ASD Worse in winter? - Lack of Vitamin D

[lynnenew]

Hi There!

I have ben doing lots and lots of research into the effects of vitamin/suppliment therapy for Autism and Aspergers.

I have created a very in depth file on my son who is due for a diagnosis of a suspected ASD.
Since we have been supplimenting with vitamins, minerals and Epsom Salts he has become a different child. We have most things under control other that the sound sensitivity. He used to suffer the Light and Touch sensitivity but this has now gone.
Many other areas have improved dramatically and to be honest I am unsure how the diagnosis will go.

I am not trying to get some attention from his peadatrition regarding ds's health which is much much better, but still compromised.

His ears burn when he eats 'any foods' and he has regular pins and needles in hands and feet. Also his feet burn at night 'like hot irons'.
I really did not suspect toxic overload, but my reasearch keeps taking me back to Mercury. I have only just found that there is appertly Thirmasol in the first 3 immunisation which babies receive (He did suffer quite badly with these).

I have found that Heat (which he is very sensitive to) can help bring toxins to the skins surface. Strange that because when he does sweat (rare now) he itches chronically and comes up in a rash or hives.

I have lots of Digitals photos of him from bith until now '5 years' and you can clearly see that his Autism is far less obvious in summer. Also you can see the pale skin and dark eyes on winter pics. So far every year he has become very poorly leading up to christmas (unknown fevers, sickness, diorreah, muscle cramps, lethrgic etc...).

So Basically I wondered if anybody else noticed a dramatic change in winter weather?

oops i posted that 3 times! I dont know how to remove them.

Hi

That's really interesting. My son is waiting for a visit to a paed and may not be ASD but his behaviour has been markedly worse this winter. He also has a very restricted diet which won't help.

Have you any research you can provide links to?

Im definately interested in reading any research links you can post, or let us know where you have been reading. My DS is much worse at the moment than he was in the summer, we were putting it down to xmas and family changes but thinking about it, looking ack over the last few years his AS is much easier to manage in the summer.

There is lots of information here regarding Vitamin d (Sunshine) and Autism: www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/autism/
I read this a while back and that did get me looking at my past pictures. There are many things that lead me to believe that the sun really helps. When he was born his skin kept breaking out in red sores (like contact eczema) it was whenever he touched anything (feeding, hugging etc...). On day 2 he became really badly jaundiced. The midwife at the house was quite concerned. On day 3 it was worse, but the midwife that came that day moved the Moses basket and put in front of the window (in full sun). She said it would heal him. Right enough he slept in the sunlight for a few hours and that evening his skin changed to a lovely color, no sign of jaundice and also his dry, cracked skin from the eczema had healed. I was so amazed!
After more research I have found so many other Auto-immune conditions linked to the lack of vitamin D. The BBC has just published an article saying that vitamin D helps to control a gene known to increase MS risk. After reading about MS I have found lots of overlapping symptoms (mainly the fatigue).
We do supplement him with vitamin D but nothing can really beat the natural sunshine. I read that 30 minutes of sunbathing is equivalent to the vitamin D from 200 Glasses of milk.
Another thing, I found massive changes in my DS when he stopped drinking all the cow?s milk that he craved, I have found that vitamin D regulates the absorption of calcium.
Also from what I gather sunscreen actually prevents some if not all vitamin D absorption ? not entirely sure about this.
My son has so much energy in summer, and I remember 3 years ago (the VERY hot summer) ? I actually doubted that he even had autism at all. He was finger-painting, socializing, learned to talk (quite late), balance was better etc...Yet he was itching so badly when he sweated and kept getting heat rash (I now think this may have been toxins coming out.

I am writing a file with pictures showing the changes in my DS, I am going to take it to the peadatrition next week. I just couldnt understand how he could spend so many months of the year dooing so well and then regressing over the winter.

I used to think it was the stresses of school, which would explain his summer improvement, but he loves school now. It is mainly his health which is visibly not so good.

I cannot get him out of bed in the morning and I have to carry him down the stairs. He then lies on the sofa and if I leave the room he will falll asleep again (this is after 11 hours sleep). Also this seems to resemble Anemia, which seems to hold another link as he craves sugar. I used to say that he confuses hunger with tiredness. In reality I think he just wants a sugary energy burst so that he can function better.

Interesting! I always feel ds is more nt 'in the fields/mountains' and we take him out in all weathers/times of year. The limiting factor is often my health over winter! Ds certainly gets 'cabin fever' ( DH is out in the snow now running todays 'shut in the office with daddy fever' off but as it is dark no vit d to be had)

Our son has recovered from early onset autism and has had his diagnosis removed. We started with diet (GFCF etc then Specific Carbohydrate Diet), epsom salt baths and digestive enzymes (these stopped his red ear/s).

We supplemented vitamins and minerals. Vitamin D was wonderful for his skin.

www.treatingautism.co.uk/ (the conference is in Bournemouth next month.)

I am wary of Treating Autism (UK charity). I remember them writing a letter to the Independent saying that they thoroughly disapproved of the National Autistic Society's "think differently" campaign as they didn't want autism to be viewed as acceptable in society, they only view it as a disease or illness that should be treated.

This is an interesting blog which links to the letter and comments on the views of the Think Differently Directors:

actionforautism.co.uk/2007/11/08/think-differently-campaign-and-treating-autism/

I'm all for treatments that are proven, effective, safe, and result in a good quality of life, but I'm wary of groups that write very incorrect things about the work of the NAS.

hiya ladies,

The use of vitamins, minerals, vit d gf/cf diet and epsom salts etc that SSS talks about may not be 'proven' but could hardly be unsafe? they certainly seemed to be effective for her son and look like they improved the quality of his life.

My ds is also on a special diet and takes all the above and fish oils, digestive enzymes. His diet is 99% organic and home cooked.

We cleaned up environment, took out artificials (including fleece clothing, washing powders, air fresheners, used water filters to remove chemicals etc)

These things that may be 'unproven' but Common sense tells me it's ok to do this.

j
x

Hi, the objection from Treating Autism wasn't to the NAS per se. Treating Autism works in partnership with NAS wherever possible, in fact they're coming to conference as are lots of NAS members. It was an objection to the assumption that people with ASD choose not to speak. My son is desperate to regain his language and now has thousands of words where three years ago he had none. He's pretty typical of a regressive ASD child. Everyone should think differently about autism but one of those thoughts should be to be very clear that facets of it are treatable. And TA was really worried that an acceptance that not speaking was "just autism" was dangerous. Many children regain at least some language once their gut problems are resolved, so that's what we should be fighting for? appropriate treatment as well as acceptance.

Steph

From the Treating Autism Directors:

"What is the contribution of the NAS at this exciting time? The only contribution is a leaflet with pictures of people who ?choose not to speak? .

Reality:

Actually the leaflet pictures one young adult who ?prefers not to speak.?

If adults with an ASD are preferring not to speak, I can't see how that's a problem or stops parents from encouraging speech in children. Perhaps I'm missing something...

This happens a lot with autism. Why is it that people assume our children want to be autistic? Why would my son have chosen to speak until the age of 16 months and then chosen not to? Did he start choosing to scream at night? Did he choose his bloated abdomen and diarrhoea? Does he choose to headbang and be unhappy?
Just imagine this sort of statement for other disabilities?
Blind people choose not to see. Deaf people choose not to hear. People in wheelchairs choose not to walk and people with epilepsy choose to have seizures. Not one of these sounds more ridiculous to me than 'people with autism choose not to speak'

Not chooses, but 'prefers not to speak' as amber clarified. Still, pretty much same thing imo

x

yeah

My problem with Treating Autism is the same as Ambers - they seem to view it as a 'treatable disease'. I think this leads to an awful false hope for lots of families.

I saw a heartbreaking documentary once on a family who spent their life savings on these treatments (probably without researching them properly) and their two ASD sons remained the same and non-verbal. The family was totally broken as they had really believed it was going to 'cure' them.

I suppose I have trouble with the use of the word 'cure' not the concept of treatment! ASD encompasses such a broad range of interlinked and comorbid conditions and symptons. There is a frustrating tendancy for society to consider all aspects of autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions untreatable - even the symptons/conditions that would be treated in NT people. Many conditions are treated or managed, but not all are cured!
I have accepted that my son is neurologically different and always will be, but there are many things that help reduce his symptons - from medications to suppliments, OT, SALT, to running off his energy (in the sun?) and keeping him busy and understanding his day with visuals.

Yes, thats well said Magso.

It's difficult about "false hope". We have good friends who have been treating autism and their children have only improved and not recovered. Our boy has fully recovered after 2.5yrs of treatment. We are both ASD parents and he has ASD grandparents.
Now we have a flexible, happy NT child that plays and socialises in ways we never could.

I started down this biomed road hoping that my son would be completely recovered by the time he was 5 and at school. He is now 6 and nowhere near recovered, yet he has made vast vast strides forward thanks to biomed and thanks to the hope that I could recover him. I still hope to recover him and if that just means that he keeps on going forward and never actually recovers then that is fine by me.
Sara (proud Mum of Tom who now seeks us out to laugh and interact with us)

There may not be any noticeable short term adverse effects from taking extra vitamin D however I wouldn't be happy for any child to take a substance that is not what it may seem and for the future could be potentially very damaging to health especially for those with long term immunological conditions. The vitamin D council is a powerful lobby happy to sell it's product in as many food stuffs as possible if it can and it must be overjoyed at the potential of adding vitamin D to milk. I don't approve of using the general population as guinea pigs and then trying to back track later when it's discovered things haven't gone to plan. Vitamin D is closer in nature to a steroid (hence alleviating a lot of symptoms short term) but taking long term steroids is not advisable. People get more than enough vitamin D through their diet (fish, sunflower oil) without having to worry about sun exposure, it really is a myth that we are all short of vitamin D. Scientists tend to measure the easy and cheap D,25 version which tends to remain lower as it gets converted to the more storeable D 1,25 version which more often than not is actually higher than normal, but it is far more expensive to test for and complicated in it's procedure to do it accurately .
check

bacteriality.com/2007/09/15/vitamind/

for more detailed information.

I disagree with firebrand that we all get enough vitamin D in our diet. I think there's enough proof that lots of people in the UK genuinely are deficient in vitamin D.

ps I do however agree that you can take too much and am generally very suspicious of the artificial addition of anything to our food.

I have been really interested in vitamin D. There's MS and cancer on dh's side of the family (rife) so I have been shoving vitamin D into the kids recently.

The NAS and their 'choosing not to speak' nonsense drives me up the wall. It is not representative of those who are non-verbal. Amber we've had this discussion before- it's what made me finally completely give up and leave the NAS. And Mike Stanton is hardly a non biased observer - he is obsessed with autism being difference not disability. Which might work with his child who is very high functioning, but doesn't work with mine. There's a place for neurodiversity - and I am happy to support it for those living independently who sign up to it. But it isn't remotely relevant for ds1 and those people do not have the same condition as ds1.

You can use biomed without expecting a cure! I have decided (somehow or other) to teach my son to speak. I am happy to spend some money on it - for us 20 words would be a HUGE success. Any word would be worth it for him (at the moment he has one word- mummy- he uses it to mean all sort of things depending on where he inserts it into someone else's sequence - it can mean 'where's mummy?, I want mummy? I want a biscuit' 'find me x on you tube' etc etc etc). I'm not remotely expecting him to ever come out with a sentence.

Biomed has been the same for us. Certain things at certain times have prevented self injury - ok he;s not going to be taking GCSE's but I'm happy that ds1 isn't whacking his head. Recently I stopped giving ds1 vitamin A and 6 weeks later out came the 'funny eye' sideways visual stims again - reminding me I need to order some multivitamins from Mandi Mart.

Did I ever expect 'cure'? Probably in the early days - some children do develop enough in the early days that their autism leaves them. Now I just want ds1 to be happy and to access as much of life as he can. Tiny gains in words, and diets that stop him whacking his head every 5 seconds achieve that.

I wouldn't expect what worked for him to work for others necessarily - thats the thing about autism being many different conditions but I love hearing about what worked for other children - and if I think there's any part of that that might help ds1 we'll give it a go.

Oh we all take vitamin D (as part of a multivitamin) btw. And I send dh out into the sun a lot.

Really interesting idea as well that the rise in melanoma is in part caused by sun lotion (this is taboo in some places but cancer research notes the controversy on their website and says more research is needed).

Sunlotion blocks a certain type of ray more than another. The type it blocks produces vitamin D- which is a strong antioxidant (so good at protecting against cancers). It also blocks the tyoe of ray that causes squamous cell carcinoma which isn't usually fatal. The type it doesn't block so well causes melanoma - so you have a bit of a double whammy. And apparently evening sun is worse than midday for melanoma.

I have pale skin and dh had an uncle die of melanoma. So we take vitamin D, have largely dumped the suntan lotion in favour of clothing and dh tried to leave the office to get 10-20 minutes in the sun each day.

Sorry off topic but it interests me. We've never take a megadose but I do like getting vitamin D each day given the family history.