Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist ================================================================
Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day.
I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism
and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.
I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).
Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.
Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.
Experience I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.
In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area
(AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).
Education/Credentials None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !
Question Hello, I have a 3 and a half yr old boy, diagnosed last yr with Autism. He is in a special school right now, nonverbal Just took him to see a nutritionalist and had labs drawn, ie:lead/mercury levels ect, dont have the funds right now to do the expensive bowl study. On July 9th he had oral surgery, he had 1 extraction, 5 cavities filled (no metals used, just enamal) and he restored as best he could his front teeth d/t bottle rot, now about a week prior he has been acting out, very agitated, pushing me away, when normally he is a well mannered boy then after surgery he is sooooo agitated, crying episodes, sometimes inconsolable, always runs around making noises, I have taken him to doctors to see if medically ie: ear infections may be the cause but no, last night I took him again to the ER and the doctor there couldnt find anything medically wrong, yet the behavior persists, I am at my wits end, I know my little guy is so frustrated, I just wish I knew what to do for him, I have been giving him some tylenol suppositories thinking he is in pain, doctors just tell me unfortunately this just may be just his autism and gave me a number last night of a place that deals just with autism and have pediatrictions who deal strictly with Autism, sorry I wrote so damn much just trying to give the briefest pic I can with asking a question, also in the past few weeks he is digging in him bum and playing with his poop, month and a half ago he started putting his hands up over his ears, he had a bilateral ear infection and since just always puts his hands up to his ears. So in an elongated way of asking, #1 what could this agitation be about, is it normal? why playing with his poop and why the hands to the ears and lastly, do you think it be wish to get the poop test to determin leaky gut? Thank you ever so much for any insight or answers and guidance, heartfelt thank-you, sincerily, Debbie
Answer Hi Debbie,
sorry for the delay in responding.
This is hard to answer, and I'm not a doctor. I'd say, take him back to the dentist and check if his fillings are too low or too high. This may feel weird and cause him alot of distress as his mouth just doesn't feel "right" (a tiny fraction of a milimeter you wouldn't notice or at least get used to quickly may be enough to drive him crazy). I'm not saying this is the answer to your question, but it might be worth a try. It may also take longer for him to recover from the stress of oral surgery than for the average child, so it may get better again with time.
As for the hands on the ears, that might be just "a bad habit", something that he did while he had the infection, which felt good, and became a stim after a while (something he does for pleasure, e.g. voices sound muffled and funny, the world is much quieter in general). It may not be a good idea to try to break this habit, especially when he's not doing well right now, as it may give him some comfort in this situation, same goes for the poop maybe (feels good, or at least "interesting").
I'm pulling my hair near constantly if it's not kept in a ponytail and am tapping or scratching my face (and have done so since I was a small child), which is also a stim (or calming "bad habit"), and noone has ever been able to break it (not even myself), and my parents have tried for a very long time.
As for the leaky gut test, this is something I only would do if you're sure he *has* the symptoms like tiredness, low energy and allergies (i.e. food allergies/intolerances).
To find this out, you could try to eliminate the most common food allergens from his diet and see if his behaviour improves (please talk about that to your family doctor if you're giving it a try, if a person has been allergen-free for some time, reintroducing foods to see if it makes a difference *can* sometimes result in very dangerous allergic reactions, so don't do this without your doctor).
If he's improving, you could take the test just to be on the safe side.
