My son's doing awesome on NAC

August 18, 2011

I think the fact that something had negative reactions with a child is a symptom of something. My son did great on a gluten-free diet but his real decent into ASD started when I tried to address the early stims I saw by removing dairy from his diet, as well. He did well when he first became GF. He did well when he was rice-free.

But the minute we removed dairy, something went horribly wrong and it kept getting worse until I re-introduced milk back into his diet.My daughter responded ok to GFCF (although I've since figured out a few things and her diet's been adjusted some more) but my son's stools that were formed turned to diarrhea. Over the course of 10 months, we lost ALL eye contact with him and it kept getting worse. He also developed very excessive drooling and lost massive amounts of weight. Or, rather, he just stopped growing. He got scary skinny and he remained in 12-18 month sized clothes for about a year.

This is a symptom I wouldn't ignore.Yes, they may be intolerant to dairy but, for Ethan, it meant that he was low in cysteine. (Ethan is not intolerant to dairy -- he does well on dairy but just doesn't really like dairy products). Dairy is high in cysteine. When I re-introduced dairy, he bounced back a little bit. But when I learned about dairy being high in cysteine (and he doesn't like dairy as much to intake the amount of cysteine he needs), I debated about whether I needed to supplement cysteine but we don't have money to run all the tests we do on both of our kids, so I didn't have any labs to tell me for sure he was low cysteine so I sat on the fence about it for a while. I heard from a mom somewhere else who said that her daughter (who has symptoms that sound similar to Ethan's), her daughter was doing amazing on NAC but I think she may have had some labs to back it up and to supp cysteine? Anyway, after hearing that, and knowing that her daughter has a similar thing with milk as my son, I had to try it.

I've had him on NAC (N-Acetyl-Cysteine) for 5 days now...holy crap!!!!!!!!! The WHOA! I'm seeing from it right now is just flooring me. He's through-the-roof sociable and increasingly so. He's chatty as all hell. I can't even count how many words he's said in the last few days. New words. Words for everything. Demonstrating he understands object permanence. Remembering where he left things and getting me to go help him find them by vocalizing what he's looking for and getting me there to go help him get it. We had left his rubber duck at his SLP's office and as soon as we drove into the parking lot at her office, he got so excited and told me " duck, duck, duck " . He's vocalizing everything but everything. He called me " mommy " tonight. We're playing vocal imitation games with his leading in slight intonation changes. He just became able to say " uh oh " with the right intonation (he wasn't able to do variations in intonations before).

A while back when I learned about now carnitine plays into fats

absorption, I started supplementing both carnitines for Ethan and he put

on a little bit of weight and had some pretty good gains from that. I

thought they were " whoa " at the time but it's nothing compared to what

I'm seeing in him on NAC.I've stopped his runner behavior entirely now with taurine and ALC. Just a month ago, he was running off aimlessly. Two days ago, I took him to the market with me and he walked beside me on his own without even holding my hand. If he walked ahead a little, he kept looking back to check that I was there. The NAC is just adding to that and he's really really not running off now. He's automatically grabbing my hand when we're on the street and when I let him walk by himself in a place with no traffic, he walks beside me. Nice!

And, on Day 5 of NAC, his face looks different. The baby face seems to have been replaced by a slightly older boy face. I know...it's just 5 days. But the definition in his face seems to have improved. And when I picked him up today, he felt heavier. He may have been very low in cysteine for these changes to occur so quickly. I started him on 250 mg but inched it up to 500 but that seems to make it a little tougher to put him to bed. About 250 mg helps him to sleep better and taurine calms him.

But, gotta warn you, NAC seems to be increasing yeast behaviors. Admittedly, I am seeing yeast. But with all the gains, I think this one's a keeper and I'm going to just put a good yeast protocol in place for him.

August 18, 2011

Do you give an oral form?pills?

I give my son transdermal NAC but I 've seen any change.

Do you give 250mg/day?one dose,two...

My son is 17kg

>

> I think the fact that something had negative reactions with a child is a

> symptom of something. My son did great on a gluten-free diet but his real

> decent into ASD started when I tried to address the early stims I saw by

> removing dairy from his diet, as well. He did well when he first became

> GF. He did well when he was rice-free.

>

> But the minute we removed dairy, something went horribly wrong and it kept

> getting worse until I re-introduced milk back into his diet.

>

> My daughter responded ok to GFCF (although I've since figured out a few

> things and her diet's been adjusted some more) but my son's stools that were

> formed turned to diarrhea. Over the course of 10 months, we lost ALL eye

> contact with him and it kept getting worse. He also developed very

> excessive drooling and lost massive amounts of weight. Or, rather, he just

> stopped growing. He got scary skinny and he remained in 12-18 month sized

> clothes for about a year.

>

> This is a symptom I wouldn't ignore.

>

> Yes, they may be intolerant to dairy but, for Ethan, it meant that he was

> low in cysteine. (Ethan is not intolerant to dairy -- he does well on dairy

> but just doesn't really like dairy products). Dairy is high in cysteine.

> When I re-introduced dairy, he bounced back a little bit. But when I

> learned about dairy being high in cysteine (and he doesn't like dairy as

> much to intake the amount of cysteine he needs), I debated about whether I

> needed to supplement cysteine but we don't have money to run all the tests

> we do on both of our kids, so I didn't have any labs to tell me for sure he

> was low cysteine so I sat on the fence about it for a while. I heard from a

> mom somewhere else who said that her daughter (who has symptoms that sound

> similar to Ethan's), her daughter was doing amazing on NAC but I think she

> may have had some labs to back it up and to supp cysteine? Anyway, after

> hearing that, and knowing that her daughter has a similar thing with milk as

> my son, I had to try it.

>

> I've had him on NAC (N-Acetyl-Cysteine) for 5 days now...holy crap!!!!!!!!!

> The WHOA! I'm seeing from it right now is just flooring me. He's

> through-the-roof sociable and increasingly so. He's chatty as all hell. I

> can't even count how many words he's said in the last few days. New words.

> Words for everything. Demonstrating he understands object permanence.

> Remembering where he left things and getting me to go help him find them by

> vocalizing what he's looking for and getting me there to go help him get

> it. We had left his rubber duck at his SLP's office and as soon as we drove

> into the parking lot at her office, he got so excited and told me " duck,

> duck, duck " . He's vocalizing everything but everything. He called me

> " mommy " tonight. We're playing vocal imitation games with his leading in

> slight intonation changes. He just became able to say " uh oh " with the

> right intonation (he wasn't able to do variations in intonations before).

>

> A while back when I learned about now carnitine plays into fats absorption,

> I started supplementing both carnitines for Ethan and he put on a little bit

> of weight and had some pretty good gains from that. I thought they were

> " whoa " at the time but it's nothing compared to what I'm seeing in him on

> NAC.

>

> I've stopped his runner behavior entirely now with taurine and ALC. Just a

> month ago, he was running off aimlessly. Two days ago, I took him to the

> market with me and he walked beside me on his own without even holding my

> hand. If he walked ahead a little, he kept looking back to check that I was

> there. The NAC is just adding to that and he's really really not running

> off now. He's automatically grabbing my hand when we're on the street and

> when I let him walk by himself in a place with no traffic, he walks beside

> me. Nice!

>

> And, on Day 5 of NAC, his face looks different. The baby face seems to have

> been replaced by a slightly older boy face. I know...it's just 5 days. But

> the definition in his face seems to have improved. And when I picked him up

> today, he felt heavier. He may have been very low in cysteine for these

> changes to occur so quickly. I started him on 250 mg but inched it up to

> 500 but that seems to make it a little tougher to put him to bed. About 250

> mg helps him to sleep better and taurine calms him.

>

> But, gotta warn you, NAC seems to be increasing yeast behaviors. Admittedly,

> I am seeing yeast. But with all the gains, I think this one's a keeper and

> I'm going to just put a good yeast protocol in place for him.

>

August 18, 2011

I'm using AOR's NAC in capsule form. It tastes a little tangy. The capsules come in 500 mg so I open up the capsule and put about a half capsule in his juice in the morning. He's just 6 weeks shy of his 3rd birthday and is about 31-32 lbs (about 14.5 kg). He hates any bad tastes but he drinks that just fine. I tasted his watered down juice with NAC in it and it tastes slightly more tangy/sour than normal. I'm also giving it with his taurine and ALC in the morning at the same time and he's ok with the taste.