My son Michael is 6 years old and is autistic. (he still doesn't talk but all other aspects are good) We have him on chelation therapy. He started November of 2003 on DMSA. We just recently added in the ALA. Everytime we have raised his dose, within a month and a half he's gotten sick. The first time was for 2 days (no food, no drinking, throwing up, lethargic, black circles under the eyes, sleeping for 10-15 minutes throughout the day) and the 3rd day he was fine. The next time he was sick for 4 days, then the fifth day fine. This last time he was sick for 6 days and the seventh fine. It seems to go along with the raise in dosage. He also eats soap right before. Has anyone else experienced this? What can I do to prevent it? Please help me. I'm scared to death. Thank you in advance and God Bless All.

65 people looked and no one can help? :confused:

He ate "soap"? Did you mean soup? Just checking, cuz if you really meant soap that could be the problem.

What is DSMA and ALA?

You might want to do a search for different groups with more experience in this area using key words like ********* and autism or mercury/chelation and autism or detoxification.

I don't know much about chelation, but what I have heard is that it is extremely hard on the gut and liver and that you need to be very careful. It sounds to me like you need to decrease his dosage if he's that sick from it.

I'm wondering why your doctor is increasing the dosage given his reaction. Are you having liver function testing done to gauge the state of his liver? I'm told this is vital.

I wish I had more information for you. I have found another board to be very helpful for such issues and wish I could post it for you. I encourage you to do a good search and see what turns up. I'm looking into chelation as well and am scared to do it. I'm checking into the DPMS protocol developed by Dr. Buttar because it supposedly is safer and less taxing on the kids than DMSA.

Good look. I'm sorry you haven't received many responses.

I went and listened to some speakers this past weekend and they were talking about things like Leaky Gut, Enzymes, Alternative Medication, etc. One thing that they did say was that in order for the Chelation to work properly, you need to heal the gut first. You can heal the gut by trying a Gluten and Casein Free diet. If you don't heal the gut properly then things like the illness, welts on the skin, etc... will happen. That is not to say that the gut cannot be healed this way, but it is a rough way to do it.

As for the eating of the soap, that sounds like a Pica issue and I think you should contact your doctor as soon as possible about it.

Hi I Have A 4yr Old Boy Who Was Diagnosed With Pdd/autism When He Was 18 Mnths Old. I Have Seen Genetics Doctors And Neurologist When He Was Born Because Of Torticollis( Shortening Of The Muscle In The Neck) And He Was Also Followed Up By Them They Never Notice Anything Odd. A Regular Check Up With The Pediatrican Was When Things Where Being Noticed. So At 22 Mnths I Went Back To See A Neurologist Who Told Me He Was Autistic But He Pediatrican Diagnosed My Son As Being Pdd. So He Has Been Getting Therapy Since O/t, P/t, Speech And Aba As Well As Music Therapy. Now He Is 4yrs Old But He Has Problems Sleeping At Night. I Have Tried Not Letting Him Sleep During The Day And He Will Go To Be At 9pm And Be Up By 10 Pm That Same Night And When I Let Him Take A 30 Minute Nap He Goes To Bed At 1am To 2am And I Put Him In The Bed At 7pm Every Night But This Routine Of Putting To Bed At 7pm Every Night It Is Not Helping And I Am A Single Parent Trying To Manage With Work And My Son. I Spoke To His Pediatrican But She Tells Me He Is Too Young For Him To Get Medicine To Calm Him Down Because He Is So Hyper. Please Help Me I Just Want To Help My Son Please . Is There Any Other Parent Out There With The Same Problem And Does It Get Better At All.

Paula

alot of children with Autism have sleep problems... I'm lucky, my son never has had any.... infact, he use to sleep too much...

I would say try the GF/CF diet. I have heard that it has helped lots of kids with sleep problems.. Other than that, I don't know... they say that the sleep gets better with the symptoms, and maybe that is why the diet helps...

My son is a terrible sleeper. I've recently started to use a weighted blanket. He is much easier to get to sleep now and he doesn't seem to wake up as often. There are a lot of sites that sell them, but my OT had a friend make one for him.

Melatonin is supposed to work wonders for sleep. I know of many kids with autism who take it before bed every night because of the same issues you are having. If you do a search for kirkman you should be able to find it.

There are a couple of books that go into the biological issues behind autism that might help you address your son's symptoms:

Children with Starving Brains by Jacquelyn McCandless
Biological Treatments for Children with Autism and PDD by William Shaw
Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and PDD by Karyn Seroussi

I was pretty skeptical about the whole biomedical thing until I saw it work for my son. After removing casein and gluten all of his stimming has disappeared and he is more "on" and able to focus. We no longer have any issues with diarhhea and he is just so happy.

You might want to try to find a DAN! -- which stands for Defeat Autism Now -- doctor in your area. They are typically expensive and often not covered by insurance but they will work to get to the root of the problem and develop a plan to fix it, most often naturally with supplements.

There's a DAN! conference coming up Sept. 30 - Oct. 3 in Los Angeles to overview the various biomedical issues with autism as well as recommended treatment.

Good luck to you.

You can also try bathing in Epsom Salts (start out at 1/4 cup), Grapefruit Seed Extract (for 7 days) Melatonin (which can be bought at almost any drug, healthfood or discount store),weighted blankets, Kirkmann Labs Magnesium lotion (you can also make it yourself), Zinc, lavender scented incense, room spray, oil, deoderizer, warm milk, ... Just to name a few things that might work.