Homeopathic Medicine

About 2008, when my son was 4 years old a friend and I showed up to the local support group for parents with children with spectrum disorders. One other person showed up that night and she told us about a local Homeopath who had done some amazing things with her twin boys who were both on the spectrum. I called and made an appointment that week. For us, this homeopath has stayed the course and proven time and time again her usefullness with our son’s treatment.

After fighting the parasite with some pretty nasty concoctions we managed to fight it into submission using a combination of Samento, Pau D’arco and Black Walnut tinctures. Yes my son drank each and every one, bless. We noticed the die-off over several weeks after we started using this practitioner and since that time, even with subsequent allopathic testing, the parasite seems to finally have gone.

This homeopath uses a combination of Bio-Set, applied kinesiology and homeopathics to treat her large client base. Her fees are the best we have found anywhere and range from a $35 appointment depending on how long the treatment is up to $200 for the initial evaluation, which can take anywhere from 2-5 hours depending on how sick you might be. She does encounter many spectrum patients and is committed to changing things and learning new processes and methods in her own quest to make life better for them.

If you had told me even 10 years ago I would be using muscle testing (applied kinesiology), homeopathic medicine, and naturopathy to treat my family I would have probably laughed. Prior to kids I was employed in a technical position, I thought conspiracy theories survived only in the minds of the hysterical, I believed that if we were allowed to buy it and eat it – it must be safe and tested 100% edible, I trusted that science had got it right. Chiropractors, Homeopaths, Naturopaths, Acupuncture, all that was fringe medicine, it would pass a placebo test at best. I found article after article agreeing with my stance but the more research I completed the more I came to realize that science doesn’t always have the answers either. One only has to look-up how many drugs are removed from the market for unforseen side-effects, or how many times we have been given conflicting advice on things like diet, health, exercise.

Celiac disease, for instance, was not a disease often recognized in America up until 15-20 years ago. It was thought, and still is to some degree, that people are simply not allergic to gluten. It is now clearly evident that they obviously are, currently 1 in 133 people are diagnosed with Celiac according to Celiac.com. Up until the 1980s you wouldn’t have been even tested for it in traditional medical circles but it is now known to be an autoimmune disorder and is significantly detrimental to your health and well-being  if you have this allergy, but you will still find articles written making it seem a ‘fringe’ diagnosis.

The fact of the matter is that science moves forwards at a rapid pace and what held true 15 years ago often hasn’t always stood the test of time. Some of what was considered fact in the 1980’s even, doesn’t hold up to what we know now. In the case of autism, it was a widely held belief up until the late 60’s that autism was a side-effect of “refrigerator mothers” and this belief, even when science put that to rest, still sits in the back of the minds of many people. When you have believed something for so long it can be hard to change that thinking.

In the end I was willing to take a chance, (obviously) 😀

Once I took the road of early intervention I was pretty much open to anything noninvasive or harmless that would enable my child to function as a mature, responsible, contributing member of society.  I might have opted to not even go ahead with the early intervention let alone followed a path of ‘alternative’ medicine. I have met many people who choose to wait and see, who prefer to not ‘label’ their child. I totally get and respect that. It can be harmful for your child to carry a diagnosis. There is also another side of hearing a diagnosis, or recognizing that your child might be different and that is one of grief. It can be upsetting to realize that the child may not become all that you hoped they would be. There is a grief process, a realization that can bring much emotion and confusion.

Often when people think of autism they tend to think of the movie  “Rain Man”  made famous by Dustin Hoffman. The man this movie was based on was named Kim Peek and he was a true genius, both autistic and a savant. Not all people who are savant’s are autistic and vice versa but this is a widely held misconception.  Kim’s father devoted his life to being his caretaker, which was amazing and the pair of them travelled the country giving talks and sharing Kim’s gifts with the world. However, not many of us really want to give up and dedicate our entire lives to our children, of course most of us will and would but facing that prospect initially can be more than daunting.

Is it better to seek help and interventions early or is it better to wait and see and possibly risk further delays? Who knows, hindsight might be the only way to answer that question but in reality its truly impossible to know.

It can be argued that the parasite would have gone on it’s own or with a different allopathic drug, it is possible that the yeast would have cleared up with further courses of Nystatin and it’s possbile he would have matured and improved without any intervention. I have to confess by my own logic I can’t argue differently, but in my opinion the homeopathy worked and still works for our family. Now we no longer really have reason to meet with our homeopath on a regular basis but we do talk over the phone and she uses kinesiology to test his supplements and keep him on track. I still call her and have her check his supplements and they change from week to week.

For anyone who has yet to make a leap of faith into homeopathy, or worse they tried it and got no results, I get it, it sounds crazy especially if you have never explored this avenue; however, I walked into her office that day with test result, after test result showing my son’s physiology and she refused to look. She said it wasn’t necessary to know what was wrong with him, she treats what his body was looking for at that time. After a long consultation (probably 3 hours) she said his major issue at the time was the parasite, there were allergies and other things going on but the major problem was that, once that was taken care of we could move on to the other issues. She wasn’t wrong that was indeed the crux of much of his angst at that time. It took a while to get the parasites gone, and in the interim they were worse, then better, then worse again, over the course of about 6 months we saw his behavior start to change. His stomach issues were much better and his speech became much clearer and more intelligible. This was in conjunction with his early intervention, occupational therapy and speech therapy so yes, there is room for conjecture; however I personally still believe homeopathy has a place in our treatment plan.

What is homeopathy?