AutismWeb Forum

I understand that some children have yeast which is more localised in the gut, and others have it more pervasively, throughout the body, a systemic yeast infection. I am wondering if my child might have this. She has massive brain fog, hyperactivity and just goes into another dimension of giddiness and silliness when yeast is up. We recently tried ketoconazole to which she had an amazing reaction, in that she started understanding quite a bit of what I was saying to her, responded quickly to directions and it seemed like her brain fog lifted. Unfortunately, it irritated her gut and we stopped. Although Diflucan is helpful, she does not have the same reaction to it. Nystatin does nothing for her. The naturals keep the yeast down, but none of them have had anywhere near the effect of ketoconazole.

My question is, why was the ketoconazole specifically so effective? Is there anything similar I can give her? I know that my child's dysbiosis is exacerbated over the summer when it is more humid here and specifically at the beach, hence she comes out in tics, which seem to be dormant in winter as we live in a generally dry climate. I know that mold could be a problem as well.

When a young child has more entrenched yeast, how do you treat it? Is there a specific treatment for systemic yeast infections?

With the ketoconazole, I caught a glimpse of what my child can be, of what she is capable of and I want that child back. We have just finished Round 4 of AC chelation, use Enhansa, supplement vitamins and minerals, rotate anti-fungals and anti-bacterials, are doing a very low carbohydrate diet (one serving only a day of a low-oxalate carbohydrate to keep weight up, as before we were almost failure to thrive doing SCD without eggs or dairy).
This is a core issue for us and impeding progress - the yeast overwhelms her brain and affects both receptive and expressive language. I am tired of fighting it as it seems I am getting nowhere.

It would be my guess that whatever particular strain of mold your child is infected by can be killed off by the keto, and not by the others. Dr. Sidney Baker talks about "the antifungal parade" he puts kids (and adults) on; very often the first few antifungals he tries do nothing and then they hit the jackpot with the next one they try.

Molds and yeasts are like bacteria--there are many kinds of bacteria, and each kind requires a specific antibiotic to kill it off. My son would do like four rounds of antibiotics sometimes for ear infections before they found an antibiotic that would work for him. Yeast/mold is like that; one antifungal will do nothing, but another might.

I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU GET YOUR DOCTOR TO FIGURE OUT WHAT MOLD YOU'RE DEALING WITH. And that you do more keto, and figure out how to manage the stomach upset. Dr. Baker will do a few weeks at normal dose, and then double the dose for a week or something like that--more is better, he says, when it comes to antifungals.

I am so pushy about all this mold stuff because when my son was about 6, we did a round or two of diflucan and he was a different kid!! And then the doctor stopped, and he slowly slipped back into his old, autistic self. But I did not know enough to know why. It took YEARS for me to figure it out. This "do a round of antifungals and quit" mentality that the DANs seem to have is wrong. Look at toxic mold sites; they will give better direction on what to do. Look at Doug Kauffman's books and website; also Andrea Fabry has a site that's good with good pointers. Her site's s bit scary, though, as they had a worst-case scenario and did some drastic things to fix it.

Dr. Sidney Baker has a book called, "Detoxification and Healing" that is really good.

You are right to chase after this as your core issue--I, too, got a normal child back with the antifungals and I wish, wish, wish I had known that that was my core problem and to hit that hard. We mushed around with all sorts of things before we got back to that.

The Feast Without Yeast diet was BIG for us. GAPS seems to be great for some, and the Body Ecology diet, if you can do it, is really great too. The "standard" "mold" diet is basically the SCD, but they work into allowing grains after a couple of months of detox, which the SCD does not. All these diets I just mentioned are very similar but have their own twists in that some allow grains, some no meat, some balance the two....I think they will all "work" and that the trick is to choose the one that best fits your child and has food that he will eat.

You are very perceptive to suspect mold as a core issue! Good job, mom!!

Amanda

Thank you so much for encouraging me to pursue this, I appreciate it. Others have told me to find another anti-fungal and to forget the ketoconazole, but that's hard when you have seen such results. I've tried most of the naturals but they don't do it for my child, who I guess has a very messed up gut. I am going to look into the web-sites and books you recommend as well. I should also be receiving the compounded cholestyramine this week and will also do a trial of this.

I understand you completely when you say you did two rounds of Diflucan when your child was six and saw a different child and then you let it go.

I also wanted to mention the example of a mother who lives locally who started biomed with her child two years when he was 4.5 years of age. Her DAN put them on Diflucan and Flagyl from Day 1 and she basically kept her son on this regimen for two years, alternating the Diflucan with Ketoconazole and sticking to the Flagyl almost without any breaks. They never did natural anti-fungals or anti-bacterials of any kind, I know this for a fact. I am not passing judgement on whether or not it was right of her to give her son so many prescription meds, all I know is that the child went from a few words to having very good speech in these two years. He is not recovered, but he is around 80% there with social issues and concentration being his main issues now. They tested his liver function every month and he didn't have a problem. This mother was very determined and she got the results. I am not saying this is necessary for every child but I think for many naturals are not enough.

Anyway, I have ordered the compounded liquid form of Ketoconazole and hopes this makes it easier on daughter's gut.