A Visit to the DAN! Doctor

Last Monday, we took Asher to a DAN! doctor. A DAN! doctor is a doctor who specializes in biomedical treatments for autistic children. Asher does NOT have autism, but there are a lot of similarities between Asher's symptoms and symptoms of autistic children. For example, autistic children have a lot of allergies - food and environmental - very similar to Asher. DAN! doctors call it "Leaky Gut" and have methods to "heal the gut" which are very different from the methods doctors use who specialize in Eosinophilic Disorders. Autistic children also have poor balance and coordination. It seems to this untrained, uneducated mind that autistic children have a lot of the same symptoms as Asher, but that they have MORE. They also have the extreme neurological issues which Asher, thankfully, does not have.

Because there are A LOT more children with Autism than there are with EE, there is more research. Over the past few decades, families with autistic children, physicians with autistic children, and interested researchers have been coming together in conferences to confer about ways to heal children with autism and they've come up with some great protocols to test for different things and treat those issues. Children with autism are being helped now. But they're not being helped in the traditional pediatrician's office because pediatricians get their direction from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the AAP needs decades of stringent research (except for, interestingly, vaccine protocol) before they provide recommendations for treatment. Our goal in bringing Asher to a DAN! doctor was to do the analysis and subsequent treatments in the hopes of helping him heal.

We had already started Asher on some of the biomedical treatments. We introduced probiotics into his diet and "yeast killer" to bring his intestinal track into balance. I personally believe we have seen some positive benefit from the yeast killer. We also introduced vitamin supplements (multi-vitamin, zinc, co-enzyme Q10, carnitine and creatine), which has made tremendous difference in Asher's health.

On Monday, the DAN! doctor mentioned that the learning disability identified in January by the Early Intervention Program is usually a "connection issue" and usually an indication of a lack of essential fatty acids in the diet. Upon examining Asher's diet, it's absolutely true that Asher has NO essential fatty acids (EFA) in his diet. Your body can't make EFAs on its own; they must come from the diet. Thing is, EFAs come from fish, soy, and other things we can't possibly give him. What a conundrum.

The DAN! doctor also says that lack of balance and coordination are generally a sign of excess heavy metals in the body and suggests supplements to help the body expel the heavy metals naturally. This past Thursday, we introduced one of those supplements into Asher's diet. We chose the oral supplement DMG with Folinic Acid and B12.

Interestingly, shortly after Asher's futbol game on Saturday, he suffered an incredibly watery bout of diarrhea. Please pardon me if that's too much information. Us parents, especially us parents who have children with gastro-intestinal issues, are unusually preoccupied with our children's stools.

The questions are:

• Does the watery stool have any connection with the lack of balance/coordination?
• Does it have any connection with the DMG supplement?
• Has the new supplement caused Asher to be super-clumsy?
• If so, does that mean that it's helping or hurting?
• How long do we give him the supplement?
• Is it heavy metals or is it something else?
• Are we looking in the wrong direction?
• Can the supplementation help?
• Is this the right supplementation?
• Is there something else we should be doing for Asher?

So, if you have the answers to these questions, please let me know. If not, join the club and stay tuned while we figure it out.