Allergies and the Journey of a Lifetime

The Scream by Edvard Munch 1893-1910

The last four years have felt hopeless and drained us of every human resource. It has been a "journey of a lifetime" as in I only want to endure it once, but it has truly been for my son who physically endured this his entire lifetime.

His problems began the day he was born. Within hours he had jaundice, eczema within days. Colic soon reared it's head and vexed us for 3 months followed by ear infections on its heels. He was doused with antibiotics which, unknown to us at the time, tore his baby gut to shreds, slayed his autoimmune system and rendered him unable to rebuild it; resulting in more illnesses and more antibiotics and so the cycle went for years.

What we were left with was a child trapped inside his misery. He constantly cried and howled in distress. He is also non-verbal and could never tell me information. He was always fatigued, irritable, moody, miserable and needed to be held...all of the time, for four years.





Our son is also autistic, but let me be clear here, NONE of the symptoms above are for autism and no child with autism can possibly gain ground with therapy while suffering in this way. These are symptoms of sickness and no amount of behavioral therapy is going to help until these are cured.

So, what was the diagnosis? In our case there were a couple, one of them is Leaky Gut Syndrome. 

As a baby, doctors put our son on so many antibiotics that the good bacteria in his gut was destroyed. This is where 80% of our immunity lies and when good bacteria is destroyed it renders our autoimmunity useless. It secondarily caused an overgrowth of yeast which has detrimental effects on other organs like the spleen, liver, and kidneys and can even cause horrendous behavior.

The antibiotics deteriorated the lining of his small intestine so much that nutrients would leak from the holes and into the bloodstream before they could be broken down. Nutrients in this form are foreign to the body causing the body to attack the 'intruders.' Over time this inflammation causes a multitude of  food allergies, eczema, vitamin deficiencies, organ problems (including the skin and brain), and even cancer.  Here is a link for a thorough understanding of LGS 

In my opinion, I believe Izaiah was born with auto-immune problems and the first indication was of course the jaundice (the liver), and the confirmation of it would have been the colic.  Here is an article I recently found which supports that theory. Another confirmation would have been the eczema. All of these things happened within the first couple of weeks of Izaiah's life, but conventional doctors were oblivious! It seems if it can't have a band-aid slapped on it or a prescription written for it then they are out of their league.

As Izaiah continued to get foods he was allergic to, the eczema progressed to severe eczema as the LGS forced his body to attack itself. It was an outward indication of what was happening on the inside.

Interestingly, because skin and brain cells originate from the same cells, when his eczema would flare so would his brain. Guess what? Allergens can cause this inflammation too and Izaiah has a multitude of food allergies today as a result of LGS. Now, I understand why my son used to bang his head; I understand why he had tics. His brain was inflamed as much as his gut and skin.

Well, our story finally took a good turn. Thankfully a super-smart friend suggested we travel a more holistic route and visit an immunologist who also happens to be a DAN! doctor.  

He didn't think we were crazy; he took us seriously. In fact he had seen it all before in his more than thirty years of experience. Praise God for my friend! Praise God for this doctor! Now, we have logical explanations and solutions. 

Best of all, we are gaining our son back. We are enjoying our sweet, affectionate, playful, little boy instead of always nurturing a 'medical problem' lost in his pain. His incessant wailing is over. We're even sleeping at night. All of his tics are gone, the head banging has stopped. He is even gaining some verbal sounds that resemble speech, and he keeps improving as the weeks pass. 

Our new doctor also tested Izaiah's internal body cycles, organic acids, toxic metals and the results are astounding. They revealed that so many chemicals and their reactions needed for normal body cycles to run are not present in Izaiah because his body lacks the ability to either produce the chemicals, break them down, or they are lacking from his meals (happens when you have oral sensory issues,autism, and food leaking from your gut.) He also has a mitochondrial dysfunction.

An allergen free diet and natural supplements are helping. The changes have been immediate and drastic.  They are also lasting. He no longer begins his days whining and hurting. He's become happy, interested in playing; he's busy doing 'his thing.'

Is he still autistic? Yes. But now that he is healing I can work with him and plan to develop his strengths as an autist just like we did with our older autist.

I plan to continue to write about my thoughts on diets, supplements, and our progress in further posts. 

A ribbon that wove its way around my heart and mind all through this hellish journey has been "the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth."

What we have endured has felt like hell on earth. My sons constant wailing, my own helpless weeping, and the gnashing teeth of arrogant, ignorant, doctors who weren't afraid to bill us excessively for their non help.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 13: 41-42 that "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of  his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."  

Jesus then says in verse 43 "...Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

He repeats in Matthew13:49 that the "wicked will be severed from the just," and (50) "cast into the furnace of fire:  there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

If any have ears to hear, I can tell you from experience, we don't want to spend eternity listening to wailing and gnashing of teeth! We would much rather spend our time in heaven where God tells us in Izaiah 65:19 that there will be NO more weeping. 

Know Christ as your Savior. When we come to him and confess our iniquities, lay them all down at the cross; when we accept HIM as our LORD and give Him dominion over everything in our lives; He will save us, yea, spare us! As we depend upon Him, His grace will naturally show up in our lives through our trials. He will do it on his own timing though. He will use the time to stretch us, grow us, help us learn endurance and develop our character to  become more like his Son, Jesus, who is Holy and righteous. 

He only grows those with whom He is in relationship with. And if we're not in relationship with him, we are in relation with Satan. There's no fence sitting. The ramifications are eternal.

I pray you would know Christ today and I also pray our journey would help just one person desperately seeking help for their own child like we were.