Has anyone heard of or had any experience with the Pfeiffer Health Institute?

I have read about it on another message board. We have not had much success with any medicines this far for my son. According to their web site, this insitution does blood work, urine analysis and hair anaylsis to see what chemicals, minerals or nutrients are missing in an individual and then they create a supplement that is specifially made for whatever deficiencies they find in that person. For example, some people may be tremendously low in Vitamin B or zinc, etc. but the average vitamin will not meet these needs because it often times does not have the amount that's needed.

Anyway, I'm seriously thinking about taking my son there but it is just so far away, that I didn't want to waste my time or money if anyone out there has had any bad experiences with this insitution.

Any information pro or con about it would be helpful!

Thanks
Faithinhim

We went there and the staff was nice and professional. The first thing they suggested (and I think they suggest it fairly broadly) was to switch to a gluten free diet which we did. They prescribed a regiment of vitamins and minerals which were difficlt to adhere to because my son could not swallow the large capsules. We tried mixing them with ices, etc.. but he would gag. We did it for a while but it doidn't seem worth the discomfort he was experience taking the vitamins/minerals. We have continued on a GF diet which seems to have helped a little. A friend of ours had very good success with he Institute. It was also suggested that she put her son on a GF diet but he did not have difficulty swallowing the capsules.

Was your son the hyperactive type? Is that why they prescriped the GF diet? My son is not hyperactive, he's the dreamy, tuned out ADD type.

Also, did the test results show that your child was deficient in certian minerals or did they just prescribe the supplements to the mass majority?

Thanks so much for you info!

He is more inner than outer directed but also has difficulty sitting still. I think the jury is still out
on whether he is actually ADHD. Ritalin made him hyper. The GF seems to be something they
recommend a lot. They maybe more right than not. I just read an article about Celiac disease
which was believed to be very rare. The new research indicates that it is much more prevalent
than they had believed. At the first appointment (before they got the test results) they prescribed a
standard vitamin regiment. Then, after the results came back, they prescribed an individual set of
vitamin/minerals which were somewhat similar to the starter ones. We traveled to Chicago. Flew
there in the morning, had an appointment around noon. Spent one night in Chicago and flew
home. It was nerve-wracking but the staff was pleasant. My son did not like the blood test but
was cooperative. His test results were generally within the "normal" range - nothing terribly out
of wack but they prescribed some high vitamin/mineral doses. A friend, whose son is more on the
Autistic side saw more significant results. If you are interested in trying the Gluten Free diet I
can make some suggestions for foods. We’ve got this pretty well down pat. We already had him
on a lactose free diet since age 2 because he didn’t digest milk well and would get a fine rash
when he drank it. Hope this helps. How old is your child?

[This message has been edited by roadmap (edited 03-16-2003).]

My son just turned 9. We tried adderall and it had terrible side effects for him. We are currently on strattera and the side effects have been pretty mild, but it hasn't seemed to have much effect for the inattention and focusing that we so desperately need at school. We started Feb.5th on strattera. We'll probably stay with it till our next check-up which is March 26th and if there are no positive results we may discontinue then. He has been somewhat emotional on the strattera but not near the emotional roller coaster as the adderall was.

I would like to know about the GF diet. Is it pretty much all sugars you give up? I don't know if we could handle that. He has had food allergy testing and was allergic to corn, tomato and wheat. But just about everything has those three things as a base product. We do our best to avoid them, but when taking the adderall I was glad to get him to eat period.

I would like more info about you diet.

Thanks!

Giving up wheat is a big part of being on a gluten free diet. Gluten is also in oat and other products as well. We have had good success with homemade substitutes that we have made from mixes purchased at the health food store. "Bob's Red Mill - Homemade Wonderful GF Bread Mix" makes a good bread in a conventional oven. It takes a lot of egg whites to make so it makes a fairly high protein bread. We make it; slice it and freeze it because it begins to crumble if not very fresh. We also substitute corn chips, tacos for lunches that don't require bread; Arrowhead Mills makes an acceptable GF Pancake and Waffle Mix that is our son's morning staple. The Gluten Free Pantry makes an excellent and easy mix for making GF chocalate chip cookies and chocolate chip cake. Our son's friends love them and don't realize that they are GF. The GF Pantry also makes a Spice Cake and Gingerbread Mix that we use to make pumpkin spice bread which is a favorite for our son. We have tried a variety of pasta substitutes but he is not really pleased with any of them - still trying.
Lots of rice and potato instead of bread or flour based foods. We also use potato and rice flour to make chicken nuggets, too. Watermellon, a sweet and juicy snack, is also high in anti-oxidants. We also make a soy based pudding that he likes too. It is not as bad as I thought it would be.

Thanks so much for your diet information.

Wow! I did a search on the celiac disease that you mentioned. I had never heard of it. Although my son doesn't have the abdominal symptoms that go along with this disease it was interesting to see that almost everything that is included on their diet he has been found to be allergic to. Wheat, tomato and corn were a 4 on the scale of 1 to 4, but rye and barley were a 3 on this scale also. The problem is that just about everything contains corn syrup in it or some type of gluten base.

I guess the key is just sticking with basic foods that aren't processed. (steak, potato, etc) This would take a MAJOR life style adjustment for us, but we may try it and see if there is an improvement.

How long was it before your friend saw results on this diet? weeks? months?

Thanks so much for your responses!

We also saw an improvement on the diet. We were very careful at the begining - no gluten - and saw improvement gradually over two weeks. Now we will ocassionally allow him a small quantity of foods normally on our no list - for example, chicken fingers at a restaurant which have breading on them.

The GF mixes that I mentioned have been a big help. The chocolate chip mix was particularly helpful over the holidays when everyone was having "treats."

It is so tiring to always say no; it was nice to have an alternative. Oh, rice crispy treats also work as a GF treat.

I really enjoyed reading your dialogue, back and forth, Roadmap and Faithinhim. I don't have anything to add. Just wanted to say that reading your posts were helpful.

JessP

. . .actually, I do have something to add! I forgot about it when I went to reply to your posts. I have also heard of the Pfeiffer Institute, but have not investigated it.

I wanted to mention, though, another: The Handle Institute. My mom has been in education for about 30 years, and recently has worked one-on-one with children who are having difficulty in the classroom, many of whom are affected by ADD/ADHD. She went to a workshop given by the Handle Institute.

This is an exerpt from there website (www.handle.org):

"Judith developed her approach from 11 years of academic study, 30 years of professional practice, and continuing education opportunities, and from a lifetime of personal experimentation through which she overcame her own serious neurodevelopmental differences.HANDLE embraces aspects of many other disciplines and therapies, discards those that appear less effective or discordant with basic HANDLE principles, and provides an integrated structure for guiding and enhancing neurodevelopmental substrata which support social and academic learning. It also incorporates aspects of personal motivation and aspirations, and of empowering individuals and families to heal themselves."

This website contains information about their workshops and neurodevelopmental enhancing exercises, as well as other information.

Hope this is helpful. I'm looking into it, and plan on participating in an introductory workshop.

JessP