If you would like more information regarding
The Son-Rise Program please visit our Catalog and Mailing List Request form.
Son-Rise Program Information - for families with special
children.
The New Son-Rise Program Catalog is now available! 32 pages
packed with information, photos, stories, endorsements, Q&A's,
and practical tools to help you get started with the Son-Rise Program®
right away.
Posted ByJD on August 21, 1999 at 14:25:49:
Billy Tommey was born at Kingston Hospital on the 30th April 1996 after a normal pregnancy and delivery. His weight was 8lbs 4oz and he was two weeks late. He was bottle fed and was well and happy until 6 months of age. He had had his 2,3 and 4 month immunisations. Billy sat up at five and a half months unaided, crawled at eight months and walked at thirteen months - so physically he had no problems at all.
At six months, Billy started to get a chesty cough, runny nose, puffy eyes and generally ill. He had his first dose of anti-biotics on the 13/12/1996 Amoxycillin (125mg 3x/day for 5 days) due to an upper respiratory tract infection and ear infection. There only seemed to be a mild improvement to this treatment and soon after he was falling ill again to more of the same illness. In January of 1997 Billy was looking really ill - we rushed him into Kingston hospital one night with him shaking and very weak. The hospital gave him a course of anti-biotics and things seemed to improve slightly but Billy wasn't happy, crying, puffy eyes, running nose and coughing all of the time. This continued for some time and yet another trip to the doctor had to be made. The doctor gave him a course of Amoxycillin- telling us that ear infections were very dangerous and had to be treated. We were worried that he might be getting immune to these antibiotics but the doctors always reassured us that they know best.
Billy was not responding to the 6 week course of Amoxycillin so we took him back to the trusted doctors. Piriton was advised to reduce any inflammation and a course of a second type of anti biotic was to be prescribed - Cephalexin. This seemed to show a great improvement and he seemed happy for the first time on his first Birthday. Shortly after he began to get ill again - this time he looked puffy around the eyes and his stomach seemed very bloated. The doctors said his ears were the problem again and more antibiotics were given.
At thirteen months the Health visitor rang us to say Billy should have his MMR vaccine. We informed them that Billy wasn't well to which she replied if he hasn't got a temperature he will be fine and if we were worried ask the nurse - we took him down at exactly thirteen months. The Nurse said -No- he's not well enough, bring him back in a months time. So at fourteen months we took him back (he had just finished another course of Amoxycillin) and the nurse examined him and said, yes he was fine (we knew nothing of the possible links with Autism and the MMR vaccine at this time) so Billy had the MMR on the 30th June 1997.
For a week or so he seemed fine although still in pain with his ears and it was shortly after this period that we started to think Billy had gone deaf - he would turn the television up full blast - not answer to his name, in fact not even turn his head to any loud noise or calling, his ears were clearly causing him a lot of pain, he could hardly cope with the pressure of a car window opening and closing, he would hold both hands to his ears and cringe. Billy had also developed diarrhea on a regular basis. We thought it was too much fruit and even the doctor mentioned that it was probably just "Toddler diarrhea".
We were at our wits end when Jon's father, a medical doctor from Rhode Island .U.S.A visited us and told us that we had a problem with Billy's hearing and said we must see a ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) Consultant soon.. We demanded a referral from our doctor and six weeks later we went to see Mr. A. Robinson at Teddington Memorial Hospital (ENT Consultant). He said Billy needed grommets as soon as possible. This operation was only necessary at such a young age if the glue ear was bad and Billy's was. So in September 1997 Billy had grommets in and Adenoids out. (We were only told about this after the operation). Billy prior to the operation fought terrible as they tried to put him under anaesthetic and was incredibly frightened when they held him down to go under - an unforgettable experience which we certainly don't want to go through again.
Within hours of Billy waking up, he was miles better - his balance was great, he was running and he could hear. he was petrified of Concorde flying over and clung to us as if it was a huge monster - we realized it must be the first time he had heard it. So his ears were better, his nose stopped running , his chest stopped wheezing but still he looked ill, he was losing weight dramatically, his hair was falling out and his scalp was flaky and itchy. He had puffy eyes with dark circles beneath them and he generally looked bloated all over, we couldn't get his jeans or trousers on, his tummy was so big. His attention was bad and he was starting to do odd things like peering at lamp posts at a strange angle, he would walk along the same cracks in the pavement and would run his fingers against the same railings or plants whenever we would go on walks and he would hate visiting strange places or visit friends.
When he was eighteen months the Health Visitor came to see us, she stayed for fifteen minutes then handed us a piece of paper stating he had failed on three basic necessities which could mean that he was possibly Autistic. She then left us telling us not to worry too much. We were absolutely devastated -we looked up Autism in every book we could find - a life long mental disability that had NO cure - our little Boy had no hope of a normal life - we cried for days and nights. I was now pregnant with Toby our third child.
In June 1998 a friend gave us an article about the affects of Gluten (Wheat) and Casein (Dairy) free diets with Autistic children. We couldn't believe how similar all the symptoms of the children mentioned in the article were to Billy. Billy had lived on Weetabix and pints of cows milk, that was his life diet. We immediately took Billy off all dairy products and wheat products, it was extremely hard and frustrating trying to find a suitable diet for him but we managed and he soon started to lose the bloated tummy and puffy face, his eyes started to shine and he was full of energy. He lost weight again and the diarrhea was still there so we tried him on goat, soya and sheep's milk, none of which seemed to ease the diarrhea at all.
We took him to see Dr A. D. Fox at the Nuffield Hospital near Winchester, a homeopath who specialises in allergies and food intollerances. he told us, after examination, that Billy had numerous allergies, Gluten, Cows milk, Soya, Eggs, Goat and sheep's milk and tap water which Billy drinks each night at bath time. He gave us remedies for ear infections, coughs and colds and to date Billy has not received a single anti-biotic since we have seen Dr A. D. Fox, Homeopathy has certainly worked for Billy. Throughout all of this Billy's diarrhea has never really cleared up although his health has vastly improved from the Gluten and Casein free diet and homeopathy.
In October 1998 another friend gave us an article about Gary and Victoria Beck stumbling across the affects a hormone called Secretin had on their Autistic child Parker. Again reading the history of Parker we couldn't believe the similarity he has with Billy's history - we just knew we had to try it. Jon's father researched the hormone and its safety and Federal Expressed it over to us, we found a doctor in London that was prepared to administer the hormone, Dr David O'Connel, through a friend and in November 1998 Billy was given his first Secretin
tophome
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A PARENTS VIEW After careful and thorough research into Autism and the possible causes of Autism there seems to be similarities with other children to Billy but not all. It seems that children fall into different sub groups within the cause of Autism and the varying degrees to which each child may be affected by the condition.
Billy from a young age started to develop early problems in his first year and into his second year from the age of 6 months through to about 18 months. He had upper Respiratory tract infections his ears were a problem finally resulting in severe glue ear and it was found that he had allergies and intolerances to certain foodstuffs, most importantly to Gluten and Casein. All of these problems may be attributed to a genetic makeup which is a low immune system particularly to IGA (immunoglobulin) which protects the body from mucous borne micro organisms.
This would also cause an increase in the colonisation of candida in the gut.
Now supposing this was his early problem his gut would already be inflamed and as a result mucous secretions would form to protect the gut wall from further infections and candida would colonise the gut completely. This would lead to the possible Leaky gut syndrome which would allow in particular opiod proteins to enter the blood stream through the ilium and they would then pass into the brains tissue. We have not yet done a urine sample to see if these protein s are present within his urine but I am confident that they would be present.
With this as his genetic weakness having the antibiotics at such close periods and the sheer amount of such they would further damage the gut lining as all of the important bacteria that is normally present within the gut would be wiped out leaving the gut open to further unwanted microorganisms to invade. In a number of individual cases the MMR vaccine has been clearly shown to have caused the late onset of Autism in older children who have been normal prior to the triple vaccine. Measles virus is often seen in the small intestine of the gut where it finds the candida and casein in particular wonderful sources of food. This would create further damage to the gut wall and hence mess up the process of digestion and absorption. Secretin is a known hormone that is triggered off by the acid contents of the gut but if candida (yeast) and mucous is dominant within the small intestine it would create a high alkaline medium over the gut lining and therefore the Secretin may not be triggered to be released as it should be. If Secretin is not released then the release of pancreatic enzymes would be impaired and therefore the digestion of fat and proteins would be impaired maybe to such a degree that they cannot be broken down into the correct amino acid chains or single amino acids for absorption. The body is therefore starved of the essential raw materials for healthy cellular and tissue growth that is so important for the childís development.
I must stress that I am not medically qualified and this merely is a feeling I have on the possible causes leading to my sonís condition.
If you wish to contact me my email isUnfortunately I can not guarantee to answer all messages
Back to top
