Let me talk a little bit about regression particularly now that the holidays are over with, regression after the holidays. I have seen a few kids in my practice where regression is really hitting them pretty hard and obviously it is very disturbing for their family. Kids who were doing pretty well, language, eye contact, socialization and things seemed to be on the mend, improving and now all of a sudden we have a child who has regressed, they’ve lost eye contact, they’ve lost language, they are doing more self stimulatory behaviors, their sensory seeking has increased, what could be going on?

Well a couple of things particularly after the holidays, first thing I’ll always want to find out about is dietary infractions that may contribute to regression. Have there been any infractions with the diet whether it is gluten that they were not eating that they got over the holidays or dairy that they were not eating that they got over the holidays. Is that a possible trigger for regression? If not, another avenue is sugar, kids just naturally being exposed to more sugar and artificial ingredients through the holidays whether it is being at a friend’s house, parties at school, wherever it may be, that can also contribute to regression. Sometimes just a change in diet can bring on some of these regressive behaviors. Usually, particularly too if your child has any sort of yeast sensitivity, increasing sugars in their diet sometimes bring a worsening in yeast and obviously that can lead to eye contact problems and self stimulatory behaviors and sensory issues associated with regression.

Sometimes just the change in routine, as school is getting out, we’re now on to the holidays, there is a lot of excitement, people are traveling, sometimes that change can disrupt the normal routine for a child and that can cause regression with some kids. Also, transitioning back into school, if your child is of school age where they have been off for a couple of weeks over the holidays, now they are being transitioned back into school and that can contribute to regression. Or their therapies are starting up again so things are a little bit altered that way, maybe they are feeling overwhelmed and that is causing regression. There can be a combination of these things happening to cause regression. But sometimes you just simply have to look back and find out what changed in their environment, what changed in their routine and what may be changed in their diet that may have contributed to some of the regressive patterns that you are currently seeing with your child.

It comes up quite a bit in my practice and that is a child who either been on an antibiotic or they’ve recently been given an antifungal medication, instead of improving with their overall behavior, they regress. And if we are talking about yeast specifically with respects to treatment for yeast from the antifungal medication whether it is Nystatin, Diflucan, Nizoral, or some of the more antifungal herbs, things like oregano oil, grapefruit seed extract, etc. and the child is worsening instead of improving. But they are worsening in a pattern of becoming irritable and aggressive, self injurious, they are more withdrawn. Usually what you are dealing with is some underlying type of bacterial problem.

Now there is a common bacteria that is present with many kids on the spectrum called clostridia. There is a wide variety of clostridia bacteria. One particular form of clostridia called clostridia dificil can actually cause a form of inflammatory bowel disease, that is not specifically what we are talking about when we talk about these behavioral changes. That particular bacteria may lead to certain toxins that could contribute to that but what we are talking about is the family of clostridia, not just one specific type of clostridia.

There is a test called an Organic Acid Test from Great Plains Lab, they also have something called a Microbial Organic Acid Test and it looks at the markers specific to yeast and specific to clostridia bacteria. The clostridia marker is specifically something called HPHPA and it is a metabolic toxin of clostridia. It is that metabolic toxin that seems to interfere with different brain chemicals that can to contribute to some of the behavioral problems we see with kids on the spectrum.

Now why it is tied back to antifungal use is that yeast and bacteria, particularly yeast and clostridia bacteria, are living in somewhat competition in the digestive tract. When you lower one, the other one if it is not being treated at the same time, can sometimes get worse. So if you have a yeast overgrowth and you are just treating the yeast and you also have an overgrowth of clostridia bacteria, many times that clostridia bacteria can increase because it is no longer being inhibited or it is no longer in competition with yeast. If you had a regression in your child where you’ve recently given an antifungal medication or if you’ve given an antibiotic, antibiotics can also deplete the normal bacteria in the digestive tract and that sometimes can spur on this opportunistic bacterial called clostridia to get worse. Those two situations can be very common.