To be looking so differently now at Drs, schools etc etc

[Loveafridaynightchippy]

Has anyone else had a change of opinion about things that they’ve not really questioned and always just accepted before, in the last few years?
It could be since a became a mum, but I’m wondering if it’s more.
My Dd has been very ill recently and I’ve gained much better help, advise from less traditional Drs-think medical Drs who focus on naturopathy too, homeopathy and so on, I never knew anything about homeopathy before my Dd got ill. The results I’ve seen are incredible and much more positive that traditional things like antibiotics, painkillers and so on.
I used to be a teacher and loved it, but I’ve found myself really questioning if this is the right system and the right way of doing things and am increasingly doubting traditional schooling. Even the way the majority of us work, the 9-5, the commutes, snatched weekends with loved ones, the yearly holiday.
Maybe I’m just becoming an old hippie! 😂
Does anyone else feel like this?

@SophiaCohle She’s been assessed and doesn’t have, it was my first thought two years ago when I saw her behaviour, although I knew nothing then, I was shocked about the sudden arrival of the change in behaviour and knew something wasn’t right. It presents this way and then disappears and she didn’t show anything more for two years when she got sick again. Many many parents in the same position and their children are NT too. I don’t know as much about it as everyone else I talk to, but there’s a big link to illness and brain inflammation and the gut etc etc
You really must read up a lot more on it.

If you accept that people have the right to make their own choices, the reason for those choices is entirely their affair. Deciding against chemo for whatever reason - the result is the same - no chemo. You may not know why they’ve made that decision - they may claim one thing out loud but believe another privately, they may have complex motivations.

It is finger wagging to judge other people’s decisions when you can’t control them and they won’t care what you think anyway.

Choosing chemo, or any gruelling treatment, is as much a faith-based position as an evidence-based one. People put their faith in a treatment due to evidence it works in other people. But there’s no actual evidence it will work for them, they just have to hope they’re in the % it does. If the patient didn’t believe chemo could be effective it would make it much harder to stay the course.

It becomes a lot more complex than "people are free to make their own choices" when you have people like the OP making medical decisions for a child, though.

@MeowCatPleaseMeowBack Going with traditional Drs and a psychiatrist too, don’t worry. I’m just exploring all avenues as you would do too in a desperate situation.

Well, I don't need to fortunately, as no one I know is affected by this syndrome. But I'm glad your daughter has been assessed for autism, as that struck me as an important thing for you to rule in or out.

They do have clinical evidence that a strep infection can set this off. There is symptom overlap with other conditions, which makes diagnosis tricky. OCD is often similar. This is why I grimace when it comes up on forums or groups and people start suggesting PANDAS/PANS particularly when there was no evidence of a triggering infection. There are some doctors out there who have made a bit of a cottage industry of it and parents who don't want to believe their child is ND. There are certain things, like abrupt onset, that are key to it being post-infectious. Interestingly, one child I do know who was diagnosed with PANDAS (by a doctor at a children's hospital in Canada, so not somewhere dodgy) had already been diagnosed as autistic.

The misdiagnosis angers me because parents waste their time, sometimes their money, putting their children through unnecessary treatments instead of doing the right things to help them.

Homeopathy does not, indeed cannot, work. Although there's a major placebo effect from practitioners having the time to spend with patients properly.
Schools vary hugely. Both the curriculum and SEN and provision need reform but they are currently under review and I remain hopeful (also a teacher).

Exactly this. Though OP now says she is following conventional advice too so conventional treatment plus homeopathy can't do any harm given that it's just water in sugar pills.

Other non conventional treatments can cause harm, as PP have said, either by interacting with the medical treatments or by containing harmful ingredients. But homeopathy can't do anything so if it makes her/her DC feel better via the placebo effect why not I guess.

Not really, the same principle applies. As long as anyone operates within the legal framework they’re free to make their own choices.

Interesting, thank you. Certainly true in my experience that autistic people, especially children, often seem to have a slightly different immunological status, either going down with everything or robustly impervious to illness, plus some idiosyncratic reactions to vaccination. Not that my very small scale observations are necessarily significant.

Homeopathy is nothing more than placebo OP, sorry to be the another bearer of bad news.

@knitnerd90 It’s not necessarily post strep only, there can be gut issues, mould etc, it seems to be very complex. It’s also not surprising that many children who are already diagnosed autistic also develop pans.
It’s very frustrating for the parents who have been told it’s something psychological or that their children have Odd or autism, when in fact, they don’t and see huge improvements upon tackling the underlying infection/cause and treating it appropriately and see the symptoms and behaviour disappear.

Chemotherapy isn’t “faith based” at all. It has decades of research behind it. Unfortunately it’s never going to save everyone from cancer, but it does work and has saved or prolonged millions of people’s lives. Things like homeopathy save absolutely nobody.

Really rude during an OP's serious concerns.
Typical of mumsnet......

#completelymissesthepoint

Not rude at all. OP is being pulled up on uninformed thinking.

Also it's not "mumsnet", it is one poster.

You can't treat or cure autism. Neurodiversity is just that a diversity and not a medical issue.
I am NOT broken and I don't need curing. Neither does my son.

It isn't working. It literally can't. It is water and sugar. The only thing it CAN be is the placebo effect

Autism isn't symptoms though. And many autistic people (especially girls due to socialisation) are adept at masking. Until they reach crisis point when they are exhausted (or I don't know, ill). There's no such thing as sudden onset autism.

@GrammarTeacher ??? That’s exactly what I’m saying, there is no such thing as sudden onset autism?? That’s why it isn’t autism. In Pans/pandas, it can present as autism literally overnight, it isn’t autism, that’s what I’m saying?
I’m not talking about treating or curing autism! That’s exactly my point, it isn’t autism, it’s a medical condition often brought on by illness that causes brain inflammation and can present as similar signs to being autistic, I’m saying the opposite, it isn’t autism

The point is that while everyone (or at least competent adults) is entitled to make their own decisions based on their own thoughts, feelings and beliefs, not all decisions are equally well informed.

I have an acquaintance who is a homeopathic practitioner. Obviously people pay to see her privately because sugar pills are not prescribed on the NHS. She is a warm, friendly, person who operates out of a warm, comfortable house. An initial consultation with her is 60 minutes. She'll sit you down, take as much time as you need to properly discuss what's going on in depth. Contrast that to a rushed 10 minutes with a GP. Of course you'e going to feel better if you feel someone is really listening to you and taking an interest.

I do really despair though of anyone really buying into the idea that water has a memory. It's just such bad science.

This sounds exactly like my aunt. She was a lovely, kind person but just hopelessly misguided and misinformed.

A colleague's son had PANDAS, it was terrifying for them the speed with which he went from a healthy, sporty kid to one with tics, poor mental health and extreme fatigue. He was tested for a brain tumour among other scary things by real doctors.

Once they landed on PANDAS he was quickly back to himself, doing well and on a million sports teams. It was antibiotics that cured him though, not sugar pills.

People. Night suggest I have sudden onset autism. I haven't. I was just diagnosed later. People thought I was coping. Even my parents. Doesn't make it true