It's working

Yesterday I dropped Jordan off at school after telling him the bus would be picking him up. Instead of crying and throwing a tantrum, he was calm and got in the car with no problems. I wasn't sure what to expect because the day before I thought it would be a good idea to give him homemade potato chips. After he ate them, he was hard to calm down, even when gesturing him to close his mouth which always completely calms him. Even when he woke up yesterday morning, before 6:00 I might add, he was stimming loud. I was confident he was going to give me many problems, but he was just as easy going as ever. It truly showed me that there is something to this thing called structure.

Proverbs 22:15 "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child,

the rod of correction will drive it far from him."

I've read how important it is for a child on the spectrum to have structure, but never thought it could be behind his behaviors. Reason #1 why I believed it didn't play a part was because I had given him things that eased his behaviors before. Fiber, diet change and the addition of some supplements, even if it was only short lived. Reason #2 was, sad to say, because he had been without structure all his life. I understood when puberty hits, the body changes and things within the brain change as well. It was just hard to believe that giving him instructions to follow at home would help this much. I believe that removing the fish oil and avocado that posed a problem with histamine plays a big part as well. Lab results did show his histamine determination, blood, was elevated. So something he was ingesting was definitely an issue. Although we haven't proved what it was, it is apparent that removing those two things has made him react less to things that would normally trigger him and he is easier to calm down. I am not where I would like to be by any means, but we are on the path in the right direction. However, I don't know where we will go from here. I would not like to add any supplements to him, however, last week I was led to the subject of DAO deficiency, which you can treat with supplements.

When I was trying to find out as much as I could about histamine intolerance, I came across a website that explained a lot when it comes to histamine. How anxiety can be caused by not being able to tolerate histamine. Other symptoms are headaches, difficulty falling asleep, vertigo or dizziness, nasal congestion/sneezing/difficulty breathing and a host of others. Since it travels through the bloodstream it also affects the lungs, skin, brain and gut. All of these are affected in Jordan. What causes high histamine levels are allergies, SIBO, leaky gut and DAO deficiency. DAO, daimine oxidase, deficiency is when the body isn't producing enough of an enzyme that neutralizes histamine in the digestive tract. The thing about low DAO is that it is not related to having an allergy with a particular food, it is that some foods release histamine in the body, they have high levels of it and/or they block the release of the enzyme that breaks it down. Treatment of DAO can include supplements, but also an elimination diet. Removing foods that have high levels or releasing histamine and also those that block DAO. Then you can repair the underlying issue, which in Jordan's case would be SIBO. 

Being on the Nemechek protocol for Jordan has done great things for his development, but I believe that the inulin isn't strong enough and he really needs to be on the RX. From my understanding SIBO is resolved within a few weeks of taking the inulin, olive oil and EPA/DHA. Overgrowth of bacteria in the gut causes it to stretch and gaps form in the gut. When the good bacteria flourishes and the bad sent back to the area of the gut where it belongs, the gut then returns to normal size and starts to repair. We have been on the protocol since October, but it seems Jordan is still having a leaky gut or SIBO issue. If he wasn't, why did I see such a difference when he had potatoes? They are one of the foods listed to give you issues when you have a leaky gut. The more and more I think about it, the more I believe Rifaxmin may help better with getting rid of the bad bacteria to allow his gut to heal. Just not sure if that's the way I want to go, for numerous reasons. I'm also not sure if I want to go through with the low dose allergy treatment or give the protocol time to heal his gut, which still may need the Rifaxmin to reduce the bacteria. Decisions, decisions.