HELP! New member ?s on ADHD/ODD, enzymes, and supplements.

[Guest guest]

Hi, I have a 6 yr old daughter with ADHD all the time and ODD at

times. She has had chronic, almost constant yeast infections (usually

triggered by antibiotics for ear and later sinus infectionsusually

vaginal or external vaginal area) almost since birth. She is very

verbal (usually too much so...lol), very intelligent, and does not

have a shy bone in her body. She had difficulty focusing in school

(or home for that matter) and so her work and evaluations do not

match what her teacher or my husband and I think she is capable of. I

believe she has a leaky gut. She had severe gas pain and digestive

issues when I breast fed her until age 3 weeks that caused " failure

to thrive " . Milk based formula made the problem much worse, but once

switched to soy formula she suddenly bloomed. She grew 5 inches in 5

weeks and actually gained weight immediately after beginning the soy

formula. She continued to have sensitivity to milk until she was 18

months old and I had difficulty getting her to eat anything, so I

continued to give her the 2nd level of soy formula until 18 mths.

Then I started giving her Instant Breakfast with her milk so seh

would get some nutricion. She never wanted to bother to take the time

to eat and is still very thin. She is taller than we believe she

really should be given my husband's and my height (but maybe we would

have been taller had our mom not smoked 2.5 to 3 packs of cigarettes

a day when they were pregnant with us). I don't smoke or drink

alcohol and did not when I was pg with her.

In October of '03 I had her tested for some allergens and she only

reacted to two things, mold and possibly wheat (test was not as

conclusive for wheat). I don't know if he tested for milk. On the

basis if the allergist's suggestion, right before I brought her in

for tests, I started her on a food elimination diet to find out what

she reacted negatively to, and have continued to keep her away from

those things. They were wheat(all gluten), milk (all casein), sugar,

food colorings, processed foods in general, preservatives, eggs,

chocolate, and all the foods on the mold allergy diet her doctor gave

me (anything fermented or pickled, yeasts, mushrooms, etc.). I have

been wishy washy with the corn and soy because I am not sure how they

affected her, so she has had corn (usually as corn chips to get her

to eat pinto beans, salsa, and ground turkey), but not soy. Her

appetite increased tremendously on the diet and she actually put a

little meat on her bones and grew substancially. I also began to give

her supplements (she would refuse to even take normal chewable

vitamins before the diet began). She has been on quite a few

supplements (multi-vitamin, b complex, vit c, vit e, fish oil,

evening primrose oil, zinc, colostrum, coral calcium, Pro-Biotics

Acidophilus with an extensive blend, and grapefruit seed extract for

the yeast. I was seeing good results in focus, behavior, and yeast

with that package of supplements, but the yeast, although diminished,

was still causing vaginal irritation. I also started to give her

epsom salt baths and the results were amazing, so I wanted to

increase her magnesium to hopefully help her. I had heard great

results about the use of " Lauricidan " , flax seed oil, all three of

Houston Nutraceutical's enzyme products, magnesium, and " Aqua Flora " ,

so I ordered and/or went out and bought all of them and began to add

all of them to her " cocktail " of supplements in early January. The

only thing I didn't actually add was the AFP-Peptizyde because it had

not yet arrived.

With those supplements added to the mix, her good disposition, focus

in school, and reading and math ability all regressed and we had to

go in to talk to the teacher, principal, special ed teacher (she is

not in special, yet...), and the school social worker. They are

pressuring us to put her on medication for the ADHD (Ritalin) so she

doesn't fall further behind and end up repeating the first grade. She

has had to go down to have several talks with the principal over

infractions in class and has an on-going feud on the bus with a group

of 11 year old boy bullies who hassle all the little kids. Maybe

she'll be a lawyer! This kind of bold, in-your-face behavior is

totally foreign to me as I was a quiet, studious, do-as-you-are-told,

goody-two-shoes, teacher's pet kind of kid.

I was under the impression that all of the supplements I started in

Jan were supposed to really help control behavior and attention

issues, so I was confused as to why I would be getting the opposite

reaction. Of the previous supplements, the only real change there was

was that I was giving her the pro-biotics less frequently because the

Houston product instructions said to give the enzymes with a meal and

not to give the probiotics until 1.5-2 hrs after a meal... It takes

her a while to eat and then she is back chowing again within 2 hrs,

so it was difficult to manage the timing of giving it to her. I don't

know this for certain, but it looks like my daughter has become

hypoglycemic because she is hungry so frequently and needs many small

meals. Before we began the diet and supplements we had to beg her and

hound her to eat. She now eats breakfast, a mid morning snack, lunch,

a major snack or dinner immediately after returning from school at

4:30, another dinner around 6:30 or 7PM and then a major snack before

she goes to bed or she will be up during the night asking for a

meal. I stopped all of the supplements I started in January as well

as the grapefruit seed extract and increased the Pro-biotics to

possibly take up some of the slack from the missing GSE for yeast. We

have seen some return of her improvements, but not all of them as

yet.

I sent an e-mail to Houston Nutraceuticals to see if they could

explain my daughter's reaction. I was pleasantly surprised to get a

response within 3 hours on a Saturday. BRAVO! I was told the effect

she had might have been from yeast die off and to consider cutting

the dosage back on the HN Zyme Prime and cutting out the No-Fenol for

now (I had not started the AFP Peptizyde yet). He also recommended I

come here to for guidance, so here I am... I have

not started the ZP back yet until I can stabilize her again and hear

from others here on this board.

Does anyone have a recommendation for which of the January products

might have caused the regression, in what order I should begin

reintroducing them (if at all), and how long should I go between the

introduction of one product until the intoduction of the next? Also,

I just picked up some other things at GNC for my daughter and myself -

300 mg Biotin, and the following amino acids - L-Tyrosine, L-

Carnitine, L-Cysteine, and GABA 750 (gamma-aminobutyric acid). Are

they safe to begin all at once, or should I vary the introduction of

these as well? Also, are they all appropriate for her? If they are

not, I can still use them, so they won't go to waste...

My daughter is working so hard to try to control her behavior, I feel

guilty for not finding the " magic mix " for her supplements and/or

diet to help her get there. Your help on this would be greatly

appreciated!

Dawn Schaller