DAN! Defeat Autism Now

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-2006
DAN! Defeat Autism Now
9
Mon, 07-24-2006 - 11:10pm
Has anyone gone down this route? How was it? It really scary. My Daughter had chronic ear infections and antibiotics etc. They say Autism is a symptom of a GI problem and Autoimmunity.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 07-24-2006 - 11:59pm

Not full fledged DAN! but our own version with our own research. I know some here that do it. Though I can't afford or do I want to do a full bore DAN! protocol, we have had lots of success with what we have done.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2003
Tue, 07-25-2006 - 10:20am

We've been doing supplements, antivirals, and chelation on our own for quite a long time. Its been very helpful. We just recently took dd to a DAN nurse practioner because I was kind of at a loss with her. On one hand its nice to have someone direct us but on the other I have issues with releasing control, lol.

Honeslty its not scary to me. Doing nothing (to address health issues) is scary to me. But that's just me. I've always been very into health & medicine. I love researching and learning about this stuff.

BTW, if you do go with a DAN don't go in with blind faith. There are some good ones and some bad ones just like all doctors.

Samantha

Samantha
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-2006
Tue, 07-25-2006 - 11:43am
What exactly did you do? Alexis went to a DAN MD and he did a bunch of bloodwork which came back +yeast, +Gluten Allergy and we know she has milk allergy and it came back -.
They gave us supplements. My daughter is two. How do they expect us to give her all of the supplements? She only eats pasta and fruit. please help! Sincerely, danielle
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-2006
Tue, 07-25-2006 - 11:48am
We took Alexis to a bad DAN MD. He gave us a bunch of supplements and sent us on our way. When I asked her test results be sent to her GI MD, they freaked out and weren't going to release her results. Kind of fishy! Alexis is two. She only eats Pasta and fruit. How can I get the supplements in her? What is your child taking , what are the results, and does your child recieve early intervention?-Danielle
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 07-25-2006 - 12:45pm

That is too bad that it didn't turn out well.

Your daughter is still really little and this information can be quite overwhelming so having a good practioner would have been much more helpful. If you can't find a DAN one perhpas a good nutrionalist, natural alternatives type doc, a naturopath, or osteopath may be able to help. Some osteopaths are on major medical insurances as are some chiropractors that may also use alternative approaches.

If you want to try it on your own I would start with one thing at a time and work slowly. Go with gentle stuff because she is very little.

First I would try to work on her diet. There are ways to extend an ASD kiddo's diet slowly and even if you make sure that what she is ok with eating is free of preservatives and pesticides that will help. Organic pasta, organic sauces. The fruit, is it fresh fruit or canned? Fresh is best and what types will she eat? Does she have a good variety? What will she drink? I see no protien in her diet, will she drink milk or protein shakes?

Next I would add some supplements but gently ones to help her get the nutrients she needs. I would start with a really good quality multivitamin. Not your generic sugar based ones. There are a variety of good multivits for kids and I can make some recomendations if you can tell me what you think she will take. If she likes candies at all there are some gummy vitamins that are good quality. There is a chewable I really like for my kids from Rainbow Light that is called Nutristars but it is more like a regular chewable. It has lots of good stuff in it and enzymes. If she won't take chewables or gummies, then I would get liquid vitamins and add it to her pasta.

The next supp I would likely add is digestive enzymes to help her process and utilize what she does eat. If she will not take the pill you can open the capsule and sprinkle it in her food or drink. It may show up in the drink so you will want to put in in a sippy cup or something where she won't see it.

Tips on extending her diet will take me a long post and I am running short on time. There are some old posts here I may try to find later and bump or let me know if you need some tips. Paula can probably find for you a plethora of good old threads on eating issues.

In the mean time that is what I would start with with a 2yo, changing the diet to a healthy organic low sugar diet, adding a good multivitamin to make up for nutrients she isn't getting, and adding digestive enzymes to help her process what she is eating.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-2006
Tue, 07-25-2006 - 7:45pm
Thank you. This is so hard for us. I believe in all of those healthy things. I just get scared of the chelation, secretin and all of that . Does your child get services?
-Danielle
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2003
Tue, 07-25-2006 - 8:01pm

Danielle,

I'm sorry too that you had a bad experience. We have just had our first appt with the Nurse praticioner DAN. She recommended blood tests (we'd already done the hair test on our own). We'll go back when all the results come in. But as for what we've done on our own before going to the DAN...We really started with our son. He was 7 when he was dx so he didn't get early intervention. I joined the autism-mercury yahoo group and read and read and read. I followed Andy Cutler's reccomendations for individual supplements. My son couldn't tolerate a multi at the time like a lot of kids. His recommendations are in the files section and its all public. I introduced one supplement at a time slowly to watch for reactions. He could swallow pills so that made things much easier. There are lots of parents there that can give you ideas on how to get supplements in though. Right now my son (11yrs now) is taking Alive whole food energizer multi, Iodine, two different probiotics, olive leaf extract, virastop, and GSE, & digestive enzymes. For chelation he takes DMSA & ALA, and extra C. We've seen social gains, better eye contact, just more aware. His school principal said he definately isn't the same kid he was 2 yrs ago.

Samantha

Samantha
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 07-25-2006 - 8:25pm

I have 2 kids who are ASD who are older (10 and 12). We do get a variety of services for each child but each is different. I have not done chelation or secretin as of yet and we are just looking into the possibility of a mild chelation for them.

My daughter is in middle school in a "Full inclusion special day class" program for kids with Aspergers. In other words it is a specialized program with a special ed teacher support but they go to mainstream classes (she has an aide she shares for most of the mainstream classes). She also goes to the special ed class for social skills and study skills help. She also gets other supports in school. She also has speech at school. She also goes to theraputic horsebackriding (private pay) and has music therapy for the summer.

My son is in a special day class with a 1:1 aide all day. He is slowly mainstreaming more each year. He will be in 5th grade next year and mainstreaming for 2-3 hours. He also is in music therapy and we will likely keep him in during the school year. He has speech and OT as well.

I have 2 younger ones as well (6 and 8). The 6yo was on an IEP but was removed last year in kindie. He has a lot of sensory issues and was diagnosed at one point with PDD-NOS but I don't think that is accurate anymore. He may have a bit of ADHD or mood disorder. My 8yo has some senosry issues but otherwise is NT and was just accepted into the gifted program at school.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-2006
Wed, 07-26-2006 - 10:29am

It sounds like things are going well. I would love to know why this happened to our kids!

I'm pretty new to this whole thing. Alexis has had multiple ear infections since 6mo old. Two sets of tubes and multiple doses of antibiotics. She takes Culturelle lactobacillis in her rice milk. The reason they DX her with PDD-NOS is because of her speech delay and she has immature play. Otherwise social and very pleasant. Does not tantrum much at all. Very easy going for a two year old. I thought maybe since she was so sick before that may have hindered her learning. But, she has some skills of a 30 month old. She is all over the map with her skills. Its so hard. She had an MRI that revealed some demyelination. I have only read that this can happen to kids from vaccines. I am horrified. The Neurologist could not explain the results. She said that demyelination usually shows up if a baby is premature or had head trauma. NOT ALEXIS! So, a repeat MRI will be done in September to compare. However, she is making gains so obviously, it still isn't demyelinating or she would be regressing. She only gets five hours of services. Speech, Special instruction and OT. She doesn't have any issues with sensory or routine. I do major differences compared with other two year olds. Alexis seems more like a 15 month old in communication. Needelss to say, its a waiting game. We are going to a genetic MD in August. I want to FIX this but I don't know the cause. My husband is a dentist and I was a Hygienist. Was she exposed to mercury somehow? I will probably question this forever. -Danielle