin

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Hi Robin

just wanted to let you know that you remain in my thoughts and prayers.

 

I have absolutely no experience with DAN doctors and so I cant comment on them or their protocol, but certainly all I have heard seems to be very positive overall.

 

As I have mentioned before, we have an Integrative physician who certainly was able to give advice on treatment of OCD/anxiety/depression and we were then able to check all this with the psychiatrist who was also knowledgable about alternative treatments.

 

Basically we had the same answers from all.......that OCD is best treated by elevating serotonin, and there are a number of ways to do this naturally.

The results were dramatic for my son and his OCD quickly became a negligible factor.

 

 

Robin, even tho your son may be very healthy, you may still want to have a comprehensive strep titre done if you havent already done so. My limited understanding of PANDAS is that even when there is no indication of strep throat or obvious strep infection, yet there may be "stealth" strep or other viruses (eg Epstein Barr/mono etc) that may also cause a sudden onset of tics and/or OCD

 

Hoping you get rapid answers and even more rapid results!

 

God Bless

Cheri

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Hi Robin;

 

I agree with Chemar. A few weeks ago I thought my son developed a new tic. A throat clearing one. It was very annoying and made my stomache do flops. Long and behold he had strep. There were no other factors just a couple weeks of throat clearing. Oddly enough the antibiotic took care of the strep and throat clearing and since he is doing great. There are so many factors to weed through but sometimes a low lying illness despite the healthy appearance can be the cause.

 

Be Well;

 

Marie

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Marie,Chemar Thanks for the advice. I do have one question. I have seen my son have an increase in tics with a cold etc.

 

My son has "genetic TS" so would PANDAS be a factor for him? He had a Dr. Appt. with his Ped Dr. yesterday and he looked at his throat etc but did not feel the need to do a throat culture.

 

My son has had Strep twice since January and both times he felt terrible and his throat was very sore. If things dont carm down soon we will go back for more test. Robin

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Hi Robin

yes, I would urge testing for strep even if he has a genetic TS diagnosis. Not only can PANDAS exascerbate the TS, it can actually be the trigger for it.

 

And PLEASE be aware that to test for PANDAS a throat swab is really not what you need. They need to take blood and test for ALL the strep viruses, not just the type that causes the strep throat. When we had our test they also did a momo spot (for Epstein Barr) and a couple of the other "stealth" viruses

Frequently doctors do throat cultures and declare that there is no strep, when a blood test reveals a very different situation!

 

Especially as you say your son has had strep throat twice in the last 6 months...I would strongly urge you to have bloodwork done to check re a PANDAS connection.

if your doc doesnt accept or understand PANDAS, use another one for this.

 

There are a number of times that I have encountered parents who were persistent in getting complete virology testing done and found a hidden viral cause for their child's sudden surge in tics or OCD...and immediate relief when the correct anitbiotic treatment was started.

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Cheri

 

Do you have a list or a link to somewhere that lists the blood tests that should be done. I know one is called something titers. My youngest (4 years) has been having throat clearing troubles for about a year now, after a bout of strep, and he kept having large lymph glands in the neck, and the regular doctor just dismissed it as being part of his recovery from tonsilitis.

 

Just last week he got sick with what I suspect was fifths disease (slap cheek) and he turned into a monster. Agro, defiant and using repeditive bad language. He is taking ndf, and I am putting grapefruit seed extract drops on his feet, as he wont take any tablets.

 

Your comments about stealth strep touched a nerve. He did not show any signs of ts until he had the strep last July. He was on antibiotics for that and his illness cleared up, just the throat clearing remained. I guess as my older boy has ts, that it must be genetic, so I kind of dismissed pandas at the time.

 

With all I know about ts from my older one, I should have got these blood tests done sooner!

 

 

Caz

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Cheri

 

Do you have a list or a link to somewhere that lists the blood tests that should be done. I know one is called something titers. My youngest (4 years) has been having throat clearing troubles for about a year now, after a bout of strep, and he kept having large lymph glands in the neck, and the regular doctor just dismissed it as being part of his recovery from tonsilitis.

 

Just last week he got sick with what I suspect was fifths disease (slap cheek) and he turned into a monster. Agro, defiant and using repeditive bad language. He is taking ndf, and I am putting grapefruit seed extract drops on his feet, as he wont take any tablets.

 

Your comments about stealth strep touched a nerve. He did not show any signs of ts until he had the strep last July. He was on antibiotics for that and his illness cleared up, just the throat clearing remained. I guess as my older boy has ts, that it must be genetic, so I kind of dismissed pandas at the time.

 

With all I know about ts from my older one, I should have got these blood tests done sooner!

 

 

Caz

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