Eating Feces

[Guest guest]

I don't know who else to ask about this...Yesturday, I caught my son eating his

feces after taking off his pull-up. I was horrified to see this and it hurts to

think his poor little brain is so far gone, he doesn't even know what he is

doing.

He has been taking Valtrex for 4 months and is on a yeast med too....

Does anyone know why a child would do this? He has done it a coupole of times

before going on Valtrex, so I don't blame the med for it...but am not seeing any

improvments on the meds in 4 months time and am feeling very discouraged. I

feel like we have tried everything in the last 5 years to get our son back, and

he just keeps slipping further away! I had hope that the anti-viral route would

help him, and we did see some gains in eye contact and vocalizations the first

month he was on Valtrex, but since then, we have seen no changes...no

improvements.

We did notice after he gave blood for a bunch of blood tests, he had an

immediate postivie reaction. He was happy and babbling and making eye contact

like he was really trying to communicate with us. It makes us think there is

something wrong with his blood....like when he gets rid of a bunch of it, he

feels better....?

He also has a weird coloring on one arm that gets darker almost purple when his

behaviors are bad. We can't find any doctor to tell us what or why that is. One

doctor thought he just had an overgrowth of blood vessels in that arm...but I

don't know if I am buying that explanation. Again, we think it it realated to

something in his blood....All of this is happening to my son who was very normal

until 18-24 months old when he lost his speech and then started having trouble

with all motor planning. He was delayed, but still considered within normal

until after his 4th birthday. By age 5, he had lost so many skills, he was

diagnosed with autism...PDD NOS...

Does anyone have any advice or encouragement for what seems so hopeless? Why

would a child eat feces?

Tammy K

[Guest guest]

Tammy,

when a child has PICA, many practitioners will run a quick blood test to see if

the child is low in zinc. There is a plethora of scientific studies dating back

30+ years supporting the connection between low zinc and eating or chewing on

non-food items/PICA.

Giving 20-40 mg's zinc daily made a huge difference in my son's life. (30

minutes before food, because it's better absorbed that way, but it can be mixed

in juice) My son stopped chewing on stuff when he was given zinc- within just

days of supplementing. Zinc is cheap, benign, worth a try IMHO.

For my son, we tested his serum copper-to-zinc ratio, it was 15 parts copper to

15 parts zinc- which is waaaaaaayyyy off. The levels should be about 1 part

copper to 15 parts zinc. Any Labcorp can run a copper-to-zinc ratio. High copper

and low zinc is a KNOWN metabolic issue in autism- hundreds of peer reviewed,

published studies on it.I think you ought to ask your doctor about running a

serum zinc-to-copper ratio. (if that was my son, I'd also get ferritin levels

check (iron).

For those interested, to read about the copper-zinc ratio issues in kids with

autism, there's lots of info at the Pfeiffer clinic, who has studied the

metallothionein system in autism extensively

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19280374

http://www.drkaslow.com/html/zinc-copper_imbalances.html

Walsh W, et al.:

Elevated blood copper/zinc ratios in assaultive young males. Physiology and

Behavior 1997; 62(2)327-329.

Stresses the importance of the study of different metal ratios and their

association with behavior in an effort to identify those with increased risk.

Improvement in biochemistry in these individuals is seen as very beneficial

In addition, there's MANY peer reviewed studies on the association of low zinc

levels causing PICA. Here's just one of those: (google " low zinc pica " to find

more articles, studies, etc)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12661808

http://adc.bmj.com/content/48/7/567.extract

there's a whole bunch of studies on how mineral excess or deficiencies affect

children, here:

http://www.hriptc.org/content/aggressive.php

you can google or bing a phrase like " copper zinc autism " or " low zinc PICA " , or

" mineral deficiencies autism " and learn alot just by reading studies and

abstracts.

Just as a side note- Willima (Bill) Bill Walsh did extensive studies on heavy

metal levels and criminals. He tested prisoners mineral/metals levels, and found

that the ones in prison for the violent crimes to people had low beneficial

mineral levels, and high heavy metals.

Warmly,

Tami

Nothing in this message should be interpreted or construed as medical advice.

You should always seek the advice of a licensed medical doctor .