I once asked Dr. Dan Rossignol how to cut back on the multitude of supplements that children take for ASD and ADHD. The leader of the Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs, simply stated, “Brian, it’s easier to get kids on them, than off.”
Often, a really difficult patient arrives at the Clinic with many, many medical issues. ‘Stims’ appear way out of control. Language is at a bare minimum, if at all. This is not the time to stop anything. Or, it may be the time to stop everything! Another patient is doing great, and the family wants to travel – perhaps without a suitcase of vitamins.
Until more research and information is available regarding the specific cause(s) and treatment(s) for developmental conditions known as Autism Spectrum, practitioners need to figure out our own protocols for starting AND stopping the myriad of sometimes helpful products.
Methyl B12 injections. Let’s begin with a favorite, as far as kick-starting the difficult sign of speech apraxia. Reasons to stop may include:
1. There are just more ‘stims’, without any vocalization improvements.
2. G-I problems appear to interfere and amplify aggression-frustration-distraction-focus. In this case, there may only be a temporary halt.
3. If the child just won’t ‘shut up’, it may be time to give this vitamin a rest.
Antifungals. Medications, such as fluconazole, require frequent laboratory evaluation and should be discontinued as much as is tolerable for the patient and family. Citrus seed extract, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, and the like, may be given as long as they are accepted.
Multivitamin preparations. Once the child achieves a healthy, varied diet, it’s probably OK to discontinue this fairly expensive supplement. Let’s see… a healthy, varied diet… that will be… ~2025?
Oral glutathione. When the correct liposomal protein is utilized, it is one of the most effective products for attention, tone and apraxia. Once inflammation from known and unknown sources is reduced to a point that the child’s immune and detoxification systems can handle it, there may be no further need. Let’s see… reduction in environmental toxins and the high-risk patient’s overreaction to inflammation… that will be… ~2025?
Probiotics. Today’s children are exposed to genetically modified foods, steroids, antibiotics in everything, and attacks from all new kinds of cooties. The best way to battle this situation is a dense concentration of varied strains of high quality bacteria. Let’s see… a decrease in toxic substances and germ killing products… that will be… not in this century.
Special diets. Many parents are eager to re-introduce the forbidden foods. Once a diet is undertaken and positive results are observable, plan on about 2 years of restrictions. When the diet is expanded, choose one at-a-time, at weekly intervals, in order to notice any problems.
Calming supplements. To the extent that magnesium, tryptophan, theanine, taurine, GABA, and/or pycnogenol, are helping, subsequent decrease in self control or aggression might follow their discontinuation. This should be relatively simple for a parent to observe. Restart as needed.
Metabolic enhancements. Stopping products, such L-carnitine, L-carnosine, CoQ10, and/or others may result in observable behaviors, such as weakness, tiring, easy fatiguability, poor attention and focus.
Knowing when to say no:
Combining biomedical treatments with the proven traditional therapies, such as Behavioral, Speech & Language, Occupational and Physical Therapies, results in palpable improvement. Discontinuation may be a real mistake.
At the end of the day, as long as a supplement is safe, possibly effective, reasonably priced, well-tolerated, and doesn’t result in any prolonged negative behaviors, parents are quite satisfied when development gets on a normal trajectory.
Likewise for stopping them. If it doesn’t appear to make a difference (even after 2-4 weeks), doesn’t seem to be worth the $, may be causing more prolonged negative behaviors than improvements, and development proceeds at a normal course without it, there may be an opportunity to discontinue. Then, watch closely.