Recovering from Autism with Sequential Homeopathy
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BIOMEDICAL
Cindy Griffin began her private homeopathic practice in 1998 and founded Houston School of Homeopathy in 2001 as a means of teaching an allencompassing, complex multi-disciplinary homeopathic approach, which is still unique to the Houston School and Center. In 2003 she and Lindyl Lanham joined to create Homeopathy Center of Houston as a general homeopathic practice with a focus on autism spectrum disorders. After recovering her son from Asperger’s syndrome, Cindy continues to practice, research, write and teach about complex homeopathic approaches to autism and chronic and acute illness.
RecoveRing fRom Autism with
Sequential HomeopatHy
by Cindy Griffin, dSH-P, diHom, bME, LindyL LanHaM, dSH-P, bS Spec Ed, and fraSEr bakEr, Phd s it is for all families, the anticipation of a child is a mysterious, exciting, daunting, and life changing event. A million questions race through the minds of expectant parents, including, “What family traits will he inherit?” and most importantly, “will s/he be healthy and normal?” One picture may be revealed at birth that sometimes evolves into another within the first two years as environmental and vaccination realities collide with genetic susceptibilities to form autism. For the three cases that form the basis of this article, each reported an initial period of normal growth and development that included a spectrum of ailments treated by allopathic medicine. However, as these children grew, problems with development began to appear until it became undeniable that the developmental issues were beyond the child being simply unique, especially when losses in ability were observed to follow vaccinations. Ultimately, each of these children was diagnosed as having autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Each of these families found their way to the Homeopathy Center of Houston
A
Lindyl Lanham began working with autistic, deaf and blind children in 1972 at the Texas School for the Blind’s Deaf Blind Annex, then went on to a successful career as an awardwinning teacher of visually and multiply challenged children. After her second son was diagnosed with profound learning disabilities, later attributed to Tourette Syndrome, she homeschooled and found as many alternative answers to her son’s issues as possible, finally recovering him with homeopathy and NACD. She began her private homeopathic practice in 2002, and in 2003 became co-owner of Homeopathy Center of Houston. She has focused ever since on recovering children from autism as the prime mover in development of the Houston Homeopathic Method for Autism.
108 THE AUTISM FILE | www.autismfile.com
(HCH) after their diagnosis, where their child’s health has been gradually restored. HCH homeopaths utilize a complex homeopathic approach that sequentially reverses the influence of various traumas, toxins, and insults over time. Different methods of homeopathy are employed in concert to systematically support detoxification, healing, and immune regulation. These include: 1 Sequential Homeopathy: A chronological unmasking and resolution of subliminal problems induced by the person’s history of insults, injuries, medications, vaccines, and illnesses. The centerpiece of this causation-oriented approach. 2 Homotoxicology: The application of homeopathic drainage combinations designed to support the body’s natural detoxification. 3 German Biological Remedies: Remedies made from biological substances which may act to stimulate and re-regulate body systems. 4 Custom combinations devised specifically to address the unique physiological and behavioral manifestations of autism.
ISSUE 31 2009
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE AUTISM FILE
This approach is generalized into a system for clients with an ASD that is individualized at every consultation to address each incident on the client’s historical timeline as well as any current symptoms. Therapeutic individualization is closely monitored by monthly subjective interviews with the parents/ caregiver. HCH requests that the client complete an ATEC1 prior to, during, and after treatment. Other testing is frequently provided by the client but is not required. Where available, these tests are summarized below. A brief description of three clients working with HCH follows. Two had done only supplemental and dietary approaches prior to working with HCH with little to mild improvement; the third had done a biomedical approach, with little improvement. All did exclusively homeopathy with minor dietary intervention during the described recovery period.
Client SK
When SK was 21 months old, receptive and expressive language skills were evaluated using the REEL-32 instrument. The evaluating clinician’s impressions were that SK presented with severely impaired expressive and receptive language, and impaired pragmatic
language and play skills. SK’s ageequivalent receptive and expressive language scores were 13 and 2 months respectively. When SK was 26 months old, Lindyl Lanham of HCH began working with him during a series of 16 monthly phone interviews with SK’s parents. At each session, homeopathic remedies and a few supplements were recommended based upon SK’s unique history and his response to the previous month’s remedies. Based largely upon the above vaccination history and commentary, Lindyl focused on unmasking those events as one would peel the layers of an onion. She began with the most recent vaccine and over the months worked through the entire record. As she homeopathically “cleared” each vaccine, ongoing stepwise progress in many areas and skill sets were observed, with few negative regressions from the detoxification process. SK was truly a “poster child” for the successful application of sequential homeopathic theory to autism. Lindyl writes: “The first and most memorable moment for me was when the mom reported that during supper one night SK suddenly started counting out loud. Out of habit, his mom
Table 1: SK Vaccinations with the Parent’s Comments
Age (months) -6 months 2 months 5 months 7 months Comments 12 months Comments 18 months Comments Vaccines FLU DTAP, IPV, HIB, HEP B, PNEUMO DTAP, IPV, HIB, HEP B, PNEUMO DTAP, IPV, FLU, PNEUMO “Throughout SK’s first year, I felt there was something different about him … A connection seemed to be missing.” MMR, VARICELLA, PNEUMO “By the time four months passed, we realized he’d quit speaking the words he had previously used. Gradually he lost more verbal skills.” DTAP, HIB, HEP B, FLU “SK now zones out for 5 to 15 minutes, several times a day for no apparent reason … We took SK to a Pediatric Neurologist … The Dr. basically told us that SK occasionally made eye contact and that there was nothing he could do at this point … he literally threw his hands up in the air and told us to come back in 6 months … “ “We received a call from the Homeopathy Center of Houston on SK’s second birthday to set up our initial appointment … hopefully this will be the best birthday gift ever … getting SK well!”
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE AUTISM FILE
stopped him with “Please don’t interrupt!” which was followed by shock, disbelief, and the delighted realization that he’d never done that before. SK’s development hasn’t slowed down since.” At 35 months old, near the midpoint of SK’s treatment at the HCH, the RITLS3 instrument was used to gather information about SK’s communication skills, the results of which indicated that the developmental level of SK’s language comprehension and expression was 18-21 months. Due to observations of atypical behaviors and communication difficulties, the clinician chose to complete the CARS4. SK’s score on the CARS was 36 out of a maximum of 60, suggesting that, SK had mild to moderate autism. Homeopathy takes time to detoxify and rebalance the immune system. Ten months later, and still in process of sequential homeopathy, SK’s mother reported: “He uses language not only expressively, but for pretend play, which is a relatively new situation. He fights with his sister, seeks out new friends at school, has favorite friends who come to play, and when they do not, he expresses missing them. He used to become upset if anyone touched or changed the lineup of his toy cars. Now he uses them for crashes, builds tunnels, and expects his grandfather to play cars with him whenever he comes to see the family. He is doing very well with potty training, and now watches a whole variety of videos instead of just one or a series of videos over and over. In short, he’s become a fairly normal-4-year-old.” SK’s ATEC scores (Figure 1), show improvement in the areas of Communication, Cognition, Sociability, and Behavior. He continues with HCH’s approach currently, and ongoing improvement is expected.
Client TP
TP’s family history includes 4 relatives with an ASD, including a half-brother with autism and multiple developmental delays. When assessing TP’s development, TP’s mother compared TP to a cousin. At 19 months, she wrote “At Christmas, TP’s motor skills, manners and coordination are more advanced than his cousin, who is 9 months older. All relatives remark on how advanced TP is.” At 39 months, she reported “The
www.autismfile.com | THE AUTISM FILE 109
ISSUE 31 2009
BIOMEDICAL
Table 2: TP Vaccinations with the Parent’s Comments
Age (months) -6 months 3 months 5 months 7 months 13 months 24 months Comment Vaccines FLU vaccine administered to mother while pregnant with TP DTAP, HIB DTAP, HIB DTAP, HIB, PREVNAR, FLU MMR, VARICELLA IPV, PREVNAR DTP, HIB, FLU “After the vaccination, TP ran a high fever, was sick for a couple of days and then went ‘flat’. He still spoke, did his normal things but he was not himself …. When questioned, the doctor said that the reaction was ‘completely normal’ … That is when something inside me said ‘Never again’ to vaccines, because I knew that it did something harmful to him. While TP did not lose ground, he did not gain ground in the leaps and bounds he had before.”
cousin that TP was more advanced than at 19 months is now much more advanced than TP, especially in motor and social skills. They are now worlds apart.” When TP was 49 months old, his speech was evaluated by a private practitioner. TP’s mother hoped to “get a clearer picture of where he is at to limit the amount of frustration he may have in school this September and to learn therapeutic techniques” to help him develop the correct speech production. The GFTA5 showed adequate expressive and receptive language skills for TP’s chronological age; however, TP exhibited a moderate to severe phonological/articulation disorder. When TP was 56 months old, his speech/ language was reevaluated using the GFTA and the TOLD-P36. According to the results of these tests, TP demonstrated above average expressive and receptive language skills relative to others of his age level (90th percentile). However, TP’s articulation was severely below average (5th percentile) and was given a diagnosis of verbal apraxia. TP’s parents were told that this would “require years of daily practice to overcome.” By the time TP was 58 months old, TP received a diagnosis of autism. His parents sought help at the HCH, being referred by a friend. Cindy Griffin began working with TP
over a total of 15 monthly phone interviews with TP’s parents. Homeopathic remedies were recommended then administered by the parents. In addition to autism, TP had severe food and chemical sensitivities, of similar concern to his parents. As TP’s mother had used very few pharmaceuticals or other interventions to treat TP’s ailments, opting for nutritional supplements and healthy diet instead, Cindy focused largely on his vaccinations during the timeline “clearing” process. Overall, his recovery was quite smooth, with a few instances of regression during homeopathic detoxification that coincided with the regressive sets of vaccines from the same point in his history. Predictably, with homeopathic detoxification of MMR/ chicken pox vaccines, which had caused “flat affect for 4-5 weeks, followed by decreased language and social skills,” TP regressed into sleep problems that included bad dreams sometimes related to gut discomfort and dysbiosis. He had a few days of “spaciness and moderate constipation” followed by “normal bowel movements.” After this time, his sleep improved almost immediately and permanently. He began reading and writing by himself as if a “40 point jump in IQ” had occurred. After only 5 months of treatment, he was no longer considered autistic and entered a mainstream classroom situation with ageappropriate social and academic skills. His speech became normal; speech therapy was discontinued after 7 months of homeopathy. And TP’s parents considered that he was 85% recovered. Improvements continued
throughout the remainder of his course of homeopathy, which was completed at 15 months. Full recovery followed the completion of homeopathic clearings, through academic catch-up over a few short months. To resolve lingering food and substance allergies, TP’s mother chose NAET due to positive, but temporary past experiences. Interestingly, TP’s mother reported that the NAET revealed no allergies to substances that had been cleared with homeopathic isopathic remedies made from those substances. TP is now a fully recovered child, has a normal diet, and excels in social and academic areas. TP’s ATEC scores (Figure 1), show improvement in all areas of Communication, Cognition, Sociability and Behavior.
Client KA
KA’s family history includes several relatives with an ASD. KA’s brother had autism. During KA’s first two years, KA had chronic ear infections that were treated with pharmaceuticals. KA also had chronic gastrointestinal ailments and had loose stools that contained undigested food. A pathologic evaluation of KA’s bowel at 27 months showed focal active colitis and lymphoid hyperplasia. KA’s GI ailments were ameliorated by IV Secretin and after beginning this treatment at 33 months, KA had her first “normal” bowel movement. KA’s eyes and hearing were tested and found to be normal. KA showed developmental disorders during her first year. A psychological
ISSUE 31 2009
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REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE AUTISM FILE
Table 3: KA Vaccinations with the Parent’s Comments
Age (months) 2 months 4 months 6 months 12 months Comments Vaccines DTAP, IPV, PREVNAR, HEP-B, HIB DTAP, IPV, PREVNAR, HEP-B, HIB DTAP, PREVNAR, HEP-B, HIB IPV KA showed no obvious reactions from the vaccinations, other than “regular crying” after the pinch and injection.
in concert with other compatible alternative choices, even after using biomedical approaches, whether they were successful or not. Figure 1: Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) Scores Before and After Treatment at the HCH for the Three Clients Described Herein
evaluation conducted when KA was 19 months lead to a diagnosis of Progressive Developmental Disorder. Her GAF8 score was 49 at that age. At 36 months, KA’s GAF score was 50. KA began treatment at the Homeopathy Center of Houston at 53 months. KA’s mother noted dramatic rapid improvement and seven months later, KA’s GAF score was 60. KA’s challenges were mostly related to speech, sound and light sensitivity, and gut bloating and discomfort. As a vaccinated child, it was decided to work backward through her biomedical treatments, which had included IV Glutathione, IV Secretin, anti-fungal pharmaceuticals, but no chelation protocols, followed by the vaccine detoxification process for the few vaccines she was given. There were definite gains following many different regressions, rashes, fevers, etc., which most often coincided with viral and bacterial clearing. Some OCD behaviors occurred while clearing for strep, (PANDAS), ear pain sometimes occurred followed by improved language and decreased sound sensitivity, but the progress was very much a “stock market chart” with two steps forward, one backward. The slowness became attributed to possible parasites, due to some indicator symptoms such as fingernail biting, irritability and sleep issues that were worse around the full moon. An herbal parasite reduction approach was somewhat beneficial in the long term, but in the past 6 months has been replaced by a totally homeopathic regimen aimed at parasitic reduction. This reaped the greatest and most lasting gains in sociability, language, and sleep. At present, while some of her social and behavioral issues may surface, most often these are related to her most recent speech fluency and vocabulary gains and her desire to use this due to her now vivacious personality. For instance, after her brother’s holiday concert, she ran
ISSUE 31 2009
in front of the entire choir, slid on her knees across the floor toward the audience with arms outstretched and exuberantly shouted, “Happy Holidays Everybody!” As for SK and TP, KA’s ATEC scores (Figure 1), show improvement in all areas tested. Concluding Remarks We have found that most of our children who have received little to no other previous pharmaceutical/biomedical based interventions often require less time to recover, since we don’t have to “clear” for drugs, chelation, or invasive traumas. Those children also do not tend to have as many, nor as strong, regressions as each trauma is cleared. SK and TP are in that realm, as their recoveries were just one ongoing improvement after another. However, KA and many other clients are recovering or are recovered, even though they may have sought sequential homeopathy as a last resort. The pattern tends toward those cases taking more time due to the need to homeopathically address the additional biomedical treatments. As demonstrated by KA, many of these cases have found vast improvements to full recovery within 1 to 1.5 years with HCH, with some older children taking somewhat longer due to more biomedical drugs requiring clearing. After working with Sequential Homeopathy at Homeopathy Center of Houston, each of these clients showed improvement as documented by the ATEC shown in Figure 1. While the time required to successfully complete the process varies widely (several months to several years) due to many factors, the following ATEC (Figure 1) speaks for itself regarding the efficacy of our approach. The most important point to make is that children with autism can improve and even fully recover with a complex homeopathic approach, sometimes
ATEC Score
Client SK
Before After
60 50
Client TP
Score (%)
40 30 20 10 0
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Client KA
Communication
Cognition
Sociability
Behavior
References
Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC)
1 2
Receptive Expressive Emergent Language test 3 (REEL-3) Rossetti Infant Toddler Language Scale (RITLS) Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA) Test of Language Development (TOLD) Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET) Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF)
www.autismfile.com | THE AUTISM FILE 111
3
4 5
6 7
8
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE AUTISM FILE
BIOMEDICAL
Cindy Griffin began her private homeopathic practice in 1998 and founded Houston School of Homeopathy in 2001 as a means of teaching an allencompassing, complex multi-disciplinary homeopathic approach, which is still unique to the Houston School and Center. In 2003 she and Lindyl Lanham joined to create Homeopathy Center of Houston as a general homeopathic practice with a focus on autism spectrum disorders. After recovering her son from Asperger’s syndrome, Cindy continues to practice, research, write and teach about complex homeopathic approaches to autism and chronic and acute illness.
RecoveRing fRom Autism with
Sequential HomeopatHy
by Cindy Griffin, dSH-P, diHom, bME, LindyL LanHaM, dSH-P, bS Spec Ed, and fraSEr bakEr, Phd s it is for all families, the anticipation of a child is a mysterious, exciting, daunting, and life changing event. A million questions race through the minds of expectant parents, including, “What family traits will he inherit?” and most importantly, “will s/he be healthy and normal?” One picture may be revealed at birth that sometimes evolves into another within the first two years as environmental and vaccination realities collide with genetic susceptibilities to form autism. For the three cases that form the basis of this article, each reported an initial period of normal growth and development that included a spectrum of ailments treated by allopathic medicine. However, as these children grew, problems with development began to appear until it became undeniable that the developmental issues were beyond the child being simply unique, especially when losses in ability were observed to follow vaccinations. Ultimately, each of these children was diagnosed as having autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Each of these families found their way to the Homeopathy Center of Houston
A
Lindyl Lanham began working with autistic, deaf and blind children in 1972 at the Texas School for the Blind’s Deaf Blind Annex, then went on to a successful career as an awardwinning teacher of visually and multiply challenged children. After her second son was diagnosed with profound learning disabilities, later attributed to Tourette Syndrome, she homeschooled and found as many alternative answers to her son’s issues as possible, finally recovering him with homeopathy and NACD. She began her private homeopathic practice in 2002, and in 2003 became co-owner of Homeopathy Center of Houston. She has focused ever since on recovering children from autism as the prime mover in development of the Houston Homeopathic Method for Autism.
108 THE AUTISM FILE | www.autismfile.com
(HCH) after their diagnosis, where their child’s health has been gradually restored. HCH homeopaths utilize a complex homeopathic approach that sequentially reverses the influence of various traumas, toxins, and insults over time. Different methods of homeopathy are employed in concert to systematically support detoxification, healing, and immune regulation. These include: 1 Sequential Homeopathy: A chronological unmasking and resolution of subliminal problems induced by the person’s history of insults, injuries, medications, vaccines, and illnesses. The centerpiece of this causation-oriented approach. 2 Homotoxicology: The application of homeopathic drainage combinations designed to support the body’s natural detoxification. 3 German Biological Remedies: Remedies made from biological substances which may act to stimulate and re-regulate body systems. 4 Custom combinations devised specifically to address the unique physiological and behavioral manifestations of autism.
ISSUE 31 2009
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE AUTISM FILE
This approach is generalized into a system for clients with an ASD that is individualized at every consultation to address each incident on the client’s historical timeline as well as any current symptoms. Therapeutic individualization is closely monitored by monthly subjective interviews with the parents/ caregiver. HCH requests that the client complete an ATEC1 prior to, during, and after treatment. Other testing is frequently provided by the client but is not required. Where available, these tests are summarized below. A brief description of three clients working with HCH follows. Two had done only supplemental and dietary approaches prior to working with HCH with little to mild improvement; the third had done a biomedical approach, with little improvement. All did exclusively homeopathy with minor dietary intervention during the described recovery period.
Client SK
When SK was 21 months old, receptive and expressive language skills were evaluated using the REEL-32 instrument. The evaluating clinician’s impressions were that SK presented with severely impaired expressive and receptive language, and impaired pragmatic
language and play skills. SK’s ageequivalent receptive and expressive language scores were 13 and 2 months respectively. When SK was 26 months old, Lindyl Lanham of HCH began working with him during a series of 16 monthly phone interviews with SK’s parents. At each session, homeopathic remedies and a few supplements were recommended based upon SK’s unique history and his response to the previous month’s remedies. Based largely upon the above vaccination history and commentary, Lindyl focused on unmasking those events as one would peel the layers of an onion. She began with the most recent vaccine and over the months worked through the entire record. As she homeopathically “cleared” each vaccine, ongoing stepwise progress in many areas and skill sets were observed, with few negative regressions from the detoxification process. SK was truly a “poster child” for the successful application of sequential homeopathic theory to autism. Lindyl writes: “The first and most memorable moment for me was when the mom reported that during supper one night SK suddenly started counting out loud. Out of habit, his mom
Table 1: SK Vaccinations with the Parent’s Comments
Age (months) -6 months 2 months 5 months 7 months Comments 12 months Comments 18 months Comments Vaccines FLU DTAP, IPV, HIB, HEP B, PNEUMO DTAP, IPV, HIB, HEP B, PNEUMO DTAP, IPV, FLU, PNEUMO “Throughout SK’s first year, I felt there was something different about him … A connection seemed to be missing.” MMR, VARICELLA, PNEUMO “By the time four months passed, we realized he’d quit speaking the words he had previously used. Gradually he lost more verbal skills.” DTAP, HIB, HEP B, FLU “SK now zones out for 5 to 15 minutes, several times a day for no apparent reason … We took SK to a Pediatric Neurologist … The Dr. basically told us that SK occasionally made eye contact and that there was nothing he could do at this point … he literally threw his hands up in the air and told us to come back in 6 months … “ “We received a call from the Homeopathy Center of Houston on SK’s second birthday to set up our initial appointment … hopefully this will be the best birthday gift ever … getting SK well!”
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE AUTISM FILE
stopped him with “Please don’t interrupt!” which was followed by shock, disbelief, and the delighted realization that he’d never done that before. SK’s development hasn’t slowed down since.” At 35 months old, near the midpoint of SK’s treatment at the HCH, the RITLS3 instrument was used to gather information about SK’s communication skills, the results of which indicated that the developmental level of SK’s language comprehension and expression was 18-21 months. Due to observations of atypical behaviors and communication difficulties, the clinician chose to complete the CARS4. SK’s score on the CARS was 36 out of a maximum of 60, suggesting that, SK had mild to moderate autism. Homeopathy takes time to detoxify and rebalance the immune system. Ten months later, and still in process of sequential homeopathy, SK’s mother reported: “He uses language not only expressively, but for pretend play, which is a relatively new situation. He fights with his sister, seeks out new friends at school, has favorite friends who come to play, and when they do not, he expresses missing them. He used to become upset if anyone touched or changed the lineup of his toy cars. Now he uses them for crashes, builds tunnels, and expects his grandfather to play cars with him whenever he comes to see the family. He is doing very well with potty training, and now watches a whole variety of videos instead of just one or a series of videos over and over. In short, he’s become a fairly normal-4-year-old.” SK’s ATEC scores (Figure 1), show improvement in the areas of Communication, Cognition, Sociability, and Behavior. He continues with HCH’s approach currently, and ongoing improvement is expected.
Client TP
TP’s family history includes 4 relatives with an ASD, including a half-brother with autism and multiple developmental delays. When assessing TP’s development, TP’s mother compared TP to a cousin. At 19 months, she wrote “At Christmas, TP’s motor skills, manners and coordination are more advanced than his cousin, who is 9 months older. All relatives remark on how advanced TP is.” At 39 months, she reported “The
www.autismfile.com | THE AUTISM FILE 109
ISSUE 31 2009
BIOMEDICAL
Table 2: TP Vaccinations with the Parent’s Comments
Age (months) -6 months 3 months 5 months 7 months 13 months 24 months Comment Vaccines FLU vaccine administered to mother while pregnant with TP DTAP, HIB DTAP, HIB DTAP, HIB, PREVNAR, FLU MMR, VARICELLA IPV, PREVNAR DTP, HIB, FLU “After the vaccination, TP ran a high fever, was sick for a couple of days and then went ‘flat’. He still spoke, did his normal things but he was not himself …. When questioned, the doctor said that the reaction was ‘completely normal’ … That is when something inside me said ‘Never again’ to vaccines, because I knew that it did something harmful to him. While TP did not lose ground, he did not gain ground in the leaps and bounds he had before.”
cousin that TP was more advanced than at 19 months is now much more advanced than TP, especially in motor and social skills. They are now worlds apart.” When TP was 49 months old, his speech was evaluated by a private practitioner. TP’s mother hoped to “get a clearer picture of where he is at to limit the amount of frustration he may have in school this September and to learn therapeutic techniques” to help him develop the correct speech production. The GFTA5 showed adequate expressive and receptive language skills for TP’s chronological age; however, TP exhibited a moderate to severe phonological/articulation disorder. When TP was 56 months old, his speech/ language was reevaluated using the GFTA and the TOLD-P36. According to the results of these tests, TP demonstrated above average expressive and receptive language skills relative to others of his age level (90th percentile). However, TP’s articulation was severely below average (5th percentile) and was given a diagnosis of verbal apraxia. TP’s parents were told that this would “require years of daily practice to overcome.” By the time TP was 58 months old, TP received a diagnosis of autism. His parents sought help at the HCH, being referred by a friend. Cindy Griffin began working with TP
over a total of 15 monthly phone interviews with TP’s parents. Homeopathic remedies were recommended then administered by the parents. In addition to autism, TP had severe food and chemical sensitivities, of similar concern to his parents. As TP’s mother had used very few pharmaceuticals or other interventions to treat TP’s ailments, opting for nutritional supplements and healthy diet instead, Cindy focused largely on his vaccinations during the timeline “clearing” process. Overall, his recovery was quite smooth, with a few instances of regression during homeopathic detoxification that coincided with the regressive sets of vaccines from the same point in his history. Predictably, with homeopathic detoxification of MMR/ chicken pox vaccines, which had caused “flat affect for 4-5 weeks, followed by decreased language and social skills,” TP regressed into sleep problems that included bad dreams sometimes related to gut discomfort and dysbiosis. He had a few days of “spaciness and moderate constipation” followed by “normal bowel movements.” After this time, his sleep improved almost immediately and permanently. He began reading and writing by himself as if a “40 point jump in IQ” had occurred. After only 5 months of treatment, he was no longer considered autistic and entered a mainstream classroom situation with ageappropriate social and academic skills. His speech became normal; speech therapy was discontinued after 7 months of homeopathy. And TP’s parents considered that he was 85% recovered. Improvements continued
throughout the remainder of his course of homeopathy, which was completed at 15 months. Full recovery followed the completion of homeopathic clearings, through academic catch-up over a few short months. To resolve lingering food and substance allergies, TP’s mother chose NAET due to positive, but temporary past experiences. Interestingly, TP’s mother reported that the NAET revealed no allergies to substances that had been cleared with homeopathic isopathic remedies made from those substances. TP is now a fully recovered child, has a normal diet, and excels in social and academic areas. TP’s ATEC scores (Figure 1), show improvement in all areas of Communication, Cognition, Sociability and Behavior.
Client KA
KA’s family history includes several relatives with an ASD. KA’s brother had autism. During KA’s first two years, KA had chronic ear infections that were treated with pharmaceuticals. KA also had chronic gastrointestinal ailments and had loose stools that contained undigested food. A pathologic evaluation of KA’s bowel at 27 months showed focal active colitis and lymphoid hyperplasia. KA’s GI ailments were ameliorated by IV Secretin and after beginning this treatment at 33 months, KA had her first “normal” bowel movement. KA’s eyes and hearing were tested and found to be normal. KA showed developmental disorders during her first year. A psychological
ISSUE 31 2009
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THE AUTISM FILE | www.autismfile.com
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE AUTISM FILE
Table 3: KA Vaccinations with the Parent’s Comments
Age (months) 2 months 4 months 6 months 12 months Comments Vaccines DTAP, IPV, PREVNAR, HEP-B, HIB DTAP, IPV, PREVNAR, HEP-B, HIB DTAP, PREVNAR, HEP-B, HIB IPV KA showed no obvious reactions from the vaccinations, other than “regular crying” after the pinch and injection.
in concert with other compatible alternative choices, even after using biomedical approaches, whether they were successful or not. Figure 1: Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) Scores Before and After Treatment at the HCH for the Three Clients Described Herein
evaluation conducted when KA was 19 months lead to a diagnosis of Progressive Developmental Disorder. Her GAF8 score was 49 at that age. At 36 months, KA’s GAF score was 50. KA began treatment at the Homeopathy Center of Houston at 53 months. KA’s mother noted dramatic rapid improvement and seven months later, KA’s GAF score was 60. KA’s challenges were mostly related to speech, sound and light sensitivity, and gut bloating and discomfort. As a vaccinated child, it was decided to work backward through her biomedical treatments, which had included IV Glutathione, IV Secretin, anti-fungal pharmaceuticals, but no chelation protocols, followed by the vaccine detoxification process for the few vaccines she was given. There were definite gains following many different regressions, rashes, fevers, etc., which most often coincided with viral and bacterial clearing. Some OCD behaviors occurred while clearing for strep, (PANDAS), ear pain sometimes occurred followed by improved language and decreased sound sensitivity, but the progress was very much a “stock market chart” with two steps forward, one backward. The slowness became attributed to possible parasites, due to some indicator symptoms such as fingernail biting, irritability and sleep issues that were worse around the full moon. An herbal parasite reduction approach was somewhat beneficial in the long term, but in the past 6 months has been replaced by a totally homeopathic regimen aimed at parasitic reduction. This reaped the greatest and most lasting gains in sociability, language, and sleep. At present, while some of her social and behavioral issues may surface, most often these are related to her most recent speech fluency and vocabulary gains and her desire to use this due to her now vivacious personality. For instance, after her brother’s holiday concert, she ran
ISSUE 31 2009
in front of the entire choir, slid on her knees across the floor toward the audience with arms outstretched and exuberantly shouted, “Happy Holidays Everybody!” As for SK and TP, KA’s ATEC scores (Figure 1), show improvement in all areas tested. Concluding Remarks We have found that most of our children who have received little to no other previous pharmaceutical/biomedical based interventions often require less time to recover, since we don’t have to “clear” for drugs, chelation, or invasive traumas. Those children also do not tend to have as many, nor as strong, regressions as each trauma is cleared. SK and TP are in that realm, as their recoveries were just one ongoing improvement after another. However, KA and many other clients are recovering or are recovered, even though they may have sought sequential homeopathy as a last resort. The pattern tends toward those cases taking more time due to the need to homeopathically address the additional biomedical treatments. As demonstrated by KA, many of these cases have found vast improvements to full recovery within 1 to 1.5 years with HCH, with some older children taking somewhat longer due to more biomedical drugs requiring clearing. After working with Sequential Homeopathy at Homeopathy Center of Houston, each of these clients showed improvement as documented by the ATEC shown in Figure 1. While the time required to successfully complete the process varies widely (several months to several years) due to many factors, the following ATEC (Figure 1) speaks for itself regarding the efficacy of our approach. The most important point to make is that children with autism can improve and even fully recover with a complex homeopathic approach, sometimes
ATEC Score
Client SK
Before After
60 50
Client TP
Score (%)
40 30 20 10 0
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Client KA
Communication
Cognition
Sociability
Behavior
References
Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC)
1 2
Receptive Expressive Emergent Language test 3 (REEL-3) Rossetti Infant Toddler Language Scale (RITLS) Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA) Test of Language Development (TOLD) Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET) Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF)
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