night terrors and muscle twitching at night

[kim]

Calicat,

 

If magnesium keeps that spider away, I'd keep a big ole bottle real handy. He sounds terrifying. We live near the water, so usually when I think i'm seeing one of those, I am. Not sure which way I'd rather have it!

 

Toms Mom,

 

I'm not sure what you read about the ""calm" products in relationship to magnesium. I know in high doses (from what I remember it was really high) if kidney function was abnormal, magnesium could build to toxic levels. I don't remember anything in relationship to kidney stones with magnesium, but I have read a bit about calcium and oxalates in regards to them. If this condition runs in your family, you might want to study up on it.

 

There is a diet called the LOD (low oxalates diet) and a discussion group for people following this diet. Susan Owens is the one that has done a lot of research in the area of oxalates and autism. I just want to mention once again that neither of my boys are autistic, I just find the latest and greatest info googling whatever I'm searching and attaching the word "autism" to it. Anyway, if you search Susan Owens+oxalates, you'll bring up quite a few articles.

 

 

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=48

 

Oxalates and kidney stones

 

The formation of kidney stones containing oxalate is an area of controversy in clinical nutrition with respect to dietary restriction of oxalate. About 80% of kidney stones formed by adults in the U.S. are calcium oxalate stones. It is not clear from the research, however, that restriction of dietary oxalate helps prevent formation of calcium oxalate stones in individuals who have previously formed such stones. Since intake of dietary oxalate accounts for only 10-15% of the oxalate that is found in the urine of individuals who form calcium oxalate stones, many researchers believe that dietary restriction cannot significantly reduce risk of stone formation.

 

 

 

http://www.stillpointhealth.com/LowOxalate...Suggestion.html

 

 

Theory: Why may someone with autism need a low oxalate diet?

 

Oxalate is a highly reactive molecule that is abundant in many plant foods, but in human cells, when it is present in high amounts, it can lead to oxidative damage, depletion of glutathione, the igniting of the immune system's inflammatory cascade, and the formation of crystals which seem to be associated with pain and prolonged injury (Chronic inflammation is at the root of most, if not all chronic degenerative conditions, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease and neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, ALS and autism. In autism, I talked for years that chronic inflammation in the digestive system can be a trigger for inflammation throughout the rest of the body including a child’s nervous system. One assumption that can definitely be made is that most, if not all kids on the spectrum have some level of neurological inflammation. Inflammation causes cell damage, metabolic disruption and death. If inflammation is being generated in the digestive tract this will eventually lead to cell damage, leaky gut, immune problems and the overgrowth of yeast - KW). Ordinarily, not much oxalate is absorbed from the diet, but the level of absorption has to do with the condition of the gut. There is a lot of medical literature showing that when the gut is inflamed, when there is poor fat digestion (steatorrhea), when there is a leaky gut, or when there is prolonged diarrhea or constipation, excess oxalate from foods that are eaten can be absorbed from the GI tract and become a risk to other cells in the body. Since these gastrointestinal conditions are found frequently in autism, it seemed reasonable to see if lowering the dietary supply of oxalates could be beneficial (Unfortunately, there are some highly beneficial foods that are high in oxalates such as some fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts. However, if you take a look at the list of foods under the Low Oxalate Diet food list you will see that there are plenty of options still left to eat. The likely scenario is that some children will need to avoid some high and medium oxalate foods for a while until their digestive system has a chance to heal - KW).

 

 

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:5f02w...;cd=5&gl=us

 

When you have inflamed gut, Crohn’s for example, very few oxalates are absorbed. So since autistic kids often have inflamed gut, it made sense to have a low-oxalate diet. We did a pilot study with 7 kids. All 7 were high in oxalates, and started the diet. They had problems with frequent urination, GI pain, etc. within a couple hours of eating. They had changes in behavior following eating. Things started changing with the diet. A lot of the things we’ve been calling yeasty behaviors go away with a low-oxalate diet. A lot of these kids had trouble taking DMG and TMG, glycine in general. We saw problems with constipation/diarrhea in these kids before the diet, even after being treated by GI docs. A lot of these children had trouble when introducing nuts, legumes, soy. A lot of these kids craved high-oxalate foods.

 

 

 

http://www.gicare.com/pated/edtgs29.htm

 

About 80% of all kidney stones are composed of calcium and other minerals, usually a combination of calcium and oxalate. In some cases dietary adjustments help to prevent the recurrence of these types of stones.

[CindyD]

My daughter is 9 years old. She has ADHD, ODD, Anxiety Disorder, Tourettes Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder and night terrors. She was put on Strattera, Adderall, Clonidine, Melatonin and Imipramine for her problems. The Imapramine is for her night terrors. Oh and she also has insomnia so before all the medications she never had a good nights sleep because most of the time she just didn't and when she did she had these aweful night terrors. On top of that starting at 3 months old she had uncontrollable vomiting and no matter what testing was done we could never find a reason. No medications helped. She had been on Reglin, Liquid Zantag and Liquid Prevacid adult doses and still continued to vomit until a new doctor discovered she has a nerve problem in her rectum that does not allow her to have bowel movements. It was okay until she hit 3 months since as an infant bowels are soft but once they firmed the problems began then she had mild relief as she got strong enough to push it through anyways but she was causing herself to cry and other issues. Now she is on Miralx and the problem with vomiting and no bowel movements has gotten better. We spent years with no doctors listening despite us telling them she only had a bowel movement maybe once a week and barely ate anything. She only weighed 36lbs at age 5 and still at 9 has not broke 60lbs despite being 52 inches tall. Anyways even with the meds her night terrors started again so her doctor upped her dosage about 4 days ago and now she is having muscle spasms while she is sleeping. They are so severe she nearly fell out of bed and now sleeps in my moms bed as I sleep on a much smaller bed. We do this for fear that she will have something happen due to these spasms and be injured also with the night terrors she has before gotten out of bed and walked around the house. She has even climbed on things in her night terrors crying as if trying to get away from something. I don't know if these new spasms are from the night terrors or her tourettes or if it is a side effect of her medications. I have tried online and found no link to the spasms to any of her medications so I don't know what to do. If we take away the meds she may revert to the night terrors and not sleeping and become ill again or injured but if they stay she may be injured as well. We have been trying to figure out the best way to help her have as normal a life as possible since she was an infant and it seems we still have not succeeded.

[911RN]

My daughter is 9 years old. She has ADHD, ODD, Anxiety Disorder, Tourettes Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder and night terrors. She was put on Strattera, Adderall, Clonidine, Melatonin and Imipramine for her problems. The Imapramine is for her night terrors. Oh and she also has insomnia so before all the medications she never had a good nights sleep because most of the time she just didn't and when she did she had these aweful night terrors. On top of that starting at 3 months old she had uncontrollable vomiting and no matter what testing was done we could never find a reason. No medications helped. She had been on Reglin, Liquid Zantag and Liquid Prevacid adult doses and still continued to vomit until a new doctor discovered she has a nerve problem in her rectum that does not allow her to have bowel movements. It was okay until she hit 3 months since as an infant bowels are soft but once they firmed the problems began then she had mild relief as she got strong enough to push it through anyways but she was causing herself to cry and other issues. Now she is on Miralx and the problem with vomiting and no bowel movements has gotten better. We spent years with no doctors listening despite us telling them she only had a bowel movement maybe once a week and barely ate anything. She only weighed 36lbs at age 5 and still at 9 has not broke 60lbs despite being 52 inches tall. Anyways even with the meds her night terrors started again so her doctor upped her dosage about 4 days ago and now she is having muscle spasms while she is sleeping. They are so severe she nearly fell out of bed and now sleeps in my moms bed as I sleep on a much smaller bed. We do this for fear that she will have something happen due to these spasms and be injured also with the night terrors she has before gotten out of bed and walked around the house. She has even climbed on things in her night terrors crying as if trying to get away from something. I don't know if these new spasms are from the night terrors or her tourettes or if it is a side effect of her medications. I have tried online and found no link to the spasms to any of her medications so I don't know what to do. If we take away the meds she may revert to the night terrors and not sleeping and become ill again or injured but if they stay she may be injured as well. We have been trying to figure out the best way to help her have as normal a life as possible since she was an infant and it seems we still have not succeeded.

 

 

Has she had an overnight EEG? It would be prudent to make sure these "spasms" are not nocturnal seizures. Spasms so severe that it causes somebody to fall out of bed sounds like more than a spasm- perhaps, seizure activity?

[Familyof5]

I read through this thread because I was so intrigued by the similarities with all of my children, but in particular my middle child. He would have night terrors, sleep walking, frequent urination at night, muscle spasms and twitches at night. He would also grind his teeth. Looking at him while he slept, he looked like a stressed out old man the way he would scrunch up his eye brows while he slept. I also discovered the twitching muscles when he would come into my bed at night. He also has a gluten intolerance, and other strange autoimmune disorders, among them tourette's. Well, my point is that we discovered we were living in a home with toxic mold. Since moving out of the home and keeping him on toxin binding medications, these night time symptoms have virtually disappeared. He is now 9 years old and seems to sleep like a baby for the most part.