Hindsight . . . I did not catch it at the time, 17 years ago, but looking back at the early warning signs that something was amiss, it is now a retrospective facepalm. I thought it was a sign of brilliance of some sort back then. How could such a young child already be sorting and matching similar objects and lining them all up so precisely? All of the Sesame Street characters had to be together; all of the Teletubbies were together; all of the Matchbox cars were together; all lined up in in artistic arrangements.
At bath time, my son lined up of the bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and shaving cream on the edge of the tub, and all had to be touching, or a tantrum would ensue. And yes, I cringe now looking at all of those toxic products I was exposing myself and my children to. Another facepalm.
When my son had just turned two, a year before the autism diagnosis, I remember going on a trip from California to visit a college friend in Atlanta. As soon as we got there, he started gathering similar objects and placing them on her coffee table and kitchen table. Matching coasters, candles, and maracas. How cute is that? Say cheese!
The troubling part was that if the characters, the wheels of the cars, or whatever he was lining up that day were not touching, or if someone tried to move his creations, he would become very upset. We reasoned it away — he was a future artist for sure! A perfectionist! It runs in the family. His great-grandpa was an artist; grandpa was an architect; mom a makeup artist. How perfect! What a prodigy! Or not.
My friend from TEAM TMR, known as Guardian, is a Developmental Therapist with her local school district. She told me that when observing children playing, that the difference between a typical child lining things up (like my younger son, who loved Thomas the Tank Engine) and a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is that the child with ASD will become extremely upset if you interrupt their line, or they cannot be redirected. Their play is inappropriate. It is not imaginative, it is obsessive.
Lining things up is one of the symptoms of PANS (pediatric acute-onset neurological syndrome) or PANDAS (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections). PANS results when an infectious trigger or environmental factors create a misdirected immune response, resulting in inflammation in the child’s brain. Symptoms include dramatic acute onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) behaviors (like lining things up), severe restrictive eating, anxiety, tics, developmental regression, sensory or motor abnormalities and more. PANDAS is specifically when a strep infection is considered the indicated trigger. Sounds a lot like autism, doesn’t it?
Another manifestation of OCD behaviors that hindsight has opened my eyes to was my son’s obsession with turning on certain streets when we drove somewhere in the car. In his mind, I’m sure he thought we were going somewhere that he wanted to go when we got in the car. If I didn’t turn onto a street that led to one of his favorite places, all hell would break loose. Lucky for me, my mom lived with us and was always in the car with me to tend to him as I drove, or I’m sure I would have totaled a few cars by now. Screaming, kicking my seat, hitting the door were common reactions to this calamity. It took behavioral intervention in the form of social stories, picture cards, and verbally telling him where we were going before we left to avoid a meltdown that could last for hours.
PANDAS wasn’t even a clinical diagnosis until long after my son (who was born in 1998), was diagnosed with autism at age three, although these red flag symptoms started between ages one and two. My son never had strep before these obsessive behaviors started. After supposed strep-induced PANDAS became a clinical diagnosis, it was later believed that multiple infectious agents can be involved in the clinical presentation of an autoimmune brain attack, so they no longer refer to the syndrome as just PANDAS, but the more inclusive PANS. Many children with the same symptoms were not exposed to strep, and many who were exposed to strep did not develop OCD symptoms. Staph, borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme), mononucleosis, mycoplasma, toxoplasmosis and others have all been indicated in PANS. How do you know what pathogen is causing the symptoms, if at all? One begins to wonder, are pathogens in the brain the cause of autism? Are these “syndromes” the same thing as modern-day “autism” with a different name?
Over the years, I have learned many things in this area that have made a lot of sense to me, and the learning never ends. There are different ways for pathogens and toxins to get to the brain. The blood-brain barrier is supposed to keep these harmful, and potentially deadly, pathogens and substances out of the brain, but there are ways to open the gates to the castle. In a recent AutismOne keynote address, Dr. Lawrence Palevsky detailed a number of ways that vaccines are implicated in causing chronic brain inflammation in our children (beginning at 53:15). He explains how certain vaccine ingredients are known to open the blood-brain barrier, allowing in pathogens and toxins. In his presentation, he focused on two aspects that disrupt the blood-brain barrier, inflammation and high sugar concentrations, but alluded to a few others, including ischemia (insufficient blood supply to an organ (editor’s note: aluminum has also been known to make the brain more permeable as discussed in ). He discusses how live viruses, heavy metals and other toxins can pass directly into the brain via vaccination. I highly recommend watching this video.
The mention of ischemia immediately caught my attention because I have been following the work of the late Dr. Andrew Moulden. Dr. Moulden observed clinical indicators of mini strokes in children and adults after vaccination, caused by impaired blood flow to part of the brain. This deprives cells of oxygen and causes cells to die. The technical name for these mini strokes is transient ischemic attacks (TIA). When there is a TIA in the brain, the evidence of the stroke can be seen in the face. Dr. Moulden discovered a new mechanism for many syndromes which he called MASS (Moulden’s anoxia spectrum syndromes). Anoxia means no oxygen. MASS goes beyond the germ theory of disease (where a certain pathogen causes a certain disease). He found that infectious diseases and germs are not necessarily the direct cause of illness, but that they cause a reaction in the body, which in turn causes the illness. The body’s own cell-mediated (white blood cell) immune response to foreign substances entering the body is causing diseases and disorders, including autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. These foreign substances include vaccines and other toxic substances in our food, water, and air, which can all trigger a MASS reaction.
Pathogens can establish themselves in areas where there is ischemia and microvascular damage, preventing white blood cells from reaching the pathogens. There are certain areas of the brain called watershed areas, where there is only one way in (like the speech center). When there is excessive immune hyperstimulation, unusually high levels of white blood cells enter the bloodstream, causing blood sludging and clotting at the microvascular level of the capillaries, resulting in mini strokes that damage neurological and organ function. You can read more about Dr. Moulden’s discoveries here.
Another way for pathogens to enter the brain is through the olfactory pathway, or being breathed in through the nose. There is a good article in Scientific American called “When Viruses Invade the Brain: Neurodegenerative Diseases may Result from a Nasal Infection” that explains how the nose is a highway to the brain. In my own book, The Other Side of Autism, I discuss how other pathogens of the genetically engineered variety enter through the nose and cause problems.
As recently as June 1, 2015, researchers from the University of Virginia School of Medicine published the discovery of a missing link between the brain and the immune system. They found that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by lymphatic vessels not previously known to exist. The brain’s lymphatic vessels follow a major blood vessel into the sinuses. New pieces to the puzzle are always being added.
What does all of this have to do with a child lining things up? Lining things up is a red flag, a symptom of something else going on: brain damage, pathogens, and toxins in the brain causing the symptom of OCD behavior. Lining things up is a very common symptom of children who are later diagnosed with autism. Other manifestations of OCD behavior in children and adults with autism include arranging, ordering, counting, touching or tapping, and watching the same parts of videos repeatedly. Symptoms of OCD include ritualized, repetitive thoughts and behaviors. In autism, repetitive behaviors are common, so they overlap with OCD. The repetitive behaviors can neutralize fear and anxiety, modify sensory input, and preserve sameness and order in the lives of people with autism.
How would a person with these symptoms be treated? It depends on who you seek treatment with. If you go to a western allopathic medical doctor, your doctor will likely try to treat the symptoms with SSRI drugs, or possibly antibiotics if he or she believes that strep is the cause, and possibly behavioral therapy. Most medicines don’t cross the blood-brain barrier, so they defeat their own purpose if there is a brain infection and/or brain damage. There are other ways to test for and treat these sorts of things in the alternative medicine arena, some of which I’ve done with my own child. Many alternative practitioners have been harassed lately, with some dying or disappearing under mysterious circumstances (including Dr. Moulden). Is it because they oppose the lucrative treatments approved by large pharmaceutical corporations?
Please be on the lookout for this and other red flags in this TMR series in your children, and in children close to you. Then seek help and treatment right away!
~ Oracle
For more by Oracle, click here.
Ten of Swords (All lined up!)
The worst it can get. Loss. Defeat. But with all endings, come new beginnings.
Jaimi, you are on the right track. As a neurodevelopmental occupational therapist, I favor treating these symptoms as SPD. When the child gets the neurodevelopmental support, everything changes. You need a therapist who truly understands neurological overload. During this time of rapid development it’s important to make useful pathways. I have a book due out this month that speaks to many of these things; Dragons & Daisies: keys to resolve baffling behavior in early childhood education.
LISTEN to murdered Dr. Bradstreet and why the coverup of autism causes and effective therapies. This is SO IMPORTANT. http://www.examiner.com/article/gcmaf-dr-bradstreet-and-the-coverup-of-autism-causes-and-effective-therapies
Why was he and other doctors murdered? asheepnomore.net/2015/07/23/explosive-the-real-reason-holistic-doctors-are-being-murdered-and-vanishing/
Please share for our children!!!
Here is the natural cure (GcMAF) he was using that the Medical Mafia did not like: https://gcmaf.se/
Very interesting…I am the step mother of a child with autism and my friend mother is suffering from Alzheimers disease, we are often discussing the similarities of their behaviors. If both afflictions have the same origins (blood clots or mini strokes by toxins or the brain fighting off the toxins) then the resulting injurie’s would result in similar behaviors……….
May I make a request? Can you create a poll, post it here, on FB, on parenting websites, ask AoA, FearlessParent, GreaterGood, etc., to run it?
The poll questions:
In what month/year was your autistic child born?
In what state was your autistic child born?
In what state did your autistic child receive the majority of his/her vaccines for age 0-2?
And here’s one that might be very important: DO YOU HAVE THE LOT NUMBERS FOR THE VACCINES YOUR CHILD WAS GIVEN? PLEASE WRITE THEM HERE
date given_______
vaccine given (name)_______ lot number ______
age when vaccine was given_______
The reason I’m asking this is, I’ve noticed that there a heck of a lot of us whose autistic children were born in 1998–and we know that the vaccine manufacturers deliberately spread out their hot lots to avoid detection.
But if many of us kept those lot numbers, that’s information that pharma can’t delete.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if we find a hot lot AND the genetically predisposed group who reacted to it…
I’ve asked for the lot number from Capital Region Medical Center, Jefferson City, Missouri, of the hep-B vaccine (probably Recombivax, but they say they have no record of that either), given without permission, to my baby at midnight on the day she was born. She reacted to it with vaccine encephalitis and autism. I recently contacted it again, needing the information for CEASE therapy, and clearing the damage with a potentized version of the vaccine. I provided a copy of the federal law in effect since 1988 stating that the hospital must 1) get permission before giving any vaccine, 2) give the vaccine information sheet BEFORE the vaccine is given, which has symptoms of the most common vaccine reactions, and 3) keep a record of the brand and lot number of the vaccine used until at least the age of 21. The hospital insists that it did not keep a record and that its other lapses were routine and universal practice. The state office for keeping track of vaccine damage completely blew me off. I’d like to know how much mercury it had, a year after the congressional hearing which found the hep-b vaccine was very dangerous and should never be given with mercury. Merck said it would stop making it with mercury, but unfortunately continued to see it for another several years, until the expiration date of the existing stores. The homeopathic company said that it had tested the mercury level in the Recombivax vaccine it used as its source material, and that made in the year 2000, the year my baby was born and a year after the hearing, still had the full 25,000 ppb per dose that it always had. I reported the reaction to VAERS four years ago, and the worker there wanted to find out if it had been from a hot lot, but the hospital told her the same that it later told me, that it just had not kept a record of the brand or lot number. Sounds pretty suspicious to me.
Do some research on Bentonite, it’s natural healing clay which cleans your body of harmful toxins, with NO side effects.
Personal positive experiences over and over again.
What type of treatments are available in alternative medicine? Where do you have your child tested?
I’m kind of shaking as I write this…my son does some of these same behaviors. I have been on the path lately to figuring out if it’s ASD or SPD or what the heck…we don’t have a diagnosis of anything yet. We are just starting the GAPS diet to help him and it’s made big changes already. But some days I am hopeful and some days I’m terrified. I guess time will tell…but I keep telling myself that he will be ok. Thank you for sharing this…it’s very enlightening and helps to know some of the red flags to watch for…it’s easy to miss them as you shared! I have known in my mommy gut for a long time that things just weren’t quite right with my son. This helps me put into words what I have seen that caused me to feel that way. Thank you.
https://gcmaf.se/
google nagalease
gcmaf.timsmithmd.com
This describes my son to a T! Being a holistic parent I’m curious to know what tests and treatments you used or pursued? And what works best for you and your son? Thanks for sharing! Always great to keep learning from one another when there is so much unknown.
My son never lined anything up. He also never hand flapped. I saw these signs and more in other people’s children but not in my because he just did not do them but yet he has autism just the same!
Go figure!