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Functional medicine?


WoolC
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Does anyone have experience with functional medicine, chiropractors, naturopaths etc?

My son with ASD also has a combination of physical symptoms that our regular pediatrician seems to brush aside as part of his autism or just not of concern. I'm thinking that we're dealing with some underlying medical issues. Our local options that practice more integrative medicine do not accept insurance so it will be a financial stretch for us to pursue this route.

 

Has anyone here used these types of practitioners with any success?

 

Symptoms we're dealing with (I may delete this portion later for privacy, please do not quote) include constant body temperature ranging from 99.9 to 100.5, dark eye circles, insomnia/unrestful sleep, chronic ear infections (though these have stopped since using probiotics for past 9 months), picky diet, fatigue.

 

We've done a year of strict gluten free, we did a few months casein free, neither of which had dramatic results in the above. We're currently supplementing with multivitamin, dha, probiotics and melatonin, about to start magnesium. Basic bloodwork at our regular pediatrician did not raise any red flags. What am I missing here?

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He's probably not digesting certain foods well.  You can use fruit to rebuild his digestion.  My dd had the dark circles, and she wasn't digesting milk properly.  I used a nutritionist who specializes in hard cases (I can give you the name backchannel), but that's only because I got burnt over the years by other practitioners (doc, chiros, etc.) who weren't adequate and made me worse.  

 

The nutritionist, for us, was pretty much able to reverse everything, with time, using food.

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If you see a MAPS physician and have insurance coverage for out-of-network providers you may be able to get some reimbursement for your costs. Naturopaths typically would not be covered, and nutritionists it would depend on whether the individual is a R.D.

 

We had good results with our integrative pediatrician, though we haven't seen him in almost 2 years because our current HMO policy won't reimburse us any to see him. Keeping my fingers crossed that we will be in a financial position to switch back to a PPO plan for 2016.

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Unfortunately, it seems that no one doc can do it all (here).  We had seen a nutritionist in the past but the NDs we've seen have been more thorough.  Our approach includes treating infections, methylation and liver help (due to genetic polymorphisms), and of course rebuilding the immune system via the gut.  Honestly the reading takes up a tremendous amount of my time and focus.

 

The hard part about going without any professional advice would be not having the testing.  While what turned out to be the big expensive tests for us were not covered either, there was a large batch of basic immune system bloodwork via Labcorp that was sort-of covered (applied to our deductible).

 

Also, the methylation angle is hard to figure out and not all NDs have expertise there.  Just another piece of the puzzle.

 

OP, the temperature thing would have me googling; immune system disfunction and/or possible infection come to mind.  Generally, I'd start looking at this by listing the foods/supplements that you feel quite sure are good or bad and go from there.

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We tried it for a few years but didn't see any marked change.  My son has many of those things and more.   We did have some luck introducing new foods after seeing a Nutritionist though.  My son was referred for feeding therapy but our insurance refuses to cover it and the program recommended was intensive and extremely expensive we can't afford it.  He has awful dark circles around his eyes all the time.  

 

The one thing that has helped with sleep is the prescription Clonidine.  It is very inexpensive and would be something that you'd see a mainstream doctor for (we use a Developmental Pediatrician).  A half a tablet of that before bed makes all the difference in his sleep.  It is actually a med for high blood pressure but we use very low dose and find it pretty effective for help with sleep.  After years of having ds awake at 3am super hyper or screaming I really need him to sleep at night.  

 

My son doesn't do well on dairy and it causes diarrhea for him so we do keep him off that.  He has had chronic issues with diarrhea/constipation though aside from dairy.  I have Celiac Disease so I don't allow gluten into our kitchen so I keep him gluten free out of necessity.  He loves to drink out of my cup and doesn't understand cross contamination.

 

Our latest doctor stop has been Neurogenetics because my son continues to lose skills so his case may be unique even among kids with Autism.  His speech was better 5 years ago than it is today and that is with hundreds if not thousands speech sessions.  He has about 10 words left where he had about 100 or more before he started losing.  

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Thanks for all of your responses. Looks like we will go ahead and get some testing done despite the costs. There are just so many things that could be at play and I'm tired of taking shots in the dark with this. We do have a functional medicine doctor with a nutritionist on staff that meets with each patient so I guess we'll start there.

 

OhElizabeth, I definitely think he's not digesting properly, rebuilding with fruit sounds interesting, especially since fruits are one of the few healthy things he will eat most of the time. I will look into that.

 

Wapiti, I'm right there with you on all of the time and guesswork! It's exhausting. Good to know that the super restrictive diets weren't the ticket for your family. I dread having to do a restrictive diet since food is already so difficult.

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Our latest doctor stop has been Neurogenetics because my son continues to lose skills so his case may be unique even among kids with Autism.  His speech was better 5 years ago than it is today and that is with hundreds if not thousands speech sessions.  He has about 10 words left where he had about 100 or more before he started losing.  

 

Not to sound like a broken record, but have you had a full audiology exam recently (as in within the past year)? If not, I would encourage you to get one just to rule out progressive hearing loss. I found out the hard way that a child doesn't always act like he/she cannot hear even when there is profound loss.

 

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My husband has benefitted tremendously from a specific type of gentle chiropractor--Directional Non Force Chiropractic.

 

And I have a friend whose thyroid issues were addressed far better by her naturopath than by conventional medicine.

 

I know a Theta healer who other friends say is very effective.

 

I think that there are a lot of semi-quacks out there, and you have to be careful, but also that conventional medicine is focused on cure, while alternative healers are focused on health.  That's a subtle but important distinction.

 

Given the description you have put forward, I would personally start with a naturopath.

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My husband has benefitted tremendously from a specific type of gentle chiropractor--Directional Non Force Chiropractic.

 

And I have a friend whose thyroid issues were addressed far better by her naturopath than by conventional medicine.

 

I know a Theta healer who other friends say is very effective.

 

I think that there are a lot of semi-quacks out there, and you have to be careful, but also that conventional medicine is focused on cure, while alternative healers are focused on health. That's a subtle but important distinction.

 

Given the description you have put forward, I would personally start with a naturopath.

Thank you, the naturopath was what I was leaning toward just based on what is available in our area and the feel I get from thewebsite. It also seems more affordable despite the fact that our insurance won't cover anything.

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Could it be an autoimmune disorder? Fevers, fatigue....

 

My dd also had digestive issues.

 

Recently she started with Plaquenil even without a firm dx. The change in her energy levels and pain are dramatic. Her digestion and dark circles are better, too.

Yes, I strongly suspect an autoimmune disorder. I just need to find a doctor/specialist that is willing to take my concerns seriously.

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Yes, I strongly suspect an autoimmune disorder. I just need to find a doctor/specialist that is willing to take my concerns seriously.

 

Besides the symptoms, my dd has a family history of autoimmune diseases. I think that has made the rheumatologist take her case seriously. She had symptoms for a few years and then finally had a positive ANA. And then a couple of other antibodies were elevated a year or so after that. But it was still just watching and waiting.

 

Meanwhile, the rheumatologist we were seeing at a research oriented children's hospital started spending more time doing research and less time at clinic, and perhaps from experiences in the research realm decided to treat dd as though she had an autoimmune disease even though she doesn't have an actual dx. She started treating other patients with elevated antibodies and vague symptoms in the same way and also saw improvement in symptoms. At any rate, the treatment dd is receiving is more to prevent flares than deal with a flare after it happens so it is appropriate from that standpoint. She has autoantibodies that you don't want to mess around with.

 

Have you had an ANA done? a full-thyroid panel? RA factor? Lyme?

 

With the high temp, you'd think a doctor would take it seriously.

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We tried it for a few years but didn't see any marked change.  My son has many of those things and more.   We did have some luck introducing new foods after seeing a Nutritionist though.  My son was referred for feeding therapy but our insurance refuses to cover it and the program recommended was intensive and extremely expensive we can't afford it.  He has awful dark circles around his eyes all the time.  

 

The one thing that has helped with sleep is the prescription Clonidine.  It is very inexpensive and would be something that you'd see a mainstream doctor for (we use a Developmental Pediatrician).  A half a tablet of that before bed makes all the difference in his sleep.  It is actually a med for high blood pressure but we use very low dose and find it pretty effective for help with sleep.  After years of having ds awake at 3am super hyper or screaming I really need him to sleep at night.  

 

My son doesn't do well on dairy and it causes diarrhea for him so we do keep him off that.  He has had chronic issues with diarrhea/constipation though aside from dairy.  I have Celiac Disease so I don't allow gluten into our kitchen so I keep him gluten free out of necessity.  He loves to drink out of my cup and doesn't understand cross contamination.

 

Our latest doctor stop has been Neurogenetics because my son continues to lose skills so his case may be unique even among kids with Autism.  His speech was better 5 years ago than it is today and that is with hundreds if not thousands speech sessions.  He has about 10 words left where he had about 100 or more before he started losing.  

I'm no help to you, but I just wanted to throw some sympathy your way, wow.  To continue to lose words and skills and not have an answer, that's rough.

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