Awful yeast flare ... seeking advice or just encouragement

[Guest guest]

Tom is 2.5 months on SCD. We know his yeast was bad when we started

and had been for a long time, and we have been treating it on and

off with antifungals for 1.5 years. When we started SCD he had been

on Nystatin a month, and the same week we started the SCD intro diet

we switched to Ketoconazole, per our DAN's plan. We saw dramatic die-

off within a week - probably due as much to the ketoconazole as to

the SCD. His diet had already been pretty clean of most

disaccharides for a month prior, so the biggest change that week was

the medication.

Over this time, we have seen many dramatic improvements in

cognition, language, socialization, skill-aquisition, academics. His

poops became firm, though they have become much more undigested than

before (I have finally found an allergy-safe enzyme for this, which

I'll try in a few weeks after we get a few other things on board).

He was generally sleeping a little bit better, though still waking a

few times a night, occasionally with screaming, tantrums, rages.

Fast-forward to now - the first course of ketoconazole ended and we

took a break so we could get liver testing done. Within 7 days he's

having a horrible yeast flare. His poops have become mushy, he's

pooping 4 times a day (we never saw this before), and he's waking

all night long. Last night he was awake raging and screaming for 2

hours. His behavior has regressed to almost where he was before the

SCD/ketoconazole. Noncompliant, stimmy, spacy, goofy ... all strong

signs of yeast.

The liver tests came back normal, so today we are going to start the

second course of ketoconazole. But his doctor won't prescribe it for

more than 2 months straight. Here are my questions:

1) Have we lost ALL our gains with this 10-day antifungal break and

have to start from scratch fighting the yeast again?

2) Why hasn't the diet helped more? Why has the yeast come raging

back like this? What MORE should we be doing? There aren't ANY

illegals in his diet - and no fruits, honey, etc. He only eats meats

and a few veggies due to allergies. What could the yeast be feeding

on?

3) Why have his poops become so undigested? Could it be that the

yeast was doing the digesting, and when it left, he couldn't digest

on his own? (All his enzyme tests have been normal, so his doctor

won't consider enzymes or secretin, which we've been begging for a

trial for 6 months).

4) What can we do when the ketoconazole is over? I doubt he can

tolerate any natural antifungals, they're all food-derived and he

tolerates very few foods. I am very scared that he'll lose all his

gains when the yeast takes over again.

We have seen such great gains in the past 2 months ... I am very

scared we're going to lose him again when we have to stop the

antifungals. Has anyone else experienced this? What can we do to

make the diet more effective by itself?

Suzanne

[Guest guest]

Tom is 2.5 months on SCD. We know his yeast was bad when we started

and had been for a long time, and we have been treating it on and

off with antifungals for 1.5 years. When we started SCD he had been

on Nystatin a month, and the same week we started the SCD intro diet

we switched to Ketoconazole, per our DAN's plan. We saw dramatic die-

off within a week - probably due as much to the ketoconazole as to

the SCD. His diet had already been pretty clean of most

disaccharides for a month prior, so the biggest change that week was

the medication.

Over this time, we have seen many dramatic improvements in

cognition, language, socialization, skill-aquisition, academics. His

poops became firm, though they have become much more undigested than

before (I have finally found an allergy-safe enzyme for this, which

I'll try in a few weeks after we get a few other things on board).

He was generally sleeping a little bit better, though still waking a

few times a night, occasionally with screaming, tantrums, rages.

Fast-forward to now - the first course of ketoconazole ended and we

took a break so we could get liver testing done. Within 7 days he's

having a horrible yeast flare. His poops have become mushy, he's

pooping 4 times a day (we never saw this before), and he's waking

all night long. Last night he was awake raging and screaming for 2

hours. His behavior has regressed to almost where he was before the

SCD/ketoconazole. Noncompliant, stimmy, spacy, goofy ... all strong

signs of yeast.

The liver tests came back normal, so today we are going to start the

second course of ketoconazole. But his doctor won't prescribe it for

more than 2 months straight. Here are my questions:

1) Have we lost ALL our gains with this 10-day antifungal break and

have to start from scratch fighting the yeast again?

2) Why hasn't the diet helped more? Why has the yeast come raging

back like this? What MORE should we be doing? There aren't ANY

illegals in his diet - and no fruits, honey, etc. He only eats meats

and a few veggies due to allergies. What could the yeast be feeding

on?

3) Why have his poops become so undigested? Could it be that the

yeast was doing the digesting, and when it left, he couldn't digest

on his own? (All his enzyme tests have been normal, so his doctor

won't consider enzymes or secretin, which we've been begging for a

trial for 6 months).

4) What can we do when the ketoconazole is over? I doubt he can

tolerate any natural antifungals, they're all food-derived and he

tolerates very few foods. I am very scared that he'll lose all his

gains when the yeast takes over again.

We have seen such great gains in the past 2 months ... I am very

scared we're going to lose him again when we have to stop the

antifungals. Has anyone else experienced this? What can we do to

make the diet more effective by itself?

Suzanne