Good Environmental Doc in Northern NJ

[jimTheBassPlayer]

Live in Northern NJ and want to find a good environmental doc to hopefully help find sensitivities and triggers for my DS11.

 

Any advice or direction would be appreciated.

 

-Jim

[thundermonkey]

I am sorry to see this post hasn't had an answer, since I basically have the same question.

 

Jim, have you worked with any docs since you posted four months ago?

 

Dr. Magaziner is close to us (southern NJ), and is a member of the AAEM (American Academy of Environmental Medicine). I like his approach as laid out in his website - www.drmagaziner.com. Does anyone have any experience with him?

 

I am in SE Pennsylvania, and my DS5 with manageable ADHD symptoms had an onset of moderate tics two months ago. His mother and I find his ADHD symptoms are reduced when he avoids problem foods (gluten, dairy, corn, plus the Feingold things). We have had him on a restricted diet for about two years now. His meds (guanfacine, ritalin), which he started a year ago, also help. We are wondering, after having read the Rogers book, whether it is time to consult with an environmental doc.

 

Can anyone with a child with a similar profile to mine opine on whether environmental docs were able to help them? If so, what were they able to accomplish, and how expensive and time-consuming was the process?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Chemar]

Hi thundermonkey

I believe Jim has other threads here re the physicians he decided to go to.

Dr Sherry Rogers is on our advisory board at Latitudes/ACN though I realize Syracuse, NY is a ways from NJ but still, may be worth it.

http://www.latitudes.org/brd_mem.html#Rea

 

You may want to also post on our ADHD board as this being the TS/tics board, the approach we have is somewhat different than for ADHD....

one important one being that those stimulant meds your son is on are a major potential tic trigger for anyone with TS, and there are also reports here of some kids developing transient tics after meds like ritalin.

I am just adding this in as I have concern that some TS parent may read and see the two meds mentioned as helping and not realize you meant helping for ADHD not TS!

[thundermonkey]

Thanks for the reply, Chemar.

 

If Jim did subsequently post about his physicians, I'm afraid my google-fu is not strong enough to find it.

 

Syracuse does seem too far, especially since my understanding is that multiple follow-up visits are typically needed when you work with an environmental doc.

 

I will cross-post in the ADHD board, thanks for the suggestion.

 

Regarding my DS's tics, I will add a few more details regarding his stimulant meds. His baseline tic is an infrequent yelping sound, not very noticeable. Amusingly (?), I realized last year that his uncle has had the exact same tic his whole life, but I had never consciously noticed it as such!

 

Anyway, during the recent holiday season, the tics became very much more frequent, and began to be accompanied by a hand gesture. A possible med trigger for this is that about this time we switched him from brand Ritalin LA to generic methylphenidate ER. However, other candidate triggers are holiday food indiscretions, holiday excitement, and winter weather.

 

We switched back to the brand med, and the food indiscretions and excitement have subsided. (Winter weather has persisted.) In the two months since the onset, his tics have become less frequent, but are still significantly higher than his old baseline.

 

I would be interested in hearing if anyone has noticed tic triggers from generic ritalin versus the brand med.

[Cj60]

I am in SE Pennsylvania, and my DS5 with manageable ADHD symptoms had an onset of moderate tics two months ago. His mother and I find his ADHD symptoms are reduced when he avoids problem foods (gluten, dairy, corn, plus the Feingold things). We have had him on a restricted diet for about two years now. His meds (guanfacine, ritalin), which he started a year ago, also help. We are wondering, after having read the Rogers book, whether it is time to consult with an environmental doc.

 

 

If you're in SE PA, this practice is wonderful!

 

http://www.woodmed.com

[jimTheBassPlayer]

We have not yet gone the environmental route ... I would like to find a good doc to rule out some other factors that we have not yet, so if anyone does know of a good one in NNJ the info would be appreciated.

 

Currently we have DS12 on 2mg Intuniv ... and it has brought his tics down considerably ... while the vocal and motor tics are still present .. the more noticable ones are gone, and he is doing well socially in middle school, so we have not been as aggressive in seeking out alternative therapies ... his mom is less receptive to such things, so we have been staying the course for a while.

 

Interestingly, DS had a flare up of his breathing tic ... which he takes almost constant deep breaths with a sighing sound ... out of nowhere, after months of stability ... we hadn't seen that tic since July ...

 

Only two changes had recently occurred ... he has been grounded for some school homework stuff, so he had not had video games in 2 weeks lol, and he had been to the dentist THAT day ... although he swears it started BEFORE the dentist. (He was with mom)

 

So this week for the first time in a long time we were starting to talk about next steps, because ONE DAY with the breathing tic and the kids in school were asking questions.

 

So I was looking into accupuncture, and got a reference for a good one by me ...

 

I have looked into homeopathy, and have consulted with Angelica Lemke, and have the remedies in my hip pocket but have not yet tried them, and we were discussing whether or not to try it ...

 

And the third route would be the environmental doc ... and this thread popped back up at the same time (:^)

 

Thankfully his tics were a little better yesterday, and much better today, so hopefully it was a minor flareup. But again, if anyone has any info on an Northern NJ environmental doc that would be great.

 

On a different note I have some interesting thought (I think, anyways lol) about "hearing" tics ... after the experience we just went through with this flareup ... but I'll save that for its own post.

 

Thanks!

-Jim